happy memorial day

Last year at this time Kent was packing to go to Officer training in Alabama. I am so glad that he's sticking around this year- although I'll probably be talking to him just about as frequently as last year. I can't wait until boards are over! I've had some really long days while Kent's been away- and I can only imagine the stress he's going through- since he is the one actually taking the dang test. I am so ready to have him back.

Here are our little rugrats yesterday before church. This is before Zeb's meltdown. For some reason- the very moment we walked into the church building Zeb had a meltdown. I had to sit on the stand with my seminary students so Kent had both rugrats and luckily zeb semi mellowed out. I am SO done with one o'clock church. Good thing we switch over in August.

Today we were Kentless- but tried to celebrate the holiday anyway. We had a good run at the park and then made our way over to Maumee for the parade. We got tons of free candy and unlike in years past- Zeb actually enjoyed himself. He wasn't afraid of the sirens or horns or marching band. I can't say the same for Ike. He actually did really well until one of the fire trucks honked directly in front of us. I think it startled him more than anything.
Zeb loved waving to all of the drivers of the big trucks and cars. He was also content with the very first dum-dum thrown his way- but I forcefully encouraged him to gather lots more candy than that :)

We enjoyed our afternoon at a giant picnic at a friend's house. Zeb got to run around- play with friends- and find all sorts of great tunnels and train tracks to play on. Whenever we pass under groups of trees he thinks it's a tunnel. He loves to climb under bushes and make himself tunnels as well. His imagination is exploding and it is so fun to watch. Today on our run it was a little windy and we could hear wind blowing through the trees. Some of the trees are dead and the wind makes them creak and whine. Zeb heard the creaking and yelled "mama- STOP!" I asked why and he replied "a elephant! a elephant!". I couldn't help but laugh out loud. He thought the creaking trees were elephants! We saw deer and lots of squirrels this morning- and he sees elephants at the zoo here- so I guess an elephant in our park makes perfect sense to him.