Nelson Family Blog: Memorial Day Weekend 2018.

Somehow May has passed by us in a blink of an eye. One minute it's my birthday, nurses' day, and mother's day, and then the month is over. Our weeks have been flying by with softball two nights a week, work, and family get-togethers. It's no wonder why I can't keep my blog up to date.

For Mother's Day weekend, we kept things pretty low-key and just went out to Jim and Barb's house to help work in the greenhouse and fill our planters. The weather was a little chilly, but overall it was a nice weekend. We also smoked some steaks on the grill for supper, which was delicious.

Emma had her last day of school on May 18th. For the last day, they went to 605 Ninja Academy and got to play there. They had a really good time. Emma had a great year of Kindergarten and is now officially a First Grader. I'm not sure how that happened, but she is very excited to be in first grade next year.

I stumbled across free tickets for the Canaries home opener on that Friday evening. So, the kids and us went to the game and had a great time. The kids got to do the bouncy house, the YMCA on the field, and even got some dippin dots. We also got to actually watch some of the game, so that was nice. It was a beautiful evening for some baseball, and we even got to watch a wonderful fireworks show at the end of the game.

The next morning, we headed to Minnesota for Kyle's graduation party. It was nice to see some distant relatives we hadn't seen in a long time. It was a nice party, and the kids had fun running around and bothering everyone. On Sunday, we stayed to watch Cody and Kyle play on the Cardinals team before we headed back to town. It was really fun to watch them play, and Todd and Julie spoiled our kids during the entire game. It was fun, but made for a late night getting back to Sioux Falls.

This past week was really busy again. We had our typical softball games (I hit a homerun over the fence on Tuesday night, that was pretty fun!). On Wednesday, we had a catch up at home day. On Thursday we headed to Kristina and Johnny's to visit with Bert and Erica who are here from Nashville. It was really nice to visit with them, and it was great weather to just sit outside and visit.

This past Friday, we headed out to Jim and Barb's to have some kabobs on the grill and just "camp" out at their place. It was pretty fun. We got their pool out and the kids had fun with that. Later in the evening we had a campfire and made some smores. The kids really enjoyed that.

On Saturday, the greenhouse was open for the day, so we helped make some deliveries to the cemeteries. It was 95 degrees on Saturday, so it was smoking hot. Especially in the greenhouses. John and I also spent some time filling a couple more planters. The kids spent most of the day running around, riding trikes, and swimming. They had such a fun day. In the evening, we grilled again, and then we went over to Jeff's place to play around with the excavator. They are working on tearing down some buildings on Jeff's place, so they bought an excavator. Jim let the kids ride on it with him, and even let them pull some of the levers. They thought it was pretty cool. John also got in it and played around on it. Finally, we took the tired kids back to Jim and Barb's and got them ready for bed.

Sunday was another busy day. We started it off by going to Lake Vermillion to take the kids fishing. It was Elliott's first time fishing, and he really enjoyed it and did really well with it. Emma also did well, and it kept their attention for quite a while. Neither kids caught anything, but John caught a couple, and that was enough to keep the kids interested. They even touched the fish, which was a pretty big accomplishment. After it got too hot to fish, we took the kids to the beach to go for a swim. They loved swimming in the lake, it probably helped that it was 99 degrees outside. It was so hot out there!! Finally when we couldn't take the heat anymore, we went back to Jim and Barb's to cool off. The kids took a good, long nap and the rest of us took it easy for a little while.

In the evening, the grandparents volunteered to watch the kids another night, so John and I headed into town to have supper and go to a movie. We enjoyed a nice supper at the Pour House, and then we went to see the new Star Wars movie about Han Solo. It was a great evening, and a much-needed adult date.

Today has been pretty exciting. We decided to go look at trucks this morning, and we actually found one we liked and we bought it. We are proud pickup truck owners. After we got it, we headed out to Jim and Barb's in the new pickup to pick up the kids. It was a nice little drive in the new truck. Now, we finally back home, cleaning up doing laundry, and getting ready for another week. The kids are napping, and it's been a great weekend.

Happy Memorial Day!