Memorial Day

We love Memorial Day. I think it's turned out to be one of our family's favorite holidays. We do the same thing every year but enjoy it every time. Saturday we head to the So. Jordan and Crescent Cemetery's to visit many family members there.

Hunter picked a bunch of poppies from our yard to take to the cemetery. He said he wanted to take them for all the "dead people". So cute!

The boys are so good to help my mom carry flowers over. At the So. Jordan Cemetery we visit my Grandpa & Grandma Holt's grave, Grandpa's parents, and Aunt Mame's - that's grandpa's sister.

This is my Grandpa and Grandma Holt's. Grandma passed away in 1996 and Grandpa passed away in 2004. T.J. and Cody remember Grandpa Holt. They talk about him still. He passed away 4 months before Hunter was born.

Hunter putting his flower on their grave.

My mom with our boys at her parents grave.

Jared got bored, can you tell? Doing push-ups in the middle of a cemetery. With the boys on it worked him pretty good.

Jared took this picture. I stole one of Hunter's poppies.

Then we head to Crescent. There we visit Grandma Holt's parents, my mom's sister who was born dead, lots of great aunts & uncles, and this one, my cousin Robert. I can't believe it's been 12 years since he left us. I remember all the visits he'd make to our house when I was growing up. He'd come play with our satellite my dad got & try to get it working. He was a genius at electronics.

Hunter put on a plastic wrapper from one of the flowers. It looked like a veil the way it was blowing in the wind.

Of course the boys find the dirt at the cemetery. They had tunnels going everywhere.

We always get a Slurpee or snow cone while seeing the graves on Saturday.

Sunday we went to the Herriman Cemetery. We really like this cemetery. It looks so awesome as you pull in and there's tall flags lining the roads as you drive in.

We always go see Jimmy Mascaro's grave and his brother Johnny. Jared worked for them for years working rodeo. Jared was so close to Jimmy he was like his grandpa. We miss he and Johnny a lot. When the boys play rodeo at home, they fight over who's Jimmy, Johnny and Jared. It's cute. I had to miss Jimmy's funeral. He died 3 days after I blew out my knee. It took everything I had to make it to his viewing. I had to hold my knee in place using a pillow under it and held on to it on both sides. I felt so bad for missing it. I cried all day. Jared was a pallbearer at it. I had surgery 3 days later. 

This is Jared's Great Grandpa's grave. His dad was one of the first settlers in Herriman and Butterfield Canyon was named after them. We love Butterfield Canyon so we think this is pretty cool.

Monday around 11 we always head to the Riverton Cemetery to see Jared's Grandpa Butterfield's grave and watch the military ceremony. His grandpa served in the military, too. But first we go see Audrey Drury's grave. She lived in our ward and was the sweetest lady ever. She was in the nursery when Cody and Hunter were in there. She fell in love with our boys and loved when Cody would wear his red feeding boots to church. She was my idol.. she's everything I want to be. A great person who was herself. She never cared what people thought of her. She was a country girl. Plus, she had the coolest country house ever with awesome cow wallpaper in her kitchen! We all miss her so much! The boys still pray for her every night. She passed away of liver cancer.

The boys can feel something different when we visit her grave. They look at it different and are quiet. Cody loved her so much! He and her had a special bond. It was one of the hardest things to tell him when she passed away.

Jared's Grandpa's grave. He passed away when Jared was about 11.

The family visiting his grave.

Cody and Hunter with Kai. They are so cute with him. They never get sick of him. They could play with him all day if we let them.

One of the guys who's in the veterans memorial is in my ward. He showed me the list with my Grandpa Holt's name on it for the service at the So. Jordan Cemetery (Frank Holt). One of these years I'm going to make it to that ceremony and hear his name read.

After they read all the names and sing some songs, they do a 21 gun salute. I love this ceremony. I love the military so to watch this is right up my alley. Jared had to walk away from the program this year. He ended up with a really weird migraine at 1 o'clock this morning and even had to have Trevor and his Dad come give him a blessing. He was feeling drained but ok. Just had a yucky headache all day Monday.

Then we head to the Orem Cemetery with all of Jared's family - the Butterfield's. It tried sprinkling on us while we were there. The kids all huddled under Lexie's umbrella. We visit Granny Butterfield's parents who are buried there. This year I could also go see my Uncle Steve who is now buried there. They just got his headstone placed just in time for memorial day.

Then we head to Orem City Park for lunch and spend the day there talking and playing. We always stop for KFC chicken and then everyone brings salads or dessert to share.

The kids love this park. It has a great track all the way around to ride bikes, scooters, etc. This year Hunter and Cody practiced roller blading.

Cody practiced almost the whole time. He'd just got these skates the week before.

Of course we didn't have the greatest weather so for about 15 minutes while it rained we hung out in the pavilion. Jared is with his dad- Clare.

Hunter with their cousin Carter. Carter loves army so they got a picture together in their camouflage.

Finding some sun to warm up in after the rain. It got pretty cold there for a while but warmed up once the rain left. Poor Granny. I know she was cold, but wasn't complaining.

The boys love this playground. But after going down the wet slides they got pretty soaked. Didn't stop them though.

T.J. played with Kai a lot. Kai loved the swings.

We played volleyball for a while. That's Jared serving. I played opposite of his team. We all had a lot of fun. Carrie hit me in the face, but thank goodness it was a soft ball and didn't hurt. I always get hit in the face playing volleyball.

This is a typical party with the Butterfield's. Everyone usually sits in a big circle and talks. Thanks goodness the weather turned better. We were worried. We've had a terrible spring. From March to May we got 11.25 inches of rain in the Salt Lake Valley. That's more then double what we usually get. We haven't been able to get the garden in yet.

My cute Cody.

Before we left Jared and I went for a walk and picked pine cones to take home. I love to decorate with pine cones and needed more for a basket of them on the porch.

Isn't Jared so cute!

A couple days later we went with Jared's family to visit his Dad's parents grave at Memorial Estates. The only grandparents we didn't get to see this year was my Grandma & Grandpa Kenison's. Hopefully next year we can get there.

We are so thankful we can celebrate Memorial Day and are so thankful for the Veterans and those serving now so we can have the freedoms we take for granted. Our favorite part of the holiday is visiting the graves of family members and learning a little more about them. We are so lucky to come from good families who taught us values.