Memorial Day Weekend

This week’s Round-up is being hosted by Sadie over at Sadie Abroad and she’s curious about our Memorial Day memories, traditions, and other thoughts.

Growing up in Florida, we didn’t have a long harsh winter, and spring and summer came quick and sort of flowed all together. Memorial Day weekend was simply another long weekend that happened before school let out. My dad was a Navy veteran, and very proud of his service, but we didn’t go to any parades or other actual memorial service. That gained importance to me as I grew, joined the service myself, and better understood the reason behind the holiday.

I think I feel like sharing some memories, for Memorial Day.

Military Service goes back in our family. Mostly Navy. My grandfather from WWI.

And my dad…

O wait, that was just a silly self portrait that he sculpted ;) 

This is better… from WWII time period.

Still silly here, but real. That’s my dad!

 

 

And here’s a photo I sent to my parents when I was in Basic Training.  I think I may still have been 17yo when this photo was taken. Yes, that is a polaroid! A few years have passed since this was taken!

As for other memorial day summer memories, I don’t have any photos labeled specifically by date, but with a long weekend, it was highly likely that fishing was involved. Mom and dad’s first date was fishing, I caught my first fish when I was three years old, fishing was a big part of our summer. Oddly enough, to this day, I really do not like much seafood!

We also spent a lot of time camping. We had a tent, but where ever we went had to have full electrical hook-ups and facilities for mom, and a boat ramp for dad. I don’t think us kids really cared as long as we had a place to get into the water, which is where we would be, pretty much every minute of the day. Unfortunately, I don’t have many photos from that time with me. Most of that is in storage.

We’re starting our long weekend early as today (Wednesday) we are off of school and work because Jordan is celebrating their Independence Day. (And as I type, we’re listening to military jets and helicopters flying over our house really low… bet they’re doing a flyover for a celebration downtown) I totally filched this from their Facebook page, but here are some awesome Jordanian flag cupcakes to celebrate the day. They’re from Sugar Daddy’s bakery in Amman … Mmm!

So good, the bakery was written up in the NY Times :)

We stopped in last night (before the flag cakes came out) and each of us got one treat. Brad had a strawberry, the kids had KitKat cupcakes, and I tried their Hummingbird cupcake … and it was AMAZING!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend, whether you spend it working in the yard…

snuggling someone you love… being lazy…

or getting out to enjoy the warm (finally!) weather.

Have a good one, and don’t forget the reason behind your day off, remember to pause a moment and think of our troops and veterans, and even though it is ‘our’ holiday, think of those who serve, and have served, their countries all over the world, because serving one’s nation is a duty that should be honored, no matter what uniform is worn.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend.