I could stand to be done with May.

Is it really almost June? 

Because the temperature outside of my house this morning was screaming a whopping 54 degrees and that, my friends, is not Memorial Day Weekend weather.

Finn slept the entire trip back to Iowa on Friday - all 3 hours and 15 minutes of it.  My heart is very happy to be so close to my parents; the trip was a breeze and driving through the farmland of western and southern Minnesota was beautiful and a good distraction.  If I hadn't had a sleeping baby in my car, I probably would have pulled over a dozen times to take pictures of the storm clouds rolling in and the tractors turning the fields into rich brown earth.  The contrast between the gray sky and the green hills and the brown fields was something else to witness.  I'm looking forward to watching the progression of those crops this summer as we travel back and forth between Iowa and Minnesota.  The next trip we take, I am determined to stop in some of those small towns to take some pictures.

I've spent the last 48 hours pouring over pictures from the past week, narrowing them down to the good ones, deleting the over/under-exposed.  Now I'm going to start some editing.  What a process.  I've also been doing what felt like an army's amount of laundry.  That, too, was a process (and it still has yet to be completed - putting it all away - I'm just too tired to think about hauling it all upstairs.).

Tomorrow there is a Memorial Day ceremony at the courthouse (which is a mere 3 blocks from our house!).  I plan to put Finn in the stroller and walk him and Abby up the street for it.  It's important to me, this year especially, that we take the time to honor the men and women who served our country and sacrificed everything to keep us free.  I want my children to grow up knowing what an honor it is to live here, but that we are here because others stand on the front lines and keep us safe.  I want them to understnad that some die doing that and that we must show them respect.  A WWII veteran is going to be speaking and I'm going to try really hard not to cry during the 21-gun salute - it gets me every single time.  There is supposed to be a parade as well, so I hope that the weather cooperates (read: Sun, come out, please!). 

Since it's not warm enough yet to take the kids to the beach, I told Uriah that I want to go to the nursery tomorrow to get some plants.  I feel like there's enough unpacked inside the house that we can focus on a couple of outdoor tasks and I'm aching to get my hands in the dirt.  I bought some huge basil plants with my Mom last week - the leaves are the size of small lettuce leaves.  I smell pesto in my future - maybe even tonight...if I don't make chili to ward off the "winter" chill.