Memorial Day - A New Perspective

 These pictures are not the best because they were taken on my phone, which I can't figure out how to get off of black and white:)  When we have holidays like Memorial Day, I always want my kids to understand WHY we get the holiday....  So that morning we looked up the history of the day and talked about it, and went to the service at the cemetery that my Mom had told me about (she's the one that taught me about Memorial Day and all the other patriotic holidays....  )  There we saw my Grandpa who is a veteran - joined the army at something ridiculous like 16.  Mom went up to him, gave him a hug and said, "Happy Memorial Day Grandpa." And he said, "There are no happy memorial days."  with a small smile.  That comment stuck with me throughout the whole day.

 The service was great.  They had some amazing veterans speak, and honored the dead, MIA, and POWs.  Josh got to sit up right next to one of the soldiers and was just drinking it all in.  Anna was with me at the back skipping around the flag pole and looking for dandelions...  The end of the service was the best.... and the worst.... part.  They did a gun salute.  Josh was sooooo excited and ran around collecting the bullet shells afterwards.  Anna cried, was completely traumitized, and covered her ears.  She was so shaken up, that a couple of days later when we went to an event to see off 400 troops she saw the soldiers and said every 5 seconds for the first 20 minutes, "No guns Mom?"

 She also loved the pinwheels on the graves.  Some sweet family had gone through and put notes on all the veterans graves that thanked them in sweet little kid handwriting for their service.  Not going to lie, I got teary reading them.

Josh with his new most precious possession, bullets:)

What Josh got out of the experience:  "Mom someday I'm going to go fight for freeness!"
What Anna got out of the experience: "Mom, soldiers are not mean, they are nice, they fight mean guys so I safe."

We ended the day with a neighborhood potluck BBQ in true LA fashion.  Luckily one of our neighbors had a nice big grill because ours is super tiny.  We're hoping to do it a couple of more times throughout the summer. So economical and easy, and I only had one freakout that no one would come:) or worse just one other family which would make me feel stupid:)

I am so grateful for all those who sacrifice so much for us.  Going to the send off for the troops was touching and long.... (2 hours for little kids).  It was in the college basketball arena.  The whole time I kept thinking, "I wish this place was packed from top to bottom."  (it was probably just more than half full) to show these families how grateful we are....even if you don't agree with the War On Terror....