Tag Archives: memorial day

The Best Way to Celebrate Memorial Day

05/20/2019 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Me·mo·ri·al Day

noun

noun: Memorial Day

a day on which those who died in active military service are remembered, traditionally observed on May 30 but now officially observed on the last Monday in May.

I wanted to share the definition of Memorial Day to make sure we all take a moment to remember those who died while serving our country. So please, before you fire up the grill and open a cold beer, pay your respects to these men and women.

Memorial Day is not to be confused with Veteran’s Day which celebrates all of our country’s veterans. Although I have never served, many of my friends and family have, and I am thankful for everything they have done. I’m also thankful for those currently serving and always will be!

A few years ago, for Memorial Day, I ran a 10k that honored our nation’s fallen heroes. This year, I’m not running a race, but I will still pay my full respects to those who died in battle.

I won’t try to act like I know all the ins and outs of how our nation formed into what it is today, because I don’t, but I know that many men and women put their life on the line to make it possible for me to sit here and write this in the comfort of my home. For that, and for everything else they have done, I am forever grateful.

Just taking a moment of silence to think about the hardships so many had to go through and how appreciative I am to be staring at two crazy (but cute) kids every day is the best way I can think of to celebrate today.

memorial day, humor, kids, parenting, fatherhood, motherhood — No, the finger is not intentional, she knows not what she does!

Matter of fact, I think that celebrating the heroic efforts of so many should be a daily thing. I know not every day can be a holiday, but we can still be thankful for what other’s have sacrificed, right?

There are many other things at work (like my dear wife) that enable me to stay home to raise our retirement plans (aka kids), but without those we are remembering today, none of it would be possible.

So as you gather with friends and family over good food and drink, please take a moment to appreciate more than just an extra day off work (if you get that) and think about things we have that truly matter….love, life, and freedom. Unless you’re surrounded by baby gates that block you just as much as it does them.

Happy Memorial Day!

Life, Parenting, Photo Journal

Memorial Day Facts + Her Crazy Hair Growth

05/30/2016 R.C. Liley 1 Comment

Today we’re celebrating our third Memorial Day as parents to a precious little girl by doing something totally crazy. And by crazy, I mean staying home and begging my wife to take a break from painting our boring beige walls with something brighter to cut my hair. Oh, I’ll probably mow if it’s not too muddy.

Insane, right?! If you’re a humble homebody like us, it probably sounds quite nice, but if not, we just sound dull and not cool to hang around. It’s okay, I understand.

The banished beige walls are looking much better and vibrant, I must say, and Going Mom gets all of the credit. If you’re reading this, dear wife (and why wouldn’t you?), you’re doing an awesome job!

Despite our lack of an exciting Memorial Day, we are making sure to pay our respects to the soldiers who died while serving our country.

They paid the greatest price which allows us to enjoy an extended weekend to do things like go to the lake, cook-out with friends and family or even have your spouse cut your hair. The least we can do is make sure we know why we’re celebrating and be mindful of the sacrifices made.

Speaking of haircuts, I was revisiting Memorial Day posts I made the past two years and can’t get over how much Going Daughter has grown, especially her hair. She was 6 months old for her first Memorial Day, and it was around the time we started baby-led weaning.

It was a rough start, but our persistence and determination paid off as she’s a healthy food (albeit, slow) eating kid who loves eating daddy’s homemade fermented cabbage and cucumbers. But that hair was so thin and barely making a presence.

The next year, her hair was coming around and curls were starting to develop on the sides a little.

memorial day, kids, cute, smiles, curly hair

Now, at two and half years old, that hair knows no restraints as it has turned into a beautiful mess of waves, curls, and, well, freakin’ cuteness!

As you can see, the hairs seems to of brought a new attitude along with it. Mostly fun, but sometimes it brings out the inner demon child we’ve all seen in the past at full force.

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It’s scary, but still cute in a way.

With absolutely zero plans of getting scissors anywhere near her hair for a long time, it will be fun to see how much it has grown in another year. Will the curls continue or will everything go straight? When I was her age, I had crazy curls, but now I have none, so we’ll just wait and see.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day, and be sure to take a moment to reflect on why we’re celebrating today.

