Memorial Day with the Richardsons

I spent the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend with my dad and the kids driving to Verdon, NE to decorate my great-grandma & grandpa Cook, great-uncle Keith, & and great-uncle Walter's grave. Then we drove to Nemaha, NE where my Grandma Pearl & Grandpa Ward Merritt, Great-Grandma & grandpa Merritt, Great-uncle & aunt Owen & Goldie, & great-aunt Leona are burried. We usually do this on Saturday with my mom & brother & Doug, but because we had a wedding on Saturday, I went early with my dad.

We spent Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend with my side of the family in Summerfield, KS - where my grandpa Keith, great-grandma & grandpa Ehmen, & great-uncle & aunt Joy & Erma are burried, and in Pawnee City at my grandma "Farmer's" house. It was a good day to be around so much family. We all met in Summerfield, Kansas at 11:00am to decorate the graves, and then we drove to Pawnee City for lunch. After lunch, I took the kids up to the Pawnee County Courthouse to see all the flags. They thought it was pretty neat! I have a couple relatives -my great-great Uncle Clair and Great-uncle Bud who both died in WWII - with names under the flags, so it's always been special to us. After that we went to the Pawnee City Cemetary and decorated the grave of a my Great-Great Uncle Claire.

Memorial Day Cookie Time with Grandma McKnight

When we told Samantha that there was a holiday coming up and the colors were red, white, & blue, she immediately said "I need to make cookies with Grandma McKnight and put red, white & blue sprinkles on them!!" So, Doug called his mom and told her that Samantha needed to make cookies. She made some cookie dough and Samantha helped her on Sunday evening. They made "Grandma Barta" Sugar cookies, which involves rolling the dough into a ball, then rolling that ball in sugar and then smashing them on a cookie sheet and then adding the sprinkles. Alden was quite jealous that he couldn't help, so we had to keep him entertained the whole time. :( But, he did get in on the "cleaning" at the end because you can imagine that all the sugar and sprinkles makes for a BIG mess! :)

Curtis & Holly's Wedding

Doug's cousin Curtis McKnight married Holly on Saturday, May 24th. It was a beautiful ceremony- at St. John's Catholic Church on Creighton University's Campus. The kids were great during the wedding, but got very awnery as the night went on. They enjoyed blowing bubbles while Holly & Curtis walked out of the church. The reception/dance were at the Durham Heritage Museum in Omaha. Alden ended up throwing up all over the play while he was eating his green beans for supper - luckily - no one noticed but Doug, Doug's dad and myself, as we frantically cleaned it up. (He throws up alot - but then again - he is Doug's kid!) When the dance started, the kids settled down a little bit and danced with everyone around. There was a polka band and a DJ, so that kept things interesting. Alden enjoyed listening to the tuba player - who was set up about 10 feet from us! The kids really started to get tired at about 8:30 - their normal bedtime - but we pushed them until almost 10:00 - then it was time to leave!

We've reached a decision...

We've decided to post some various pictures from the last 2 months to get caught back up on the blog. Michelle was so sick in the early stages of her pregnancy that she just couldn't post very often, but now she is feeling a "little" bit better. After a bunch of random pictures, we'll get started again with our usual posts! :)