Memorial Day

This is the first year I have gone to a cemetery on actual memorial Day.  I have no idea if all cemeteries are like this.  I doubt it because I think this one is a big one and has been around for awhile.  But it was amazing!!

The kids were asking me what Memorial Day is about.  I thought it was for remembering our ancestors, but trusty Wikipedia said it is remembering the dead from wars.  Makes a bit more sense with what we saw today.

We went to the closest cemetery that I know of.  Boy.  They seemed to go all out.  Next year I will be better prepared for sure.  They had one entrance shut because they were having a memorial day service.  They had the road into the cemetery lined with big flags and each soldier grave had an individual flag.  The most interesting one we found was a soldier from the Spanish American War.  Lots were from Vietnam, WWII and a few from WWI.  Looking across the cemetery was awe inspiring because it looked to me to be about 75% of the graves had a flag.  This wasn't a war cemetery in the slightest.  I think it just really showed how many people had to experience war. 

There weren't any flags for any of the women civilians, but their families, and thus our families, felt the effect of not having brothers, sons, dads, etc around. 

It was also crazy for me to think of how almost every family must have had a yellow ribbon in their yard at the time.  All families felt it.  Not something I know about directly.  But crazy to think about.

We got to see lots of people in military uniforms, one even looked to be dressed from WWI.

I was surprised how long the kids stayed.  I had planned to be there for all of 15 minutes, thinking the kids would be done.  We were there for an hour and 15 minutes.  T was especially helpful and wanted to push the stroller with E in it for lots of it.  I asked if they were ready to go back to the car but they wanted to go exploring.  so we continued on.  I told them stories about what I remembered about grandparents while we walked.

We had lots of interesting discussions about cemetery topics.  T was the most fascinated and had the most questions.  He also was able to recount at family home evening that night most of what we talked about almost all correctly.

Some parts and questions T had were a little depressing to me to explain to them.  But then I explained about how it works itself out because Jesus was resurrected and so it makes all that depressing part just dissipate.  I guess that it is the reality of God's love and His gift of His Son in a nutshell.

I definitely want to take them to a service when they are older.

Later that night we had some of their friends over and had smore's in the backyard.  I realized then why memorial day must have gotten it's food traditions.  After being at the cemetery with family, it seems only natural to want to hang out and eat with the family when everyone is together.  It was really fun.

The dad of the other family showed the boys how to build the fire.  T spent the rest of the week making pretend fire set ups with sticks around the yard.  He remembered his favorite part!

at the cemetery.  T remembered almost everything I told him while we were there and told Papa later