Our friends arrived late Friday night,and the kids set to playing Guitar Hero on the Wii as soon as they arrived, while the adults talked and caught up on life. Scott and Robyn have two kids, Sammi and Kyle; Jace and Kyle are the same age, and Jace was so excited to have him come to Springfield for the weekend. Scott and Dave are friends from college, and have kept in touch over the years. The annual Memorial Day celebration is one that has happened several times, since Paige, Neil, Scott and Sammi all have birthdays within two weeks of each other in May. But this is the first time they've all gotten together for the holiday since I've been in the picture... all the other Memorial Days were "B.N.", before Nancy. Apparently some gatherings involved past girlfriends, as we discussed this weekend. Good thing I'm not jealous about things like that, and they were all very quick to assure me that any past girlfriends paled in comparison to me. (Thanks, guys!)
We woke up Saturday morning to rain, rain, rain. But we were optimistic that it would clear up in time to go to the lake for the afternoon. Some of us (the men) slept in, and the kids and Robyn and I just hung out in the living room for awhile. It started clearing up late morning, so we headed to the lake a little after noon. 
We got Robyn, Scott and the kids checked into their hotel, and then we headed to Geraldi's for some great and inexpensive sandwiches for lunch. Then we took the boat out for a cruise on the lake, enjoying the sun and the warm weather.
We got Robyn, Scott and the kids checked into their hotel, and then we headed to Geraldi's for some great and inexpensive sandwiches for lunch. Then we took the boat out for a cruise on the lake, enjoying the sun and the warm weather.
It was beautiful, and because of the rainy weather we didn't have a totally packed lake, just a reasonable amount of boats and jet skis, etc. Midway through the ride Paige and Neil checked out on us; they were happy just to lounge in the sun on the back of the boat, chilling out and listening to their iPods.
We had a fun afternoon, and a great potluck with several other boats on the dock that evening. Sunday was much warmer, and the kids all took turns going out with a friend for rides on his wave runner. Then Dave brought our little fishing boat around, and took the kids tubing. All the kids got out on the tube (none of the adults, though!) and I went out in the boat when Paige went. I got some great pictures of her with her camera, and her dad really whipped her around on the tube, mercilessly! But she took it like a champ, even though she said this morning that her arms were really sore.After that we all enjoyed the water for awhile, swimming off the back of the Martins' boat with them and their extended family in from Indiana.
The water was VERY brisk, and we didn't stay in for more than an hour, but it was enjoyable. As we started to pack up the cars and close down the boat, we realized that the sky was quickly becoming dark, and we would be cutting it very close to beat the approaching storm. We ended up staying a bit longer to help guide CD and Jana's boat back in; they had been coved out on the lake tied up to another houseboat, but didn't want to brave the storm out there, and were headed quickly back to the safety of the dock.
Dave decided to make spaghetti for dinner, and Paige and I headed to the store to pick up the Indiana Jones trilogy, since the fourth one just came out and none of the kids had ever seen the first three!
We only watched the first one, everyone was exhausted from our busy weekend; midway through, we paused the movie for a bit to have the DQ ice cream cake and sing Happy Birthday to Scott, Sammi, Paige and Neil. Sammi turned 13 and is now a teenager; Paige will be 17 at the end of this month, and Neil just turned 14. It is great to see them growing up, but also hard to know that we only have a couple more years of time with them as they get ready to go to college and be on their own.
Scott, Robyn and the kids headed home mid morning today, after talking about when we'll be getting together for our Six Flags weekend this summer. It was great to see them and have a good family weekend at the lake, I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.
Now it is back to work for the remainder of the week, although it is nice to only have a four-day work week. I know Jace is excited for his last week of school as well, he'll be done on Friday. I hear Dave snoring in the bedroom (sorry, honey, but i do), guess I'll wrap up and go enjoy the rest of the lazy holiday weekend with him!
