Memorial Day

It's weird that a holiday's meaning can change.
This year the day to honor and remember military who have died serving their country meant something different to me. first of all, I love that Memorial Day has changed to become a celebration and reflection of anyone that someone has lost regardless of being in the military or not. It's different when the people you "remember" for Memorial Day are your grandparents or some distant relative that you didn't really know very well.
Most of my grandparents died either before I was even born or when I was too little to remember them. I knew my great-grandparents on my mom's side though and when they died I was sad. I loved my grandma and grandpa Cox. I remember going over to my grandma's house after school and spending hours with her. She meant a lot to me. When she died I missed her but it was a different feeling because she was really old, I had prepared myself for the fact that she would leave this life before I did. I was happy for her because I knew, in heaven, she had her mind back and she was able to walk and take care of herself again. 

Those were the only experiences I personally had with death, before December.
Now it's changed. 

Memorial Day is different for me now. Funny how there is a holiday to "remember" people who are no longer in this life. I didn't need the holiday this year to remember Darin. I have thought of him every single day for five months. 

Every single day.

I thought of him a lot this weekend.

I remembered things we did together when we were kids. Darin went through a stage of doing his hair in a style we would call "The Duckbill" I would help him get it perfect. I wish I had a picture to put here for reference! We would spend what seemed like hours in the bathroom getting it just right! We would also play old school Nintendo all the time. Our favorite games were Family Feud and Junior Jeopardy. 

I remember when Sean was in Afghanistan, Darin came and stayed with me and Clayton in our apartment in Nampa for the weekend. We went to the Discovery center (we said it was for Clayton but he was way too small to enjoy it. We had so much fun though!) Darin stayed up late playing Call of Duty (he was so excited that I had fast internet so he could play online with his friends). I was so glad that he was there that weekend to hang out with me and help me feel less alone while Sean was gone. That weekend will always be one of my favorite memories.

I remembered the homecoming talk he gave at church when he got home from his mission and I remembered thinking how proud I was of him and that he had grown so much while he was in Brazil. I was happy that he had such a great experience serving. I loved hearing his stories! I am thankful that he made us all go outside and take a family picture that day. I love this picture...

 I asked my mom to put some flowers on his grave for me today, since I couldn't be there to do it myself. Thank you, Mom. I know it wasn't easy for you, but it meant so much to me.

Memorial Day is both pointless and important to me. I know that sounds weird... I don't need a special day to remember my brother, however, I am grateful for the extra reason to reflect on memories that are so precious to me, and an extra reason to celebrate the life of such an awesome guy, who I love and miss so very much.

Bear Lake

Also known as the Caribbean of the Rockies. 

This is where we were this weekend. Bear lake is awesome. We had so much fun!

We got there Friday evening and it was pouring down rain as we pulled into our campsite… we ran inside left the rain a little note and made dinner. After we ate the rain stopped and we had great weather the rest of the weekend! We went walked down to the lake the first night. Here are some pictures from that:

Saturday we drove to Minnetonka Cave to check it out. I was really cool!

 Clayton owns about 8 super hero capes and somehow we didn't bring one of them. This is Clayton's solution… extra jacket tied around his neck as a cape and hot mitts for super hero gloves. He was happy with that.

Sunday we spent our day hanging out on the beach and swimming in the lake before heading home. Clayton was in heaven playing in water, he kept saying "I love going to the beach!" Quincy, loved playing in the sand and rocks with the shovel and bucket. 

We stopped and got the boys some food at a Taco Time/ A&W on the way home and they got these sunglasses in their kid's meals:

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, Quincy's first tooth finally came through!! We noticed it on Friday the 23rd. It's his bottom front tooth on his left side. It's not big enough to see in a picture yet and Quincy won't let us look very well, but it's there!

  

Lower Massacre Rocks

Camping again this weekend… We went to Massacre Rocks again and tried out the "lower campground" because it is open now. 

We had fun drowning worms, (that is what fishing becomes when you don't ever catch anything) hiking, geocaching, and playing in the dirt. 

The campground is really pretty and has some pretty cool trails to hike. I am glad that we had time to explore it a little bit more than the first time we went.

 Clayton got a fake lizard from the visitor's center and named him "Stripes" he had fun burying him in the dirt and then digging to find him. 

 Clayton loved "treasure hunting" he was always excited to see what was in the caches.

 On top of the hill… Clayton said, "The wind is blowing me away guys!"

This is the hill we climbed. Thumbs up dude!

Quincy spent his time trying to eat rocks and dirt every time he thought we weren't watching.