Memorial Day - whole weekend of fun!

Typically I want to go out of town for 3 day weekends, but with the busy summer approaching we decided to stick around for Memorial Day weekend. I am glad we did! Ryan was home and it was a nice break to relax and have some fun around the house!

Friday night I watched Jude and Haper. The kids had a picnic in the back yard with macaroni and zucchini sticks.

Casen in his pilot hat. I grabbed a shot of Marlee too but it was just too blurry!

Does this face say stinker or what!? She learned to climb the ladder to the tree house the beginning of May and has been trouble ever since!

Saturday night Ryan and I had plans for a date night and were planning on going to dinner and shopping at the outlets... but our plans changed when Casen split his head open for the THIRD time! I was bathing the girls in my room, while Ryan was on a conference call and Casen was downstairs playing on our half wall with his cars. When I heard screaming I knew he had fallen. He hit his head on the sharp wood dowel at the bottom of one of he chairs on his way down. It was way bigger than the last two times and there was a TON of blood. It freaked me out and I couldn't tell how bad it was so I screamed for Ryan. He actually ended up calling 911 and they were there so fast (they are just a block away and it was comforting to know they can get there so fast). They were able to get a good look at his head and said that we could take him to the ER or they could. Ofcourse we wanted to, so Ryan headed off to the ER with him and I joined about 45 minutes later after Julia came to babysit. Casen was so brave and so sweet. He loved the Teddy Bear the Firemen had given him (the stickers and hats were cool too). Apparently he asked the nurse a the hospital, "Have you been to church in a while?" :) I just don't know where he comes up with these things!

The doctor had numbed his head but I think it had worn off because when he went to clean the cut Casen kept saying it hurt. So I was nervous for the staples. He had to get 5 staples and it sure hurt my baby! I had to hold down his arms and laid my head on his back to hug him while he got them. He tried to be brave but I could tell it really hurt. We took him out for Hamburgers and shakes after, not the date night we had planned but sure glad it happened before we left!

We had never been to Valley of Fire as a family, so Ryan thought it would be fun to head out there with the kids on Saturday morning. I am glad we made the trip while here in Vegas, but it was definitely a long drive!

Marlee girl was my hiking buddy :)

My girls and I. Its kinda hard to tell, but we are up pretty high. The green bush looking thing in the bottom left corner was actually a good size tree at the bottom of the rock hill we had just climbed.

Brinley breaking into the boys picture!

We got to see home cool petroglyphs, some authentic.... some obviously from lam teenagers who think its funny to destroy history!

After our first hike we stopped and had a little picnic lunch, I managed to keep Marlee in the hiking backpack for a while before she decided it was time to run around with the other kiddos!

Casen all geared up and ready for hike #2. haha :)

Brinley loves to hike and is pretty daring. She had fun climbing up to this little cave area.

We tried to get a family shot, but sadly Casen and Marlee are out of sight!

Sunday we had my room-mate from Freshman year at BYU and GREAT friend, Valerie, over for dinner. The kids helped me pull the corn husks off.

We were ALL excited to see Val! My kids loved her, ofcourse! Ryan was excited too cause it had been forever and her witty personality makes her one of his favorites :) Isn't she just cute??

We had fun throwing balls at the kids on the swings, and Val got introduced to what we do with 3 kids on a Sunday evening!

The kids were sad to say good-bye and keep asking when she will come visit us again. I don't blame them, she is pretty awesome :)  Ryan put the kids to bed so Val and I could chat and then we all ended up chatting for several hours. It was so fun to get to talk to her, wish I got to do it more!

The Nelson's all got to go to Galen's grave, and I sure wish we could have been there! His birthday is the 24th of May and it is nice to think about him on that day (which is also my Dad's birthday). We sure do miss him and still love him dearly! sure do miss him and still love him dearly! 

Monday we got stuff done around the house and then headed to the Price's pool for a little swimming. Marlee probably had the most fun just dipping her feet!

I told Brinley to do a cool trick... I think she nailed it :)

Casen ofcourse had to follow her lead :)

Love this face!

Monday night we had a little BBQ with the Prices. It was nice and quiet just the two of us and it worked just perfect in our backyard. Rochelle maid some Mexican corn on the cobb and it was fabulous!  These two sweethearts were just too cute at the little picnic table.

I LOVE that Marlee will pose for me now! And I just can't get enough of her saying "ChEEEE" and doing her little smile. Can NOT get enough.