Memorial Day

I am a stickler on tradition- every year since perhaps I was an infant I have attended the Memorial service at Bluffdale cemetary. We walk down the street from my grandmas house with some cut flowers in hand.The same men line up in their nice soldier uniforms and they walk down the path as patriotic music plays, holding the American flag and their rifles. Back in the day they were younger men- now it is cute to see them shuffle down the walk as the same patriotic music plays:) Like my grandpa said, most of them are in the dirt now:) Then they read the names of those died while serving our country(from Bluffdale) as well as tell a story of some of these brave soldiers and those who are unknown.
There is always a beautiful musical number while everyone has their hands on their hearts. I felt bad this year because I tried to capture my kids in the moment when I should have been listening to the service more:)

They raise their rifles and shoot to end the ceremony. We always prepare the kids for that moment to cover their ears:)
In the past the husbands of my aunts and sisters, even my dad usually don't show, but I am proud to say both me and my sister had devoted husbands. (We negotiated and he had the rest of the day to play:)

Like I said, I am big on tradition, but now I am excited to be able to have this opportunity to teach my kids why we celebrate it. Afterwards Aj kept asking why soldiers all die, so I made it clear that we are honoring those who have died, but not all of them do:)

Usually we put flowers on the grave of my great grandparents and it doesn't really mean much to the kids. Last year they had a cousin who was born stillborn so it is a little more personal for them now.They talk about him all of the time as cousins and has been a growing experience for all of them. They each painted a stained glass craft and picked out one of those pin -wheel wind toys for him.

They (my kids, their cousins and my little sister) all did so good at the service so we went to Thanksgiving Point Childrens Gardens for a picnic and play.

Cheyenne with her cousin Elijah by the Noah's Ark. This was right before she was pushed over and face planted in the water. It wasn't deep, she was just surprised and ticked off:)

There are some great rocks to climb and explore--AJ was scaring me with his climbing skills:)

They have different areas of woodsy crafts--they were able to build and create with these wood shapes.

There was a bear cave that you can walk into or tunnel into. There was a fake bear inside that growled--you probably arent' supposed to put your kids on it though:)

They have so many cool things for the kids to do! My sister has a pass and gets me in half price so we will be going back often:)