The Raz Report: Good Memories

"Slow down, what's the hurry

There's no rush today

There won't be too many

Days like today."
-- Drivin' Home

The words from one of my favorite Cheryl Wheeler songs fit this weekend so well, I thought I'd let her introduce the blog today.

Our Memorial Day weekend was grand.

When I was growing up I started storing perfect days in my memory -- the kind of day where you're probably not doing much of anything, but the feeling of the day is perfect. The sun shines with enough of a slant that it's not too hot, but hot enough to be lazy, the breeze brings hints of rose or grilling steak or the laughter of friends. Things slow down, and freeze into a memory.
I have them stored from throughout my life: a moment making mudpies under the tree at the house on Hilltop; a moment watching two beavers build a damn in a lake in Virginia; a moment seeing Hannah push Lizzie in the wagon for the first time ... good moments.

This weekend was pretty much one big moment, capped off by a delicious afternoon in the hammock watching Rob grill chicken and the girls play on the swingset while the neighbors had a party (they were trying their best not to spy, but it was impossible) and we just relaxed. Perfect.

Here are the pictures from this weekend--

We picnicked Saturday at a new park we found (Poole Forge for those in the area) and it's really a nice setting, complete with its own covered bridge:

And stream (the cutie-pie in the bulrushes belongs to us, not the park):

Picnic time: Hannah and Lizzie had bologna sandwiches, chips, juice and cupcakes. Rob took himself to Two Cousins Pizza for one of their delicious sandwiches. I stayed true to my Weight Watchers plan and ate a turkey and light swiss sandwich on whole wheat (okay, okay, you got it out of me ... I had a few chips, too!):

Then it was time to play on the playground (you can sort of see the stream in the background in this picture. On the other side of the stream there were cows that meandered over to have a drink in the stream!) Here Hannah is jumping -- to give me a heart attack but also probably because it was fun -- from one of the slides:

And here she's working some sort of excavation equipment:

On to Sunday! I didn't take many pictures of our Sunday, but here's our barbecued dinner. Rob did the dogs and burgers and I made those delicious-looking fried (very fried in lots of butter so I didn't eat any of them) mushrooms and onions:

Monday was a great day, too. The weather people kept predicting storms and we kept NOT having them. It was great! The girls and Rob started the day by going to the parade in Pottstown. They were running late, so I stayed home so we didn't have to drag a chair for old and decrepit Mommy. Because of that, I don't have any pictures of the parade. I did hear that the big duck that's a favorite in the 4th of July Parade, wasn't there.

Then it was off to the Vincent Park where the girls can ride bikes and I can drink iced decaf and relax under the pavilion:

Here's the crew taking my lead and relaxing under the pavilion. It was actually a little humid on Monday!

Hot and humid:

On the way home from the park, Lizzie spoke for all of us when she said ZZZZZZZZZZ:

Rob rested enough in between the park and dinner so that he could make his world famous grilled chicken. It was delicious, even though he bought some guacamole at the store when he was getting the chicken and I was powerless over it and ate some, but you know it WAS a holiday. And avocado is a GOOD fat:

While Rob made dinner the girls made a friend with a visitor to the party going on next door. They were playing on the swingset and this little girl came over. I don't know her name (nor do I know the names of the neighbors), but I do know that she has an older brother that Hannah was grilling her about. His name, his age, his hair color. Finally she just told it like it is: "You know, I'm a big fan of boys!" Yeah, that's comforting...: