Memorial Day weekend my Grandma Irene Buckley was on her way to Salt Lake for a cousins wedding, my Dad had caught a ride with them since Mom was already down here so they stopped off at our house where I had some brunch snacks prepared for them and Marcus and Enzo got to meet their Great Grandma.
That evening we had a family bbq here at the house. Jake, Marcee, and Anson were on their way up for the weekend and stopped by with Mom & Dad and Venessa, Izzy, Siena, and Enzo made it back down and then Nate joined us for a bit. I put barbecue chicken in my instant pot and we had an easy picnic like meal. We had the net up for bad mitten which the kids loved. We watched pictures going across the television and enjoyed reminiscing about the memories we have together (seriously what a better way to spend memorial day weekend). Then we made smores over our gas pit. Super fun! I'm so glad we made it happen even though it was a bit crazy to coordinate. Sunday evening we went up to Venessa's new house and helped them setup their tv stuff and had a little dessert, the kids and I made smore cookies to enjoy! Monday we went swimming at the Rush. Mimi & Grandpa and Nessa and her kids met us there. We spent almost 4 hours there in the morning and then Steve took the girls back for a couple of hours in the evening (we would have all gone back for a while if it wasn't for the fact that the girls had school the next day).
The next Saturday, June 4th, Ellie had her "Silent Movie" piano recital. It was really cute they all played a song to accompany a silent movie that was playing. Then Monday Lila had her end of year singing/dance recital where she had a short solo again. It was cute.
Today one of the companies Steve consults for was having a company party at Lagoon and they gave him 2 free tickets so we were excited to try it again with the kids since it has been 4 years since we went, right after we moved here. Mimi came down to watch Marcus for us which was a lifesaver. Although when Andrew found out Mimi was in town he was not so sure he was going to join us. Friday night he kept saying take me to Mimi and the first thing he said when he woke-up Saturday was drop me off to Mimi. So when Mimi arrived he said, "I stay with Mimi." I'm telling you after the day I had with him Friday I was ready to do it--we hadn't bought his ticket yet. We explained we were going to Lagoon to ride some fun rides and he could come with us or stay with Mimi, he chose to come and the funny thing was as we were getting closer to Lagoon he pointed out his window and said, "I want to go there. We're going there, right?" We pass Lagoon all the time and he's never said that. It was cute.
We went to the bumper cars first but they were having technical difficulties so we went back to the kiddie area and rode a few rides. The first couple of rides Andrew would scream, "no, no." but then he would enjoy it and get off and say fun. So after a few rides he stopped screaming. While he was riding the rocket ride with the guns you could move around I sent Steve and the girls over to ride Tidal Wave. Lila was nervous, but I told her it would be like a swing and then Ellie talked Steve into riding in the very back row which was the most dramatic seat and it upset Lila so she was a little nervous the rest of the day. Andrew can't stop talking about the "gun" ride (he rode it probably 5 times while we were there and kept asking to go back to it after dinner). He also liked the "robot" ride (Scallywags is the rides name which is ironic since that is his nickname, but the kids thought the inside looked liked a robot so they called it the robot ride).
The day was overcast and raining, but we had a wonderful time. It was only lightly sprinkling most of the morning then around noon it came down hard for a little over an hour. It happened to be right when Ellie and I went on the Roller Coaster so I got soaked. The kids were all wearing their rain jackets and Steve didn't pack one even though I asked him if he wanted to (he didn't think it was really going to rain) so he ended up wearing the one I packed since I was already drenched after the coaster ride. I packed a change of clothes for everyone, but left them in the car because the backpack was full with the kids jackets--that's the one thing I wish I would have done different is just had them wear their jackets in so the change of clothes were in the bag to use, oh well. We rode a lot of rides with the kids, enjoyed a meal provided by the company and then when it started to rain hard again around 6pm we decided to call it good.
We came home, got Andrew and Lila in the tub and Ellie really wanted to go back to ride some other rides that Andrew was too small for or Lila was too nervous to do. Steve had an unfortunate experience after dinner on a ride so he did not want to go back, but I kind of did so Ellie and I changed into warmer clothes and went back (that's the nice thing about it only being 10 minutes away). We were there for two hours and rode 10 more rides including Colossus twice. There were no lines and the weather was perfect when we went back. It was a lot of fun to spend that time with Ellie and I will always cherish that memory. She of course thought it was great and could not contain her excitement when telling Daddy that she rode Colossus twice. Although I couldn't talk her into trying Cannibal with me--maybe next time.