Labor Day Weekend

Labor day weekend started out so much fun and ended with not so much fun.

On Saturday, my cousin Lindsey, her husband Brandon, and their son J were in town from Austin.  Brandon had some work up in Dallas so we had the "chore" of keeping Lindsay and J company!  I hope he has more work up here because it's fun to have them visit. 

Brittany came over to enjoy the visitors as well.  All the moms and boys went to a splash park since it was a hot day.  This was Max and J's first time at a splash park.  They were both pretty hesitant.  Max eventually got over some of his hesitation and even J played for a couple minutes in the water.  J is only about 1 month younger than Max.  Next year I imagine both boys will be much more brave and interested in playing in the water.

Max (with Landen and Hayden in the background)

Crawling a little bit into the spraying water

The short water fountains were his favorite but they turned on and off too much to play there for very long.

On Sunday we did our normal Sunday thing and went to Costco for groceries and then hung out.  Max discovered the stair and climbed up them with no problem the very first time.  Now, to teach him how to come down them!  He has a new "trick" and puts our phone to his ear when he's playing with it.  :)

Monday late morning we went over to Jessica and John's pool for a swim.  I didn't take any pictures of Max in the pool but he had a good time and even interacted with C (their daughter, 3 months younger than Max) a little bit.

Maxwell - my stylin' boy (Thanks Aunt Kimi for the duds!)

After the pool we went to lunch at a new place - Rusty Taco. 

It was YUMMMMMMMMY!

After our fun afternoon we came home and Max opened up his birthday presents that had been shipped from Aunt Tawny, Uncle Alex, and his cousins.  Each of his cousins (Lola, Jaxton, and Payton) had picked out a book for Max and written a note to him in the front of it.  It was such a thoughtful gift - we are very grateful to them for that.  Tawny is such a great aunt - even from a long distance.  She always thinks of things I never would that are so heartfelt. 

I would like to be more like her and be a better long distance Aunt to all my neices and nephews far away.  Peter and I make goals each year around that but you know how it goes, life gets in the way...we get busy...and our good intentions don't turn into action.

He was a little more into tearing the wrapping paper this time.

He was immediately interested in reading the books.

More presents to unwrap!

We were hanging out that evening just watching tv and talking when Peter noticed that he had missed a bunch of calls on his cell phone from his family.  We called his brothers back and ended up learning that his Grandmother had passed away that evening in Utah.  Peter was partially raised by his grandmother and was really close to her.  We knew that she was starting to have some more intense health struggles but didn't think that she was at a point that she would pass.  Instead we had talked about maybe it being time to put her in a nursing home.  So while it wasn't a complete surprise, the timing was unexpected and a sad note to end our holiday weekend on.  So the rest of the night was spent supporting the family back in Utah and making plans to fly to Utah.

Just a week prior, I had been thinking, "Man, life is so good right now!" and then had that little nagging sensation that was like, "Don't enjoy it too much, the other shoe is bound to drop..."  Isn't that sad when I can't let myself enjoy the good times because there always seems to be something that comes and changes things?  In these brief thoughts I remember wondering what could possibly happen that would disrupt how good life was.  I guess I should have knocked on wood!

2 of our last 3 trips to Utah have been for funerals.  This is not a trend I like!