I guess most consider Memorial Day weekend as the unofficial beginning of summer. Well, official or not official, I sure felt my spirit change and that rejuvenation that each new season brings as this holiday weekend approached. It was almost as if everyone let loose and gave themselves permission to pull out their summer flip flops and bikinis...and if you are like me you looked in the mirror wondering why you hadn't made previous plans to fit into your bikini from last summer. Oops! Being completely out of shape and in no way ready to be out in public in a swimsuit didn't stop me from having a great summer kickoff weekend! This momma is excited to report that I had a whopping four and a half days in a row off work. Heaven? It had to be pretty close. After all, I had a ton of free time to smother this little munchkin in kisses....
.JPG)
.JPG)
Hal discovered how much fun the hose provides which simply means that our water bill will increase and our yard will be a little over-watered until this obsession ends...
We had our mind on sun and swimming while Riley had the big car show on his mind. He brought the blue Ford home from the farm and spent the previous weekend shining it up. Ol' Green needed some tlc as well so Hal and I watched as he gave the poor thing a nice bath....
"Dad, I don't think it's looking any better..."
Both cars were washed and ready for the next morning and it was time for the burnout contest at Dairy Queen. Hallie and I made a stop at my friend Amy's house on our way there and spent some time hanging out there before we met Riley downtown. The Lehman's clan was posted up on the corner with Riley so we caught up on life in between chasing after a very hyper Hallie. Oh, I forgot to mention what she chose to wear to the burnout contest. I somehow talked her out of this choice last minute...or maybe it was the HEAT that convinced her to remove the winter hat!
By sheer chance I was able to snap a quick pic of her actually seated in her chair. This only happened once..
"Just takin' a breather"
The cars started there manly nonsense and we soon realized that standing down wind at a burnout contest is probably the dumbest idea E.V.E.R. Poor baby. She had no idea what was happening. And neither did I for that matter. The smoke just kept growing and growing and we couldn't find our way out of the cloud.
The cloud
Angie, Ashton and us girls fanned out in different directions to find some fresh air and decided that it was time to move across the street. Hallie had made her opinion very well known so Riley took her on a little walk to calm her down. She kept looking in the direction of the smoke with this ticked off scowl on her face...
At least dad seemed happy!
I hung out on the corner with the Lehman's while my two partners wandered around to give me a break. She's just like her daddy....some time spent in the pickup put a smile on her face. I should be scared. Two truck freaks to gang up on me now!
"I'm a tomboy dressed in pink...and I like it that way!"
Ok, maybe she hasn't forgotten how much fun it is to be girly with her momma....
Man, she was pooped. Her exposure to the world of burnouts and muscle cars had left her exhausted. Me too. ;) But we got geared up again the very next morning for the beginning of the big Memorial Day car show at Crystal Beach park. Riley's alarm buzzed at 6:20. Yes, in the morning. 6:20 in the morning. On a Saturday. For a car show. That is three miles away. He's serious. :0 So serious in fact that he did this: he rolled out of bed and was the first person to pull in at the park to find a spot for his pickup. He had the brilliant idea to put his bike in the back of the truck and ride it back to the house so that he wouldn't have to wake Hal and I up for a ride to come pick up his Mustang. He rode the three miles back to the house and later told me he would've rather run to the house. Something about the awful wind. ;) He hopped off the bike and took the Mustang out to the park. I don't know why I got such a chuckle out of his Saturday morning bike ride...but I did. Papa Bill joined him that morning and Hal and I made it out there around 9:45 after picking up breakfast for all of us. We sure do love those guys....we love them so much that we waited in a twenty-car deep line at McDonald's so that they could have their bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches. Hmmm. Hal seemed to handle the long wait well considering she'd been promised a juice at the end of the rainbow, er, I mean drive-up window.
The standard car show music was blaring and the place looked pretty full when we pulled up. The morning was overcast so it made for the perfect weather for spending the morning exploring the park. We made our way over to where the boys had parked their toys....
Hat and book in tow
Papa and Hal ate breakfast and did some light reading about colors before she spotted the play area....
We swung...and ran....and then walked the row of cars and cycles to pick out our favorites....
I think the clear favorite amongst the ladies was this creepy orange hearse that had a denture-chattering old man staged in the driver's seat and a coffin with an old man coming out of it in the back....oh and I can't forget the lady in orange fishnet stockings who farted with the push of a button. Oh my......
"Oh look!! A teddy bear!"
Carmen and Nanny showed up to enter Carmen's new ride in the car show but they weren't sure which class to enter it in.....
The Fisher Price class perhaps?
What happened next was a first for Hallie. Her first time to climb up a giant blowup toy and bounce all the way down. I was a pansy and couldn't muster up the courage to take my baby girl up to the top....but Nanny wasn't afraid. The two of them bounced down laughing all the way....
