Memorial Day Weekend

As you can tell, I'm catching up on my blogs. I haven't written this month, so it's only fair that I catch up on them! After this one though, I'll be all caught up and good to go for the next one TOMORROW!

We were invited to Kyle's co worker's house for a barbecue yesterday. We brought our own drinks and a side dish. I didn't take a picture of the tables with all of the food, but oh my goodness, the food was amazing! We changed up our normal jello salad that Kyle asks me to make usually with the orange jello, etc and used strawberry and lemon jello and cut up strawberries to put in it. I had to double the recipe. The recipe for anyone who is interested?

Hunter Family Jello Salad (normal)

1 large box of cook and serve vanilla pudding

1 large box orange jello

1 can of mandarin oranges drained

1 can of pineapple drained

1 container cool whip thawed

3 cups boiling water

Marshmallows

Mix the pudding and jello in the boiling water until completely dissolved. Then place the bowl in the fridge overnight. The mixture will be very stiff the next day, but fold until the mixture is smooth and easy to work with. Mix in the oranges and pineapple. Fold in the cool whip and the marshmallows. (My mother-in-law told me the trick is, the more people you have to feed, the more marshmallows you put in!) Normally I put in half a bag of marshmallows though for anyone who is interested!

So, back to yesterday! It was SO HOT that we told the kids to bring their swim suits in case there was a sprinkler or something to play in. Another family ended up bringing a little pools with a sprinkler attached, so we were happy the kids had their swimsuits with them.

They played in the pool and ran around this amazing property. There is a creek that runs through their yard. There wasn't very much water in it, so they were able to cross it and play baseball. We had sack races after some shade came to the yard. The kids raced over and over again and then it was the adults turn! A couple guys refused to race unless Kyle raced also, so of course Kyle got in on it. He, of course, crossed the finish line first! We were the first family with small kids to show up and we were a bit nervous because as more people showed up, it didn't appear that there were anymore kids coming, but then the kids came and there were plenty of friends for our kids to play with all about their ages! We spent a fabulous day getting to know Kyle's coworkers and just relaxing. I quickly learned that none of the other guys on the team are originally from Kentucky either. They are all from other places and have things they love and hate about Kentucky just like us, but the con senses is that this was the best move that any of us made for our husbands' careers. All of the wives are in the same position that I was in. We never knew when our husbands would be home from work or how long it would be before their bodies would be damaged. Many of them had no choice but to take the job when they had knee replacements or permanent damage to their back from all of the moving and lifting they do in the field. I also learned that all of these guys are quick like Kyle is. If you know Kyle, you know that he knows lots of things about lots of things and if he doesn't know, it probably doesn't matter! All of these guys are like that and it was very entertaining to watch them interact with each other because of it. We also all agree that GE has been very good to us. They have changed our insurance and we're all bummed about it, but the company is still very good to us and we are all grateful for it!

Today, after waking up late, we decided to take the kids to the zoo. Kyle hadn't been yet and Celeste had only gone once so far, so we decided to go. Yes, we knew it would be busy and we decided that since we can go for free and they have a water park, we might as well!

We were able to get some great pictures of the animals we saw today. Since Kyle was with us, we could take a little more time to take the pictures and work on using the manual focus on our camera. Honestly, there were still animals that the kids and I hadn't seen yet, so we were able to see them today. The kids and I enjoyed going to the Oregon zoo, but there is something about this zoo that I really like better. I was trying to figure out what it is and Kyle was able to help me put my finger on it. There is more space at this zoo, so even though the parking lot was full and there were plenty of people, there was still room to walk without getting crowded out. They also have several animals that they do demonstrations with on a schedule, so you can see it all without having to be at the zoo all day. They also have two playgrounds for the kids to get out of the stroller and play in for a while and FINALLY, they have a WATER PARK!! 

My kids were in heaven! They loved playing in here and are already asking when we get to go back. I promised them we would go at least once a week during the summer if they wanted because it really is the best place. It's contained with life guards and enough shade for Mom to sit in while they are playing. Sunscreen is a must, but they had a blast! There is a toddler area also for those who are still crawling or just learning to walk, to keep them safe and out of the big kids' way. So fun!

So, now that we have made it through the weekend, come back tomorrow afternoon when we find out if we are having a baby boy Hunter or a baby girl Hunter. Any guesses????