Great Grandparents

This past weekend my Grandparents along with my mom made the 7 hour drive down from Chicago for a visit. They stayed 4 days and we had a wonderful time!

The kids took turn taking pictures of everything we did this weekend. 

My beautiful Grandma Betty. 

Wonderful Grandpa Vince

Me. Not the most flattering picture but Grace insisted I put it on here. She says I look beautiful as always. How can I argue with that!?! 

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One of the main reasons they came down this weekend was to attend the Gold Star Memorial with us. It is a memorial for 5th Group Special Operations that died in the line of duty. This year was a little special because they were dedicating the field as well as having the memorial.

All the 5th group soldiers who were not deployed at the time were standing out on the parade field during the ceremony. 

We were really lucky we had seats in the shade. 

Each of these trees were planted when a soldier got killed in action. They each have a marker with the soldiers name, rank, unit and where he was killed on it. During the ceremony the family members went out and placed flowers on their family members tree. There was a mom who walked out with her two small children that broke my heart. 

After we went to the static display in the middle of Fort Campbell that had all the old retired planes and monuments dedicated to the units that fought in all the foreign wars. My Grandpa who is a Veteran of Korea loved reading everything and took his time walking around the area. 

My Great Uncle fought in WWII and died at Battle of the Bulge. He was with 101st Airborne so we tried to look for his name here but, unfortunately, no names were engraved at this location.  When we lived in Germany we were able to go see his grave in Belgium which was a great honor. 

My Grandpa really loved this quote. 

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The last afternoon they were here we just hung out at the house.

Grandpa played soccer with Gavin and Grace while Ava took more pictures. 

For dinner Aaron made some paella and cooked up some BBQ. Some how the entire inside of the grill caught on fire and charred the chicken. We tossed the chicken into a brown paper bag while we tried to get the fire stopped.  My grandpa later admitted to going in the brown bag eating the chicken. He said it wasn't bad once you got past the inch of burnt parts. 

We had a wonderful weekend which went by way too fast.