Memorial Day

Memorial Day is one of my favorite holidays. When I was younger, I associated it with the beginning of summer and enjoyed that feeling of knowing a 3 month break had just begun. I don't think I gave much thought to the sacrifices made by American military men and women, the ultimate price paid to keep America the wonderful country that she is today.  As an adult, I try to take the time to truly reflect on the sacrifices made by our soldiers, both past and present.

I use the word soldier because Logan talks about soldiers and war anywhere from 50 to a 800 times a day.  I try to explain things on a level that he understands and at age 6 he understands a good bit. He knows that 3 of his great grandfathers were WWII veterans.  His mom's maternal grandfather was a Navy Officer stationed in the South Pacific. Both of his dad's grandfathers fought in the Battle of the Bulge and his dad's maternal grandfather also fought in Normandy.

As much as I want to protect my six year old from some of the harsh realities of life, I also find my self wanting to educate him on historical events such as WWII. Our last trip to the library concluded with 5 kids based historical war books.  In Logan's mind, war is quite simple.  It consists of the good guys vs the bad guys, and the good guys always win.

This Memorial Day we were excited to have our annual Houston visit with the Dawsons.  Donald, Clare, Michael, and Laura flew up on Friday and after hours and hours of weather delays made it to Houston by 1am.  We had so much fun reminiscing about various childhood stories and events that you can only relive when you actually talk about them with your family.  Like the time Donald dressed up as Freddy Krueger and chased me around the house with knives taped to his hands. We agree on that. We disagree on exactly what type of knives he had taped; kitchen or steak.  Anyway, my poor parents had just gone to the grocery store and although I don't know exactly how old we were when this happened, I am certain we were old enough to know better.

We ate Gatlins BBQ and their brisket is second to none.  Saturday night we grilled pork loin stuffed with sautéed spinach and feta, prosciutto wrapped asparagus, broccoli and cauliflower salad, and roasted potatoes. Delicious!  Donald always impresses me with his culinary skills.

Sunday we ate at Liberty Kitchen and over indulged in oysters, crab cakes, and fish filets.  We actually had a night out sans kids so we headed to Cottonwood for local music.  I did not get any pictures, but the kids played for hours on end in our new blow up slide.  We also took the metro rail to the Museum District and hit the Children's Museum. Catherine was all about monitoring every square inch of baby Laura's movements and decisions. Clare was patient with Cat.

My brother told me when they flew home that Michael was actually crying on the plane because he was going to miss Logan so much. I really do like ages five and six.