Life, Parenting

The Cutest Demon Face on Memorial Day

05/27/2015 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

No waking up early for a 10k race this year on Memorial Day. Nope, after watching 3 episodes of The Walking Dead (we only have 2 more left of Season 5!!), we woke up after a good night’s sleep thanks to Avery. She totally skipped her nap the day before, so I’m sure that helped a lot!

I had a giant bowl of blueberry NuttZo oatmeal ready for Going Mom and Avery to eat and Going Mom made coffee. It’s like a clockwork every weekend and works so well for us. Except I made the bowl a little too giant and I ended up making oatmeal bread with my microwave omelette cooker.

We were heading to Nana and Papa’s for a small Memorial Day gathering but needed to get there earlier than others for Steve (aka Papa/Kelley’s Dad) to take pictures of our family of three. I brought Avery in the garage with me for a quick workout while my wife got ready. I can be drenched in sweat and just stuck my head under the shower, change into nice clothes, and be ready in 10 minutes. My wife, on the other hand…well, I’m sure most guys know how long it takes the ladies in their life to get ready, and, ladies, you can’t deny it!

Hey, that’s okay, it gives us guys something to sit around and complain about. Without most women taking a long time to get ready for anything, guys might just sit around in silence with nothing to say. So, for that, thank you, ladies. 🙂

After an intense dead lifting session, we finished getting ready and took off for the 45 minute drive to my in-laws. In classic Texas weather fashion as of late, it was cloudy all day and started to sprinkle just as we arrived. Good thing we weren’t planning on taking pics outside or anything……..NOT!

Luckily, the precip held off long enough for us to get as many pictures as Avery would allow. The pics are all on Papa’s very nice camera, but I’ll share the best ones on the blog soon. Kelley did use our camera to snap a few shots of Avery and me to help show off my Kore Essential Trakline Belt though.

It’s seriously the only belt I own now, and really all you need. That said, the belt and the rest of my clothes were off immediately after this picture (and approval from my wife of course) so I could jump in the cold pool.

Fast, huh? The temp dropped just in the short time it took for our photo session and with the water already in the 60’s, I was hesitant. Can you tell from my uneasy smile? Best to “rip the band-aid” in cases like this, so I sucked it up and made the jump.

Yeah, it was cold, as referenced by my scrunchy face.

A little over 30 minutes of constant goosebumps and I was done. Just in time for the heavy downpour of rain to start.

While I was busy with my shiver swim, everyone else was keeping warm outside of the pool. Kelley was trying to get a good shot of Avery and Nana, but Avery had her demon face in full swing all day which made it hard for a good pic.

Good thing Kathy/Nana has plenty of patience….

….because it was like this for several shots.

Between the camera not focusing and Avery’s still cute but equally freaky demon face, this is the best we got.

Two beautiful ladies and no demons = success!

Obviously, Papa knows how to keep the demon at bay by busting out the iPad and a water bottle.

Maybe being indoors, out of the sun also helps. Oops. Then again, maybe not….

Meh, at least it lasted a few minutes. And I think it’s safe to say she was all non-demon smiles with Aunt Lindsay too.

The chicken we were going to have grilled ended up having to be baked since the propane decided to run out, so lunch was delayed a couple hours. Not a big deal, we all hung out and talked as Nana quickly improvised in the kitchen. The food turned out delicious and worth the wait thanks to her skills, and not a single belly remained hungry in the end.

Avery spent most of her time playing with her cousins, Ashlee and Taylor, and had so much fun she completely skipped her normal nap time. All parents know a missed nap time can go one of two ways; bad or really bad.

Lucky for us, Avery took a Cliff Notes Nap on the drive home which only made dinner time slightly bad with a little bit of the usual tired toddler fussiness. At least the demon face had disappeared for a final photo with Mommy.

Our Memorial Day weekend flew by, just as everything does it seems, but overall it was a good time. I’m looking forward to seeing the pictures Papa took of us, and hopefully the demon was hiding for most of them!

How was your Memorial Day?

Did you get to see the sun or were stuck under clouds all day like most of us in Texas?

Ever run out of gas or charcoal for your grill and have to take things inside for your cook “out”?