A Very Buck Valley Memorial Day

The Sunday before Memorial Day is the social event of the Buck Valley year. i am not kidding or exaggerating in any way. it is my favorite day to go to BV because seriously EVERYONE is there and all dressed up. you go around to all the churches/cemetaries in the BV area and they have a little memorial service and they shoot guns and the kids go around and put flowers on all the graves with flags by them. it is awesome. and then there is a terrible part where they have a service in this old church with no air conditioning. and even though buck valley isn't terribly populated, when you squeeze every BV citizen into a one-room church, it is HOT. so we skipped that part...and i plan on making that a tradition.
Then we go back to the Clingerman residence and chill out/make food for the next phase of Buck Valley Memorial Day (hereafter referred to as BVMD), which is a picnic with the whole extended family. this picnic is great! this is the part where you eat as much food as you can and then ashley takes a nap (jussssst kidding ashley!) and then the boys (and usually heidi, although not this year) play basketball and i complain about how long they've been playing while i chase my baby all around the Watson compound.
This year i only ate appetizers and desserts. because who needs a main course when you can eat spinach dip and pretzel salad (if you have never had pretzel salad, i suggest you try it NOW!) also this year i made a peanut butter brownie pie and it was delicious! i will definitely be making it again soon...probably next time i have to attend a party where i really want people to like me. and i have to give myself a little high-five because my dessert was the only dessert to be entirely finished.
Piper "played" in the kiddie pool with kaden and kambriah. but she didn't really understand their games so she just got kind of freaked out by the splashing and the sprinkler. so that was short-lived and then i had to carry around a soggy baby for a little while.
over-all, an awesome party and one of my most favorite traditions of brett's family!
now that you've endured my long-winded description of the day, here are the pictures:

Me and Piper and the military fellows
Kaden and Steve looking pretty rad in their sunglasses
Cole and Piper just hanging out holding some flowers (or stems that used to have flowers)The great-grandkids putting flowers on brett's grandparents' grave.

ignore piper's weird eyes, she's riding the famous Smokey (moskey) in her swimsuit