Memorial Day Weekend

When my dad was alive, Memorial Day always meant a BBQ at my parent's house, outside, of course, on picnic tables no matter what the weather since there was no room for us inside.  My dad always made a huge rolled roast, slowly cooked over charcoal coals with his secret sauce.  My mom always made baked beans and potato salad and she always announced when it came time to eat that they weren't up to her usual standards.  To this day, I haven't been able to exactly duplicate either the potato salad or the beans, although I have her recipes and her instructions about customizing the recipe.  My parents did this BBQ three times a year:  Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day.  The rest of the holidays were mine.  Things just haven't been the same since my father passed away.  We have never been able to capture the exact spirit of it, which I guess is fitting, since those holidays centered around my dad.

This year, Shaun, Elsie and the Little Guy were supposed to go camping over the holiday.  Elsie took time off work, and switched all her shifts around, they got all their gear together, borrowed a truck, and then the other family pooped out on them.  This was supposed to be a hunting weekend and the other guy didn't follow through on getting his licenses.  Elsie didn't want to sit at a campsite by herself all day with just the Little Guy, so Shaun went hunting for a couple days, and on Friday Elsie and I went shopping.  :)

We had a fun day although we forgot to take pictures!  We hit the outlet mall and bought summer clothes for the Little Guy, and then drove down to Chehalis and visited our friends at their bakery, A Taste of Eden.  It was a lot of fun to see Amy and their place, and the lattes and cupcake were yummy.

Saturday I weeded the flower bed by the patio and cleaned up the planters, etc.  They are ready for bedding plants now, assuming we get some kind of summer!

Sunday was church.  On Monday we invited ourselves over to my brother's, even though they hadn't been planning to do anything.  Nothing like a bossy older sister to get things moving!  :)  I made a large apple crisp, Elsie made Grandma's potato salad, and we had grilled steaks, baked potatoes, a salad, and baked beans.  Wonderful.  The Little Guy, who is getting so big, liked the pet muscovy duck named Elvis.  All-in-all, a really enjoyable weekend.

~Jane