Memorial Day Weekend

 This weekend was a really great one for Derek, Stratton, and me. We had lots of quality family time and Stratton is finally sleeping in his bed so Derek and I have been able to sleep better at night too. Not to mention it was a three day weekend this weekend for Memorial Day. 

Saturday Derek and I cleaned the basement out since we are trying to get it redone. We found out that we have more than one leak in the basement now so we have more crap to throw away and we have to get more wet moldy carpet out of the basement. I'm so ready to have the basement tiled.

Sunday we decided to go on a hike in the morning before it got too hot to be outside without being next to a pool. We went to Tail of Tears and hiked on the Yellow Trail as my mom calls it. It was only about 2 miles but for a little guy and a smoker it was just long enough to get crabby by the time we got back to the car. 

I got some really great pictures from the hike. Stratton wanted to walk the whole time but it was a little hard because there was LOTS of poison ivy and I was worried about him falling. So, on the wider areas he held Derek's hand and on the narrower areas either I held him or Derek did. It was some really great team work none the less.

 I love these kind of pictures. I thought they were really sweet.

  All smiles for our first water break.

 "Almost there!" Stratton kept saying that the entire walk like he knew where we were going.

 Finally! We made it. The end of this trail really freaks me out because it's a huge drop off. I don't like getting close to the edge of it. It freaks me out.

The whole family with Illinois in the background.

 There was a big barge down the river that Stratton though was really cool.

 Stratton and I say back while Derek enjoyed the view.

 This was a huge night crawler that was slithering across the trail on our way back to the car. It was HUGE!

 Leave it to Derek to get his finger in the picture.

 After the hike at Trail of Tears we made another trip to Jones Heritage Farm for lunch with Derek's dad and step-mom. We met up with them a little bit after we got there but not before I took a couple pictures of the chickens and the horrible turkey.

 The turkey is so mean they have a sign that says that you shouldn't get to close to it. They were right. It's really mean.

 I just love chickens.

 Stratton of course had to play on the play ground.

My father in law Dale with Stratton. He loves his "paw paw Dale."

 My niece Cobie also joined us for lunch. My mother-in-law Lisa was feeding her apple butter. Yum!

 I even ate asparagus for the first time this weekend and LIKED it! Gasp!

Monday (Memorial Day) we spent the morning relaxing and then around lunch we headed over to my mother-in-law and father-in-law's house to go swimming. We had such a great time. My friend Lauren came over for a little bit and swam and then my mom and dad stopped by. Steph, Garrett, and Payne swam with us for a bit and Derek's grandma Mona came by too. Lisa got Stratton a water gun and he had such a good time spaying everyone with it.

 He kept dumping all the water out of the top of it.

 He loved to spray my mom and Lisa.

 Isn't that the cutest diapered butt you've ever seen?

 I unfortunately am white as a ghost so the SPF 55 that I put on didn't help after the 7 hours of being in the sun. Here is the result of my outing. I'm in pain today. I hate the sun.

 Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. 

God bless the men and women that have given their time and lives for our freedom.