memorial day weekend is one that i truly miss from my youth. in my mind, it was one of the most perfect weekends of the year, with the underlying current of excitement of the end of the school year, possibly a trip out west coming up quickly, and the inevitably perfect day for memorial day.
for some reason, the day is always sunny and 75 in my mind. we would meet at the cemetery early in the morning with my dad’s side of the family, where kathleen had set out on her trunk flowers she had picked up from a gardening store the day before. the cemetery is one of the prettier ones i’ve seen, with sweeping willow trees and large oaks lining the drive. the sun dappled through the leaves while we visited relatives’ graves (relatives i had never met, and relied solely on memories and stories to form them in my mind).
afterward we went to todd park, where we had a picnic at the twirly slide and spent the afternoon running around on the park equipment and wading in the ice-cold spring-fed river that ran through the park.
this past weekend my grandma and i drove the 6 hours out to mandan for my cousin lori’s grad party. it’s always a lot of driving, and the weekend always seems cut short because of the drive. but it was a good time, and the weather cooperated pretty well, considering it was supposed to be kind of icky out. i got a nice sunburn, so that was fun. sam was as annoying as ever, but i got to see lori and karl and jane and charlie, and it’s always nice to hang with my sibs.
for pics: http://www.katew.com/lori
happy bday to me! ugh…28.