Memorable Memorial Moments

Posted: May 30, 2011 at 9:01 am

^^^ Fan of alliteration much? Why, yes. Yes I am.

Happy Monday, friends! I hope most of you here in the US have the chance to enjoy a day off in celebration of Memorial Day. Take a moment to remember and say a prayer of thanks to all of those who make the sacrifice to serve our country. Blessings abound in our freedoms and we need to show gratitude for them daily. I know I appreciate my freedom of religion. And my freedom of speech. Could you imagine trying to shut me up? Likely impossible.

We already did most of our celebrating action Saturday and Sunday, leaving today open for more relaxation and normal activity. Works for me! As I mentioned briefly on Saturday, the family & I enjoyed a little hike that morning. We headed out to Sawnee Mountain – a short hiking trail relatively close to us with a fabulous lookout at the top.

We strapped the kiddos in and headed on our way…

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Watch out for the poison ivy!

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Although, I don’t think I ever remember getting poison ivy before. Now that I have said that, I need to find some wood to knock on.

For some reason this hike took a lot longer than I ever remembered. Odd, considering we go every year. I think my body just felt a little tired from the week. I got very excited when we finally made it to the top.

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The beautiful scenery rejuvenated me to make the trek back down. Although I can’t lie. I wouldn’t have minded being in baby B’s spot and catching a little cat nap instead.

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Even with achy shoulders and legs, we had a great time all together. Family love!!!!

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The second half of our memorable Memorial moments came Sunday afternoon. Every year my friend Nikki’s family hosts a pig roast BBQ. Every year we go and have a fun afternoon eating good food and catching up with family friends.

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I ran 8 miles that morning and therefore had “long-run hunger” in full force by the time we got to the BBQ. I happily loaded up my plate with the goods. A pulled pork sandwich, a scoop of potato salad, a scoop of peanut coleslaw, and a hunka hunka burning love watermelon.

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Yay for watermelon! It’s finally in season!

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After devouring my plate and chilling for awhile, I obviously got my hands on a slice of the congratulatory cake.

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My friend’s younger brother graduated college! The younguns in our families are growing up! It’s so strange to think. I always get a little weirded out that my sister is old enough to live with a guy and maybe even get engaged. Eep! Where does time go? Seriously. I feel like at the rate this year has gone, Christmas is tomorrow. Anyone else agree? Slow down Earth spinning around the sun. Slow down!

  • Any Memorial Day weekend traditions of your own?
  • Have you ever gotten poison ivy?

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40 Comments to “Memorable Memorial Moments”
  1. The only Memorial Day tradition my family has is going to my little brother’s baseball tournament all. weekend. long. That’s actually where I am right now. Thank goodness for Wifi! 😉

    • Tina says:

      Oh, yea! Peter’s much younger bro has a tournament this weekend too. It’s crazy how long those things last!

  2. Tina.. that is an epic amount of really good looking food – happy memorial day!

  3. I don’t usually do too much for Memorial Day, although on Saturday my husband and I went for an awesome walk!
    I’ve never gotten poison ivy either but the hubby has several times. He actually got it from organic cashew butter once. We found out raw cashews have a film on them that is pretty much the same as poison ivy. Weird, huh?
    Have a great Memorial Day!
    ~Michelle

    • Tina says:

      That is so interesting about the cashews. I had never heard of that! I’ll have to tell my husband since he gets poison ivy so easily.

  4. Angela says:

    I’m loving watermelon right now too! They have massive ones on sale at my nearest grocery store – 20lbs on average! …..So I just might have bought 2 this weekend! 🙂 Happy Memorial Day Tina!

  5. We’ve always done pig roasts for celebrations. Although I’m a vegetarian, I love the tradition and the party! Looks like a great day! Tony took a few hours away from work to go to a friends house for a BBQ last night. It was nice to get away and hang out with friends. Looks like you had a great time too. Enjoy your day today!

  6. Lee says:

    Aww, I love B’s squishy little face.

    When I was 16, I did this 3-week wilderness camp. It was like Outward Bound only nowhere near as hardcore. I got horrible poison ivy everywhere. I think I might have somehow inhaled it too because it was hard to breathe. Not fun.

  7. 8 miles and a hike..impressive! Looks like a fun day filled with good food and family 🙂

  8. Looks like an awesome hike! Congrats on getting through it with two kids – I know that adds a big challenge/extra weight!

  9. Allison says:

    Aww looks like you had a fun weekend!! And Baby B’s face smushed in the carrier is adorable:):):):)

  10. Cara says:

    That looks like a beautiful Memorial Day weekend celebration! Pretty much perfect! I love hiking!

  11. Sounds like a wonderful long weekend! I could dive head first into that pulled pork sandwich right about now… guess I’d better go eat breakfast!

  12. i’m petrified of getting poison ivy, and even more scared because i have no idea what it looks like! i LOVE B’s face in that picture with the carrier…just want to smooch those cheeks!

  13. Karen says:

    What a fun way to spend your weekend! I have a hard time believing that the younguns in our family are all grown up too!

