Memorial Day

For Memorial Day Weekend, we made a mad dash up to Essex for a little mini getaway.  It is never much, but these little breaks always recharge us, which is definitely what we need as we head into the final grind here of the school year.  Dexter has eight exams in June to wrap up the lecture part of his education.  Starting in July, no more classes, no more 6 am wake ups.

Anyway, we hadn't been to Essex since Easter, and I was looking forward to some nice warm, New England spring days. Instead we had cold-rainy-eat-soup-and-build-a-fire New England days.  I guess that's just as typical.  Dexter and I managed to see the movie 42 - the first movie we've seen since December.  I'm always astonished/horrified by the prices, especially of snacks.  $10-$20 for popcorn and soda?  Yikes.

We BBQed on Sunday with our Kenyan and Nigerian friends (the Americans were outnumbered!) and the sun made its first appearance.  By Monday, we had perfect weather, so we made the most of it.

We started Monday by walking to 'downtown' Essex (if a post office, police station, and library can be considered downtown) to join the Memorial Day parade.

Of course, our walk there was slow going because Kyalo found some sticks, about 2 seconds after we started out...

We missed all the speeches, but we got to see Brady marching in the parade as a cub scout.

And then we went to the cemetery where they lay a wreath on a grave (of a veteran? I don't know!) and do a gun salute.  Kyalo handled the gun salute reasonably well.

It was a pretty quick affair, but it was sweet for me to take my husband and son to something I grew up going to.  I'm sure Dexter feels a stronger sense of American history now.  Plus, I love running into people like my kindergarten teacher, and women who have known me my whole life who say, "how can we pray for you?"  The beauty of small towns!

After the parade it was on to important things like tractor-pulled wagon rides!

Grandpa got that party started, then Papa took over.

isn't it pretty?  the rain does something magical!

Then there was time for bubbles. . . 

A quick stop at our town lake (followed quickly by ice cream)

and, of course, lots of hugs and cuddles with Grandma

The fact that Kyalo calls her, "Mom" doesn't bother me. At all.

It was a full and quick weekend, but it was a perfect mix of rest and activity.  I'll be heading back up there later in June to visit with my brother and his four oldest kids, while Dexter stays home to study.