Memorial Day

This might become my favorite photo of the entire year - not just because it's filled to brim with people we love, but because of all the people, 34 in total, all nestled up close together (without masks)....enjoying a weekend at the lake.  Just like the "before times"...and now, here we are, after one hell of a wild year - and its my favorite thing.

This photo was a real labor of love though!  Getting 34 people to all stand in one spot, with every tiny baby awake was a true feat!  I'm so thankful we were able to snag a neighbor to snap these pictures for us.  Big group photos like this are so hard and such a pain in the moment, but not one single person in this photo is sad that they took 10 minutes to stop life and take it.  This one will be in the memory books for sure.

This big holiday weekend at the lake was not much different than any other - we had too much food, too many drinks, plenty of laughs, late nights and lots of stories, but for me, it was a weekend filled with snuggling all the tiny new humans that have joined the family since last year.  We had four, count 'em, FOUR new babies added to the mix and hopefully this is the first of many Third Tier get togethers to come (that's what we're calling the generation of littles we're all raising).  

**Baby Ellie - just under three weeks old!  It's so hard to remember these days with your own kids - you're too tired, but I'll remember these snuggles with these tiny babies forever.

*Baby Aiden - just 6 weeks old, if I remember right.  He's my birthday buddy - we share April 2nd!

Baby Mason - nearly 6 months old and while this isn't the first time we were able to snuggle and play with him, I'm grateful for each and every opportunity.   They don't stay little for long!

I forgot about the Super Mable!  Last summer we borrowed a tube like this from the neighbor to see if the girls were ready for it and it was a huge success.  Abby and Hazel both have summer birthdays and only about a month and a half apart.  So, this year we tried out doing a big joint gift instead of smaller birthday gifts for the girls.  We don't end up at the lake many weekends for the summer so instead of missing out on Memorial Day, we gifted this to them early so that we could get the most out of it for the year.  It was a huge hit!  While Abby/Hazel and Tanner are the only ones big enough to really enjoy it, before we know it we'll have lots of little kids enjoying this toy each summer.  I can't wait for all the memories on the Mable!