Memorial Day Weekend

We have had such a great weekend together as a family! Our local children's museum had a "Free Friday Night" event, so we attended that on Friday evening with some friends of ours. It was a lot of fun, but we learned our lesson! We'd much rather pay full-priced admission b/c it was just WAY too crowded with the offer of free admission. Here are a few pictures from our evening at Lynn Meadows....

This picture very accurately describes me as a mother..I thought Shelby got the teensiest bit off-balance, and I was sprinting to her side! Ha! I'm such a nervous nellie!

Derek had to go into the hospital for a few hours on Saturday morning, but when he came home we went out for our first run as a family using our new jogging stroller! (The jogging stroller was my Mother's Day gift.) Running together as a family is sooo much more fun than jogging solo, and the time goes by much faster! When we got back from our run, we immediately broke out the baby pool to get some relief from the 90-something degree temps. And we ended the day on a perfect note--date night! :) We had a low-key evening planned, but it's always so much fun to get out just the two of us. We ate dinner at Mellow Mushroom, went to Target to pick up a few things (and look around for fun!), and then went to see the movie What To Expect When You're Expecting. The movie was great! As we were walking out of the movie, I told Derek that the movie totally made me want to have another baby. I asked him if it made him have baby-fever too, and he replied "It makes me want to go look at Shelby sleeping when we get home." Ha!

Sunday was Derek's only day off this weekend, so we crammed a whole lot of fun into one day! We started off the day with another family run, and then Shelby & I played in the baby pool while Derek mowed the lawn. Then, after Shelby's naptime, we headed over to a little pavilion on the back bay in our neighborhood for a shrimp boil with some of our friends. It was HOT, but we seriously had the BEST time! The food was great, and the company was even better! And the kids were kept totally entertained by the food, playground, open space to run, and the big bucket of ice. :)

These pictures of Shelby & Adam playing ball with their Daddies with the beautiful back bay in the background...these pictures just melt my heart.

And the highlight of the evening was this....

Yes, that's right! My child was willingly eating a cupcake for the very first time! She's only eaten a cupcake at her first birthday party about 8 months ago, but even then she barely ate any of it...and that was after lots of coaxing. All I did last night was hold the cupcake out to her and she took a huge bite and never looked back! It was like she's been eating cupcakes her whole life..crazy girl! Here are about a gazillion more pictures of her eating the cupcake. Yes, it is that big of a deal for us. ;)  I'm sure you can tell what a big deal it is by the look on my face in the pictures!

The shrimp boil on Sunday evening concluded our weekend festivities b/c Derek was on call today, but it was such a great weekend! I hope your Memorial Day Weekend was just as enjoyable. And thank you to all of those men & women who have served our country in the name of freedom, and especially those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. We are grateful for you today and every day.