We got to go home over Memorial Day weekend to see my mother and Andrea's parents.....It was a short weekend trip, but we had a great time. On Saturday we went to a cookout at my Mom's house. Steve grilled out and we had Carrie's famous St. Louis salad topped with Provel cheese....yum! The lettace was the first harvest from Andrew's garden.....awesome.

We finished up the day riding motorcycles around mom and Steve's property.......Madeline rode for the first time at Grandpa's and she loved it. She's always been afraid of them up until this trip.......once she got a taste of riding she kept asking to go faster!! At one time there were four motorcycles and one four wheeler running on the "track".

We spent Sunday afternoon with Andrea's parents....they grilled out, too!! I'm going to have to cut back on eating this week....I think I gained a couple lbs. :0

Mack and I played a couple games of ping pong in the basement. He is getting pretty good. I used to be able to spank him, and would have to let up a little so I didn't crush him....ha-ha. Now he gives me all I want.....I'd give him another 6-9 months and he'll be beating me some.

After lunch we packed up and drove to Marion to see a movie before heading home.......Andrea, Andrew, and Madeline saw Shrek the Third and Mack and I went to see the Pirates of the Caribbean.

The picture above is from Chili's in Franklin......We got to meet Christina and her mom for lunch. Christina was in town from Germany only for the weekend for her brothers graduation. The kids were sooooo excited to see her. She'll be back in August and will watch the boys while Andrea and I are at work during the day.

The count down is on for the LeConte hike.........only 12 days left. I look forward to this hike every year, and this year Mack, Andrew, and I will take a different route. I still need to get over to REI and get some last minute gear.......I think I'll use my birthday money from Andrea's parents.

Well that's all for now.

It has certainly been a crazy past couple of weeks.

My birthday was on May 12th and the kids got me a basketball goal to put up in the back yard. I mentioned a few weeks before that we should get one, so what better gift for Dad then a gift for the kids......I don't mind though......it's been fun. We've had countless games of "around the world" and "horse". Even Andrea has been out shooting hoops.

We went through Mackinley's promotion ceremony last week. He is moving on up to Middle School. It was a nice ceremony. He even was selected by his class to help put together the photo slide show. There were five kids that worked on the project over the past several months. He had to go to school early on Tuesdays up until last week.

Andrew had his first piano recital on Friday evening this past week. About thirteen students and their parents, grandparents, etc. crammed into Ms. McDonald's bonus room for the recital. It was certainly a standing room only show......Andrew did "We're all in this Together" from High School Musical. And he did a great job!! He had been practicing everynight for the past couple weeks, and he had it down. We were very proud of him, so we went to Mellow Mushroom afterwards to celebrate.

We're on the countdown to the last day of school.......The boys get out on Thursday of this week, so they are pretty much coasting right now. Mackinley has his 4th/5th grade kickball tournament tomorrow all day........and Andrew hasn't had homework for a couple weeks. They are so pumped and ready to be done.

I can't wait until this weekend. We are going up to see the family in Illinois over Memorial Day weekend. I don't think we've been home Christmas. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone.

And before I can blink it will time for the annual Mt. LaConte hike on June 11th.

Well that's all for now. Have a great week everyone.