Crazy May

May is always a bit chaotic each year but I love it too--the weather in Michigan finally getting warm enough to put away all the winter coats (usually), all the year end activities with school and the college and the anticipation of the long summer ahead. 

In all the craziness, it seems I neglected to take any pictures until Memorial Day weekend. And without the pictures (and because it's been so long ago), I can't seem to remember all of the specifics of the month!

It seemed so strange to go to the Marshall Memorial Day parade instead of the one in Albion, but with Kendall playing in the marching band in Marshall, we had to head over there. I will say, it was a much better parade than their Christmas one that was so miserable and unending in that frigid cold. 

We also took advantage of an opportunity to go to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. Some of the kids have been there on field trips before but Kalen and I had never been, mostly because cost-wise it would have been very prohibitive by the time we multiplied the admission price by six of us. But I got an email from Binder Park Zoo which we have a family membership to and they were doing a promotion with the Air Zoo where members of Binder Park Zoo and members of the Air Zoo could use their memberships to get free admission to one or the other zoos. So we took our zoo membership and got in for free at the Air Zoo. It was really a fun experience! Apparently this was the second year they have done this promotion so it would be great if they continue to do that so we could go again.

The kids really enjoyed all the rides they could go on and it didn't get really busy until just before we were leaving for the day so we were able to ride multiple times.

The exhibits were really cool too and it was fun to learn about the different models and types of planes and get a little history lesson in there--especially with all the World War II planes they have there. We also watched a couple of short films in 3-D that were really interesting.

After the Air Zoo, we headed to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch to celebrate Kaya reading her first chapter book. She had actually read it a few months before but this was the first chance we'd had to get to the restaurant of her choice--a tradition that began when we celebrated Taylor reading his first chapter book year ago. Kaya's first chapter book was Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus by Barbara Parks. By the time we finally went for Kaya's celebration, she had already devoured nearly the entire series of Junie B. Jones! We had a fun time. The pizza seemed to have improved a bit since the last time we went to this restaurant and of course, it's always fun to play all the games to try to earn tickets for prizes.

Also, we can't forget Taylor! I don't know why I can't get his picture to load on this blog right side up, but I wanted to include it anyway. This is Taylor and his second companion Elder Vidinha. They had a great time as companions and did a lot of work while having a lot of fun. Unfortunately, they weren't together for long. When the next transfers came, Taylor learned that he was leaving his first area in Mount Pleasant and heading to Enoch with a new companion who would prove to be one of the most difficult trials that Elder Oswald has had to face in his life...

Before the transfer though, Taylor was able to see this guy get baptized. It took some doing because he was raised in the FLDS church so the process to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is a little more complicated and even involves an interview with a general authority in order to get clearance. Taylor was thrilled to be there for that big day!