It was a beautiful Memorial Day weekend. The Ipes had no travel plans, and we would be staying around town. It was action-packed. It was fun-filled. It was productive. And it was an opportunity to remember our veterans.
Friday
I covered flag planting with the Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts in an earlier post.
Saturday
On Saturday, besides Lily’s dance class, we started our garage clean up project. It’s been a project performed in fits and starts and stops for a few months now. The last major attempt was just before the first expected snowstorm and we wanted to get my car parked inside, so we threw nearly everything towards one side. Not a long term solution for sure.
After a few hours, we had a mountain of recycling, plenty of trash, and a realization that we didn’t need to keep most of this stuff. The project wasn’t complete by the end of the day, but we would resume clean up on Monday. We rewarded ourselves with an evening at Six Flags Great Adventure (and no rain in the forecast.) On the line for Nitro, we ran into some neighbors, and we hung out together until nearly the park’s closing time.
Sunday
On Sunday, we got ready to hit the beach in Belmar. It was a toss-up between going Sunday or Monday, but there was a slight chance of rain in Monday’s forecast. So we went Sunday instead.
We drove down to Belmar, got lunch at Surf Taco (hmm, good food), and somehow found parking at the beach along the boardwalk. After paying $6 for parking for the next three hours, and $16 for beach bag fees, we trudged onto the beach to find it windy and a little too cold for comfort.
Yeah, seriously?
Nums didn’t last too long in the wind, so she went back to the warm and toasty car to read. I watched the kids play in the water (ankles only), at the nearby playground, and in the sand. It was a nice day, but way too windy. Around 5 pm, we called it a day, and went home.
Monday
Ooh, a crazy busy day.
In the morning, we had the kids up early and dressed up in the Scout uniforms, and ready to march in the town’s Memorial Day parade. We drove them over to one of the local elementary schools, dropped them off, and drove off to find both a parking spot, and our own spot to watch the parade. After walking for a bit, we found a spot at an intersection in town where other folks we knew were already sitting. From there, it was a good vantage point to watch the parade.
This was Josh’s 2nd time marching, but Lily’s first time. I think they liked it, although Josh complained about all the walking. I had a flashback of marching in my hometown Memorial Day parade, carrying a flag for our elementary school. It’s an important rite of passage to participate in a town parade.
We eventually found the kids after the parade, drove home, and I grilled up burgers and hot dogs for lunch. We started up again on the garage cleanup project — our goal was to finish it completely this weekend. My sister invited us to drive down to her place for lunch and/or dinner, and we wanted to go, but that meant leaving the garage as is. “As is” means being an unfinished mess, so we sadly declined. Come on, we have to finish one project!
We finished cleaning out the garage, for all intents and purposes, around 6 pm. There was quite a lot of trash and recycling by the end. So much we didn’t need to keep and bring to the new house last year, but we had run out of time sorting and packing back then. I still don’t understand the bag of garbage that I found — crumpled up paper and junk. We brought trash with us? At least it was easy to throw away.
Is the garage perfectly clean? No, but tools are organized and hanging on a wall. We found all four corners of the garage, and created a nice pile of stuff to give away or sell, like strollers. I also have 30 cans of old paint that I need a solution for. Once we can get rid of the paint and the yard sale / donate piles, the garage will be in reasonable shape. I’m calling this a win for the Ipes.
We received a late invite to stop by a neighbors’ house for dinner and drinks, so once we were done with the garage, we drove down the street to their house. Other folks came over, and we had a great time drinking mojitos, eating burgers and chicken shish kabobs, and hanging out in the pool and hot tub.
It was a late night, and we sorta paid for it Monday morning, but eh, life is good.
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