5.25.15 Memorial Day Remembering

Livy always investigates new things and will cross any jungle.

We harvested flower from my grandmother's yard. She is a master gardener bringing beauty to any spot of ground things just seem to flourish under her care. This memorial day was different because we did the arrangements. She's not up to all the gathering and grooming of floral arrangements for the graves. It must have taken her hours to put all those arrangements together. It took a team of about 10 an hour to complete the task some picked, some carried to the creation station and some created! It was fun. As most of these transitions take place it is bitter sweet that I didn't help her more over the years. I missed a great opportunity to learn and maybe some of her talent with color would have rubbed off. It's pretty easy to beat yourself up as situations change and moments pass.

I had a great object lesson with Anna and Harold over this bush. It has gone back to the wild state. There are a few remaining branches with buds of the intended cultivated rose bush. I instructed Harold to chop and whack the offending wild branches off. He was not sure but I taught them this rose is not intended to be wild. It is meant to be beautiful and special. The wild side is trying to take over but by pruning and cutting back the wild the pretty rose will come back and live. I had each of the kids pull 10+ weeds while we got flowers situated and people loaded. Again for not much attention the yard does amazingly well.

Arrangements ready to go.

There were too many baby graves at the cemeteries we visited this weekend. This one is from over 100 years ago. Never decorated and probably long forgotten. We had extra so we decorated his and his parents. Many blessings I forget to be thankful for as I complain about never having empty arms or silence, I need to remember it could be worse a lot worse.

The decorating crew. My sister remembers difficult locations every year. She is such a good organizer, it is good to learn from and be led by her in this treasure hunt each year. Grandma was able to make it around with her new walker she did really well this day.

Waiting in the shade. It has been cool and rainy except for this brief 2 hour spell, 1 of which we were walking around. Millie had fun in the rocks.

Part of the crew resting in the one shady spot at the cemetery. Really there are 2 trees in the whole place and we got one.

He had come prepared to entertain. Boys life provides a page of jokes of which he shared them all. It's an age thing I remember my siblings telling various kinds of jokes- knock-knock, blond, walk into a bar... at this age.

And our baby row. These two are so fun to watch grow. It thought it was so cute to just see their little toes peeking out. They were covered in an effort to enduce meditation and sleep... you can always try!
Memorial day is one of my favorite holidays. This year we expanded our horizons and visited multiple cemeteries. My dad and his cousin shared family history stories and we got to see 8 generations counting my kids. Pretty amazing. The first member of my family to come to this valley is buried in Eagle in the pioneer section. My Mark is named after the Corn side and we found many Marcus Corn headstones. Interesting to reverence those who went before and remember they had lives, personalities, and stories that inevitably contribute to who we are today. The Amanda I am named after was a red-head. I told the kids she's part of the reason they are red headed. It was a special weekend of pondering and enjoying time together. And a tradition that I hope they carry on too.