  14. Tina you look fabulous and your family is so adorable!!!

    I got poison ivy when I was younger, all I remember was my leg itching like crazy!

  15. Becca says:

    I guess it’s kind of become tradition to go to the lake house. My one uncle owns a house on a lake, and we hang out there a lot. Except it was too chilly to do any swimming, which was fine by me. Burgers and hot dogs and plenty of salads and desserts. Yum! 🙂
    Yesterday was actually the birthday of one of the youngest kids in the family–she’s a year old now! 🙂 So her grandparents brought cake. And it was supposed to be a kind of family get-together for J, our exchange student. She graduates on Sunday!! So the cake was kind of for her, too. 🙂 She got a couple of gifts, as well, which was fun.
    I got to hold my 5-month-old baby cousin!! I was so happy! Except when she started fussing and crying and I didn’t know what was wrong. Hah. Oops. But it was fun anyway. She’s actually pretty calm, which was great.

    • Tina says:

      I think that’s the hardest thing about babies…not knowing what they need/want when they fuss since they can’t talk.

      Sounds like a great family tradition and lots of fun!

  16. Lindsey says:

    That view from the top of that hike looks beautiful! I love that you take the kids on hikes!

    I haven’t had poison ivy, but I have had poison oak. No fun!

  17. Mark Ward says:

    Awesome start to this post! That looks like a great place to hike. Poison ivy messed me up terribly bad when I was younger. I spend ALOT of time outdoors so I tend to get it every year but it doesn’t seem to affect me as bad anymore. I love pulled pork samiches! Hope you enjoy your Memorial Day!!

  18. lindsay says:

    yes yes, so thankful for freedom, and freedom of speech! I can’t even imagine life without that either, haha.

    Enjoy the realxing day. Looks like the weekend was full of fun and LOVE!

  19. Carly says:

    Your family is just too cute 🙂

  20. Kara says:

    I’m impressed with your hike with the kids strapped on! That can’t be easy! But that view is amazing!

    I love the picture of the baby cat nap 🙂

  21. Wendi says:

    Thank you for sharing all the pics….I am loving watching B get bigger. Our children are so similar in age, so I enjoy these posts 🙂

  22. Meghana says:

    Your baby is ADORABLE. I’m a researcher in an infant motor development lab and I have to say he’s one of the cutest I’ve seen and I’ve seen a lot!

  23. What a wonderful way to spend memorial day! (I also love alliterations and rhyming 😉 )
    In season watermelon is truly delightful, I probably wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from continuously going back for another piece! I tend to hoard fruit at parties for some reason…
    And yes, I certainly got poison ivy once. It was when I was 10 and I went apple picking with some friends and decided that I needed the apples from the tops of each tree. So I climbed and almost every tree in the orchard, which meant going through woodsy areas which= a ridiculous amount of poison ivy all over my legs. It was so so gross and itchy of course! I still have some scars from it because I couldn’t stop scratching… ick.
    Note to self- I am surely allergic to poison ivy, stay away 🙂

  24. Priyanka says:

    I absolutely love all the family time you got on that hike. The kids could not really get any cuter. The brother and sister shot on the chair looks adorable!

    Knock on wood, never got poison ivy either.

  25. Jolene says:

    sounds like an awesome weekend!! LOVE watermelon season! Swear I could eat the whole damn thing!

  26. Meghana says:

    Who took the group shot? Haha did you have a photographer come along?

  27. Aw love all of the family (and food!) pics – great day to be with your family. No poison ivy for me – thankfully!

  28. Heather says:

    That picture of Baby B could be the cutest thing I have ever seen. LOVE.
    Happy Memorial Day!

  29. Ana Maria says:

    Oh my gooooodness, Baby B’s cheeeeeks! So cute!

  30. Amy Lauren says:

    The pics are super cute, it looks like you guys had fun on your hike and at the barbeque! We have pulled pork here too but I don’t eat meat so yeah. It’s really popular here in South Carolina, though.

    Husband and I don’t have any memorial day traditions yet. We just spent time with family yesterday and today we ran a 5K, but I don’t know that it’ll be a tradition as I didn’t care for the race. We’re definitely having fun making our own traditions, though :).

    Long run hunger is always something serious. Just wait a few hours after the half marathon. There’s something about a 10 mile or longer run that made me ravenous. Really.

    A.L.

  31. Love the photos! The food looks fabulous and the kiddos are adorable! That’s a gorgeous view at the top.

    I’ve had poison ivy too many times to count. I’m super allergic to it unfortunately. 🙁 Just found out that it’s related to mango too…which caused me to have a terrible reaction (just posted about it actually).

    • Tina says:

      Oh no! That’s so interesting that its related to mango. I would be so sad to not get to eat mango.

  32. Mac says:

    That’s an adorable picture of Baby B taking a nap! Whenever I go hiking, I never have any clue what poison ivy looks like, I really need to do some google searching and get it figured out so I don’t in trouble someday haha

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