Too much fun!
Before I knew it the girls had trekked back up to the top and lil red was smiling at the bottom by herself. She had slid down all by her big girl self! Yes, I'm come to the realization that I'm sheltering her. She's capable of a lot more than I give her a chance to try.....
Woodward by morning....Enid by afternoon. We had a Memorial Day mission to accomplish. The mission: to relax with family. Mission accomplished. Let me start by saying that my child did not sleep one tiny wink ALL DAY LONG. Relaxing didn't so much come into play until her bedtime rolled around Saturday night.
We made it to Enid around 2:00 and went straight to see what Gman was up to. He was happy as always to see his little girl and helped her eat her lunch that we'd picked up on the way into town. She wasn't into eating though....nor was she into napping. She had people to see and things to play with (aka make messes). Aunt B stopped in with goodies from her trip out west to Vegas and California.....
The last time they'd seen eachother was at Aunt B's wedding where Hal had been quite the fiery lady that evening. Saturday she was much more low key and had a ball opening her gifts...
Her favorite was by far this ridiculously cute M&M backpack....
She immediately began rolling it around and swinging it through the air. It paired well with her comfy new green M&M t-shirt from Vegas.....
She will have to do some growing before she is able to fit into her "I LOVE LA" shirt though.
Hal and I had picked out a pretty arrangement to take to Grammy at the cemetery and I was glad to hear that it would match perfectly with Gman and Aunt B's flower choices this year. The four of us loaded up and drove out to Memorial Park and drove all the way to that peaceful place in the very back of the grounds. The ride there was peaceful in the front with Dad and I....and rowdy in the back with these two crazy chicks.....
It's nice to be away from everything else at the cemetery because it doesn't feel like she is surrounded by plot after plot. It's just momma and that row of trees behind her stone. And that stone was looking very beautiful.....
Bailey had set out some flowers leftover from her wedding and placed them in a little basket next to a cross....
Hallie made all of us smile when she bent down to give Grammy a kiss....
Never forgotten
After she had her time with Grammy she decided it was time to explore....
One of the things I love most about my family is that we don't stand there somberly quiet and awkward.....nope...we laugh and joke and play. Because that's what Grammy would want her Hallie to do. So that's what she did....
I ran into an old friend from college while visiting mom that day which was a nice little treat. We caught up with eachother's lives all the while Hallie protested and screamed while in my arms until I finally gave in and we loaded up in the car. This is despite my lecture about the importance of taking a nap so that she would be able to swim that evening. The munchkin didn't care. Stupidly enough, we braved the aisles of Hobby Lobby with a napless Hallie in tow next. Take my advice...don't do something like that. No matter how badly you think you need a Hob Lob fix. Just don't. Unless you want to leave with an ulcer. I was that mom with that kid who was precariously climbing on the rails by the exit, pushing the cart in the checkout line, screaming and squirming and fighting and tantrumming-is that a word? Well, it is now. Aunt B went in planning to leave with a desk and a lamp. Guess who ended up with cart full of sacks? Yep. No explanation needed. I have a problem. Side note: I should've been fully prepared for her distaste once inside based on her reaction as we pulled up to the store. As I was pulling into the parking spot she hollered out "NOOOOOOO!" She survived. And little did she know that I was shopping for her birthday party coming up. Lil stinker. After another failed attempt at laying her down for some zzzz's she ended up right where she wanted to be....
"I didn't plan it this way mom...it just sorta happened!"
Dara dressed her in the new summer swim gear they got for her. She didn't seem to mind the floaty vest at first and had the biggest grin on her face as Dara zoomed her through the freezing cold water....
"Warm water is for pansies!"
She soon lost the vest after a bit of squirming and saying "off! off!" The girl needed room to move around on her "boat" after all....
Something tells me that this girl thinks she rules the world
Despite the sun peeking in and out of the clouds and the not so warm water we all eventually eased our way into the pool. Some were much more enthusiastic about their aquatic endeavors than others were.....
I'm not going to name names though ;)
Hal watched from the shallow end with Aunt B as her crazy cousins put on a show while I was in charge of taking mid-jump action pics!
"I give it a 10!"
There aren't too many places I love more than David and Lisa's backyard with my family. Lil red agrees....
Telling secrets with Gman
Drinking her Capri Sun on mama's lap
Lisa was on a flight home from Huntington Beach that evening so we were without the matriarch of the household. That didn't stop David from putting together a delicious dinner for everyone. Gman and David fed us "kids" some catfish and chicken, beans, corn on the cob and salad. This is the part where I tell you that my daughter is in love with corn on the cob. Her dull little teefers have super powers when it comes to clearing a cob of corn. This may be one of my favorite things to watch her do....
