Sun, fun, family and 30

Now, that's how to spend a three day weekend.

Saturday was spent baking from 5AM until 8AM, then again from 11AM until noon. I made angelfood cake trifle, Peanut Butterscotch Chocolate Crispy Bars and Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies. Sadly, after the first round of baking, I was cutting things up to put them into their travel containers and realized these didn't actually bake through. So, back into the oven then went. 45 minutes later, I had to pull them out and pray they set up enough to serve. Well, they were still soup when we arrived at the party. Apparently it was really tasty soup though as my cousins were fighing over who would get the batter soup off the pan.

The party was fantastic. A huge bounce house, kiddie pool for the little ones, a slightly larger pool for the slightly larger kids, horseshoes, what we call horse balls (two balls on a string that you throw to wrap around a ladder. I have no idea what the proper name is), grilled foods and great family. We came "out" to the family so it's official. Everyone knows we're hoping for a Christmas addition. My cousin, the hostess of the party even got me a personal birthday cake with a 30 on it.

AJ had an absolute blast on the bounce house. She didn't want to get out, ever. M went in with her a couple of times, but she was content to bounce around, even with the 12 year old boys in there. She fell, flopped, bounced and laughed the whole time. A fantastic day.

Sunday was another cookout. This one much smaller, just us heading over to M's brother's with his wife. Later in the day our niece showed up and we set up the sprinkler for her and AJ. Nice and low key.

Monday we headed up to what I consider one of the most beautiful parts of our state. A slightly larger cookout, but still fairly low key. AJ and her cousin, a couple uncles an aunt, two grandparents, four dog and three horses. More sprinklers were involved, added a slip and slide, which AJ HATED, mainly because M thought it would be okay to just let her go down alone face first. Not a fan. He tried to get her to go down again, I told him to hold her the whole way down, and he again pushed her from the top and let her go. Again, ending badly. So, that was the end of AJ on a slip and slide for now. Another function is planned up there in July, so hopefully it will go better.

All of this, slight sunburn and Memorial Day Weekend spent with my favorite soldier and kid. Yep, a pretty graet weekend.