A Memorable Weekend

We had a special visitor for Memorial Day this year - Marinda came to town!

It was SO nice to have her here, take some time off work, and just spend some time at home.  She got in on Thursday (also the day Daryn, our newest niece was born!) and we just spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday hanging out around the house together and playing with the girls.  I hope we didn't bore her too much; I LOVED it!

On Monday, we decided we better at least leave the house once.... :)  So we met up with some friends from church for some sand volleyball and play time!

It turned out that 3 of the 4 volleyball courts were flooded due to recent rain, so our group claimed the one dry court for some volleyball, and the kids made great use of the adjacent lake.  

Eve was hesitant at first, but once I convinced her it was ok to get wet and dirty, she went in strong and didn't look back!

After playing for a while in the sand and mud, the kids decided it was time to head to the fountains for some clean water play.  It's kind of small, but you can see Eve running over with her friends Maddie and Reese.  They're considerably older than her, but they all love to play together.  

Eve didn't enjoy the fountains as much....she didn't like getting sprayed in the face, so she was very cautious.

When we headed back to the 'beach' it was Halle's turn to dip her toes!

Eve had too much fun pouring the water to smile for a picture with Dad :)

Marinda and I mostly just talked and watched the girls....

Andrew played some major volleyball, in case you can't tell from his game face!  Bring it!

Little beach bum :)

Bigger beach bum!

Here's another shot of Eve with her little group of friends.  It's so fun to watch her interact with the big girls!

Since Dad was STILL playing volleyball, we headed to the playground next where Eve braved the big climbing steps instead of the regular stairs.  She did great, but I was very nervous!  No slips, though....

Because going down the normal way is too boring....

  

With so much fun in the sun, you can guess what happened on the ride home:

That afternoon, we did our very own bbq (courtesy of the George Foreman grill) - it was a yummy spread!

We had one more fun day together on Tuesday before we took Marinda to the airport that afternoon.  We were sad to see her go, but had such a great time with her here!