"Does this chick really think she's gonna beat me?"
"Num, num, num"
Oh yeah, and french onion dip. She likes that too. ;)
Hal had one last prance around the patio in my flip flops and then it was time for bed....
She could sense the inevitable drawing near
Well, it had actually been time for bed since noon for the droopy-eyed, cranky lady. She scrub-a-dub-dubbed in the tub and curled up in her pack'n'play for some catch up sleepy time. After I could breath a sigh of relief once she fell asleep we decided it was time for dessert. Freddie's sounded amazing so it was unanimous....concretes for everyone! The ice cream I inhaled didn't even leave me feeling the slightest bit guilty. Any mom who had survived a day with a child who hasn't napped knows that a reward is in order and you can't count calories when it comes to something like that. Well who the heck is counting anyways!!! Did you hear what I said we ate for dinner!?!?!?! ;)
The night was gorgeous. Gman, David, Dara, Garrett, Bailey and I sat around on the back patio listening to our dads tell us stories about their younger days. Trouble trouble is all I gotta say. It was almost time for Lisa to get home from her trip so I did something that didn't seem to surprise anybody.....I made a silly sign and assigned everyone a piece of paper to hold up when she walked through the door. Silly? Yes. Very me? Yes. I'm thankful to have family that cooperates with my off-the-wall ideas....
Probably mocking me
The beach bum walked in around 10:30 to find us holding our "LISA" sign to welcome her home. It's amazing that we ended up with the letters in order.....
Lisa parked her suitcase and joined the crew in the living room where we had just started a movie...The Help. Nobody had seen it yet. Well, except me. I had watched it earlier in the week for the first time and knew that it was my mission to make sure everyone else and their dog watch the movie as well. The guys dropped like flies (except for Garrett, the movie buff, who toughed it out) but the gals made it all the way to the end of the movie at 1:30 in the morning. The girls all loved it....I cried again. We had a really top notch day that I was sad to see come to an end. Although I was more than ready for my head to hit the pillow. But before that could happen I had to load up Hal and her bed in the car and unload said bed and baby once back at Gman's house. Hal sat in a daze in the car and looked at me with these huge wide eyes as if she was thinking "WHAT. THE. HECK." I was thinking the same thing when I realized just how late it was. But standing in Bailey's old empty room with nothing but Hallie's bed in it at 2:30 a.m. I had one of the sweetest mommy moments ever. I placed her down in the bed and she gently closed her tired eyes and rolled over slowly to her tummy and nestled into the corner with some blankets...within a second she was asleep. It's funny how those moments just sneak up on ya like that.
The morning time also crept up on me too. I'm used to getting at least seven hours of sleep so six just wasn't cutting it. My darling dear slept in until after I was awoken by my pesky phone that was laying right by my ear. The lack of sleep didn't bother me much as I knew we all had a FUN day ahead. Sunday morning breakfast was first on the list. We couldn't wake a very tired Gman so we loaded up after feeding Hal and went over to David and Lisa's so that Garrett and I could go for a morning run. It kinda seemed as though Hal had different plans to stay in her pjs and watch cartoons.....
"But what about Mickey?"
But you wouldn't have been able to sense her hesitation once we got dressed and headed over to deliver the Sunday paper in her new backpack....
<3
So what happened next was hot and sweaty and miserable. Garrett drug me along on the run and had me rethinking the grand idea after only 100 yards. But we made it. And he pushed me. Which was good. Because I'm a lazy runner. And I probably would've stopped since it was already so darn hot outside. I just kept picturing the pool in my head as we wound around the neighborhood in what seemed like a never-ending snake of road. After that test of my endurance Dara and I braved the grocery store with Hallie Grace. That evening we had plans for the Spaeths to feed the Detrixhes. They are always feeding our bellies so we wanted to repay them with a meal. Hallie requested a stop at Sonic on the way home and she dined atop the table with Gman as I got showered and ready for a day in the sun.
Lisa and David were working on finding a good place for their outdoor standing clock. She had me laughing as she was standing there posing next to it while she waited on David to return with the right tools.....
TIME for SWIMMING!
Hal went to sleep. We went to laying out.
The sun nearly put me to sleep at I lay there soaking it up. I think the only thing keeping me awake was the bag of PB M&Ms and Dr. Pepper beside me. Another reason I love going home...I have a standing rule that it is okay to drink caffeine when I am in Enid. I really, really like this rule I've made. While I was taking advantage of my silly caffeine rule I figured I ought to take full advantage of her nap time as well so I took a solo trip to Lowes for some plant and pot shopping. One car load later I returned to the summer oasis. Hal was awake. Lisa had put her floaties on. She seemed to like them at first. Kinda.
