Memorial Day

Memorial Day

Three day weekends: a great chance to clear out the DVR, go to the pool and catch up on your blog (cough).  For me, Memorial Day has usually meant the first paid holiday of the year, the first break after a long start to the year.  I always try and pause to think about what it takes to preserve my right to vote, complain about the government and buy bite size Butterfinger bars on a whim.  But to be honest, I’ve only known a handful of veterans and currently serving military in my life so this holiday has never had the impact it has for some.

Until this year.  My job this year has allowed me to work side by side with a lot of current military.  They don’t control my raise and aren’t reading my blog so I can guarantee this isn’t brown-nosing, but these men and women are phenomenal.  Everything that I love about a great co-worker I have found in literally every single one of the military leadership I’m lucky enough to work with.  Incredibly respectful, intelligent and humble, it makes me wonder if I should have joined ROTC in college.  I am honored to work with them as often as I get to.

The best example of this I can share without being shot is simple, but always seems to stick with me.  We have a long hallway at work.  As people pass, most keep their eyes down or maybe grunt a hello, myself included if I haven’t had my daily bite size Butterfinger.  But without exception, every military member looks you in the eye and says clearly, “Good morning Phil/Rick/Whiskey Juliet (don’t ask).”  Our country is doing something very right to have these folks on our side.  It sure makes me sleep a lot better at night.  Thank you to our military, past and present, for everything you do.

Kidless in Seattle..err...Wyoming

When we decided to go out to DC, there were two momentous occasions we knew we would be traveling back to Colorado for:

  1)  The birth of our friend’s daughter, Miss Alice Ann Nelson

  2)  The graduation of Jenn’s brother-in-law, Dan “Man-Class” Hagerman, from pharmacy school

As with any trip when you have kids, the trick is what the heck to do with them. For the first event, we decided that it was most important that Jenn go back and help out with the new baby, especially since I was at a new job and she had earned a break from the kids. For the second one, neither one of us were going to miss this event several years in the making. With the promise of good old-fashioned college debauchery and a very real fear of taking our kids on an airplane, we begged my sister and brother-in-law to watch them for the weekend. Without a second thought, or really consulting Peter, Steph gave us an enthusiastic “Yes!”

I can’t overstate what a gift this was.  A weekend to stop being parents and just be married adults was amazing.  At one point Jenn and I were literally pacing around her sister’s house for about 15 minutes because we didn’t know what to do without a child to wrangle. Meanwhile, they were going to the zoo, the bouncy house and the park, having a great time. Peter bought Brynn her first comic book (“magazine!”) and changed his first poopy diaper. It’s a miracle the kids wanted us back. God Bless the Lovegroves.

We had such a great time.  Abbey and Dan are phenomenal cooks and threw two parties on graduation day.  The first, a lovely luncheon with family.  We had burgers/brats, played lawn games and got to know Dan’s family.  The second: a beer-infused, meat-laden tribute to college worthy of my fantastic brother-in-law’s hard work.  We dined on a huge tub of slow-cooked brisket, two kegs and a sweet cake shaped perfectly like an open bottle of little blue pills (no, not those little blue pills). In true college form, someone happened to have pulled pork and a half-keg from another party and dropped it by.  To finish the epic night, Abbey found someone she didn’t know sleeping on her couch at about 1:30 in the morning.  Classic.

The next foggy morning, Paul made a great breakfast and we said goodbye to Jenn’s family.  This was a tough one since this will be our last time seeing them until we get back next year.  After a year in 2011 where we went back to Wyoming six times, it’ll be tough not seeing everybody.  

We hit the road with heavy hearts, but they were lightened by the last part of our trip: Sunday Night Dinner with the Nelsons!  It’s been WAY to long for me, so I was pretty excited.  Holding baby Alice was the highlight of a night filled with highlights that included Maggianos for dinner, doing math problems with Ryan and going to the Avengers movie.  To anyone who knows me, math, kids and comic book movies are pretty much my ideal night. What a great evening.

And yet, no matter how much fun we were having throughout the whole trip, it was amazing how much we missed the kids.  We thought we needed a few nights away to remind ourselves of who we were.  It turns out that who we are has become so wonderfully intertwined with those munchkins, it’s hard to be ourselves without them around.  After everything, coming home and having them tackle-hug us was one of the best parts of the whole weekend.