A Quiet Memorial Day with Family

We had a nice day, yesterday, celebrating Memorial Day with Dusty's family. It's so nice to have family close by, especially on holidays! Memorial Day is a special day for the family and it's nice to be able to be together. We all miss Grandpa Charlie so much (he passed away going on 6 years now....hard to believe!) and Memorial Day is a perfect day for us all to remember what a wonderful man he was. He had spent 20 years in the Air Force, which makes Memorial Day even more special!

Our day started out with Dusty and James spending a few hours working in the garden. It was time to get those plants in the ground!! Dusty had already tilled the garden spot, but it was being overtaken by weeds.....why do the weeds always grow soooo well??

I had to share this picture, even though it doesn't show much! I'll be taking pictures throughout the summer to show the progress of the garden.

James tackling all those nasty weeds!!

Dusty putting on the final touches with the tiller.

James planting our "Olathe Sweet" sweet corn! It's grown commercially all around us, but we always try to include a couple of short rows in our own garden.

Dusty planting one of the Anaheim pepper plants. My mouth is already watering for those delicious roasted peppers!

When they were done in the garden for the day, (It was getting too hot and there were other things to do!!) we headed up to the cemetery to meet the rest of the family, to visit Grandpa Charlie's grave.


I took this picture in the "veteran section"....it was so pretty, with all the flags blowing in the wind. Grandpa isn't buried in this section, but we stopped to pay our respects.

In that section, there's a plaque with this wonderful quote from Patton on it. So perfect, and oh, so true! Gives us a different way to think about things!

Then we walked over to Charlie's grave. Grandma Stella had already been there, the day before, and placed new flowers on the grave. Here's Vonnie (Dusty's sister) adding a new flag.

Then we all settled in and sat for awhile, visiting quietly and remembering Grandpa.

James was only 4 years old when he lost his Grandpa, and still gets very sad at times about it. I know he misses having him in his life. He was pretty quiet, sitting there with us all.

Here are Dusty and Vonnie, sharing stories about their Dad.

Grandma Stella and her granddaughter, Katie.

We all miss you Grandpa!!!

After the cemetery, we all went to Vonnie and John's house for a BBQ, homemade ice cream and several games of croquet!

James gave it his all, but just couldn't win a game. Poor kid! He really tried, though, and we all had fun. I liked this picture, as I caught the ball in motion!

This picture says it all....how James was feeling about the game of croquet yesterday! Hehehe

And we finished the day, with homemade ice cream! Here are Katie and James enjoying theirs!!

We hope that your Memorial Day weekend was filled with family and love, just as ours was!!