Well. Maybe.
"These are so not fashionable, mom"
Then we lost the floaties and she decided they were the devil. In my opinion they were adorably cute and very comfortable. She seemed to be willing to give them a try after we all took turns wearing them. But being a floatie-free big girl ended up being much more appealing...
"MY cup!"
She stopped for a moment to call Elmo. Probably to invite him over to swim....
"hey Melmo. come on over!"
Dinner was in the making and the consensus was that everyone was most excited about the homemade ice cream....
Hal came inside out of the sun for a bit of Angry Birds slinging. David walked in to find Hallie poking at the Ipad screen as it sat on the coffee table. "Is Hal allowed to play with the Ipad???", he hollered into the kitchen. "UM NOOOOO!" I responded as I ran in to make sure she hadn't destroyed anything.
Elmo turned her down for a swim so she called her boyfriend instead.....
"My dad isn't here, I promise. It's safe to come over"
We were doing plenty of stalling as we both didn't want to leave Enid that night. Don't get me wrong, we were very excited to see Riley and settle in and unpack at home.....BUT I always hate saying goodbye and missing out on the fun had after we leave. Who knows...they probably threw a party after the red-headed monster headed home! ;) I kid, I kid. We had a few minutes left so we spent them "ninging".....
I, paranoid mom, let go of my fears and let her try out the big girl "ning." I assume she probably has been capable of this for awhile now but I haven't let her try. The big girl swing means she's a big girl....and I'm not ready for that. But ready or not, it's time for the big girl "ning." Lisa was standing by telling her to "pump your legs" and I really think she understood because she started wiggling them around. Super cute moment!
Finally time to say goodbye. Kisses and fist bumps all around from Hallie Grace. She was strapped in and ready to hit the road. She was also ready for winter apparently....
The insisting to wear her winter hat (which was in my car for some unknown reason) finally wore on me so we pulled over to put it on her head. She seemed pretty pleased with her fashion choice. Riding in the car didn't please her much though. The girl kept peeing. Three times. I guess the two glasses of tea that she swiped from Lisa right before we left didn't help. Have you ever tried a standing-in-the-carseat diaper change? It's actually quite efficient. Pull the car over....unstrap her...tell her to stand up, change the diaper....ask her to plop back down. There was absolutely no room left in the car after our trip Hobby Lobby and Lowes trips. Standing diaper changes were unavoidable. Oh and while I'm on the topic of a cluttered car, I must just note that I come close to a full on panic attack when we travel. Objects seem to multiply like wet gremlins. It's near torture for this OCD momma. So that is precisely why I was so thrilled to pull into the driveway and see my better half waiting for us to arrive. Hal got a kiss and I put him to work helping me unload the car. Instant relief. Whew. I probably shouldn't have put him to work though because the man had been working all day long already on this amazing project.....
This picture is pre-flowers....and post-root/bush/trash/vine/crap removal. I can't even fathom the amount of sweat and muscle power that went into this task. And he did it all to surprise me. We didn't have plans to work on this area yet. He made my heart soar when I got a picture that afternoon of his progress that said "here is Karen's flower garden." Woah. His brownie point total skyrocketed to 1,500. That total zoomed up even higher when he told me I needed to make a sign that says "Grammy's Garden" to put next to it. Ok, when did the aliens come and abduct my husband???? I was so touched by his thoughtfulness and realized that it couldn't have been better timing than Memorial Day weekend. Man, he's a keeper.
Not only did he give me an incredible surprise but he had a little something for lil red as well. I couldn't help but laugh about his enthusiasm over the car show shirt he bought his girl. The even funnier part was that she was instantly obsessed with that shirt. It was as if she knew how cool he thought it was that they would have matching shirts....she began taking her shirt off and shaking her new shirt at me to help her put on.
Meet my son, Hal.
Nanny and Papa stopped by for a bit to drop off some watermelon on Monday and Hal swam for a bit while Papa squirted her with her fish toys. They took a little cruise around the neighborhood before they left.....
Hal dined on some of the watermelon for lunch and rekindled her love for the messy fruit....
We had made plans that morning to go to the river at the farm and see the animals. But that changed pretty quickly. Geez I was bummed when Riley got a call from a new doctor who was needing help moving stuff into his office. "Seriously!?!" is all I had to say. Ok, I wanted to say more but like I said...that's all I had to say. ;) Hal took her nap while I blogged and mapped out my garden plans. We swam, swam, swam later that afternoon. It wasn't the river but we made due....
A little girl I know had a splashin' good time....
The SUMMER has unofficially officially begun. ;)
We relaxed.
We remembered.
And we remembered to relax.
No comments:
Post a Comment