Choo!! Choo!!

We had a train-themed day. My mom informed me a Union Pacific Steam Locomotive made in the 1940's would be coming through town and since Owen loves trains, we made plans to see it. The train was scheduled to arrive between 10am-10:30am, so before that we met some friends at Stoby's for breakfast. Stoby's is a local restaurant located right next to the train depot. It has a train track suspended from the ceiling and Owen loves to watch the toy train travel from room to room in the restaurant. Also, two old train cars make up part of the restaurant, so we actually ate our breakfast in a train car. Like I said, it was a train-themed day,for sure.

Here we are watching the steam engine arrive at the depot.

It was SO big and very loud.
Olivia was not a fan of the noise (neither were some of our buddies from breakfast-I hope they aren't scarred for life).

Once #up844 stopped we were able to walk up really close and get a better look.

Owen was mesmerized, but not interested in getting close enough to touch it.

Grandpa Bruce met us for the festivities.
It was a pretty neat to see such a powerful machine.
Glad we took the time to see it. Thanks for the information, Nana!

Friends

One of the most difficult things about moving away from Cabot a year ago was leaving all the sweet friends we had grown to love. We did life with those people: learned together, laughed together, watched our children grow and play together. One of the families I threatened to pack up and bring with me was the Steelman's. Their little boy, Jake, is Owen's best buddy and they have a little girl, Avery, who is only a few months younger than Olivia. We were so thrilled to have them come for a visit this week! Sometimes play dates take effort, but being with Kristin, Jake and Avery is always a refreshing breath-natural and easy. It was such a fun day for us!

We had to take our buddies to the State Park Visitor Center because: 1) Owen likes to impress people with his mad turtle-catching skills and 2) it was air-conditioned.

Olivia tried her best to keep up with the big boys.
If those legs were just a little bit longer...

For the record, I encouraged Owen to change into some more swim appropriate attire, but he moodily informed me he had no interest in swimming. It took all of 3 seconds of wading in, feeling the cool water for the clothes to come off. Thomas the Train tighty-whities...what can I say? Last year he was only interested in skinny dipping, so this is progress. Kristin said he may be a Speedo kind of guy-ha!





Olivia had the best time hanging out in the lake. I'm pretty sure she would have walked right out with the boys if I hadn't made her stay by me...she's fearless, that one.

Avery snoozed under a shade tree while the boys and Olivia played in the water.

We followed up our lake fun with a few ice cream treats from Sonic.

Like I said, it was a fun day with some of our favorite people-doesn't get any better.

Walking in Memphis

Our friends, the Akin's, asked if we wanted to go to the Memphis Zoo with them on Saturday. We have never been and after reading about all the animals they have I knew Owen would love it. We decided to make it a little mini vacation and stay overnight Saturday to see a few more Memphis attractions since Jacob had Monday off work. We spent all day (5+ hours) at the zoo on Saturday where we saw penguins, polar bears, hippos and panda bears (among many other amazing animals). It is such a neat zoo with a ton of shade trees, so even though it was 90 degrees outside we were able to stay sort of cool.

Owen's favorite part of the zoo seemed to be the farm animals (of course).
He's easy to please, anyway :)

The panda bears looked like stuffed animals-so cute!
They were kicked back enjoying some bamboo and SO close, so the kids got a great look at them.

After a full day of animal gawking we were hungry, so we went to Uncle Lou's-they specialize in fried chicken and we ate a whole lot of fried sides, too. The fried pickles were my favorite-yum! Uncle Lou's has been featured on one of our favorite shows on the Food Network called Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We decided it fell under the "dive" category and gave it two greasy thumbs up!

On Sunday we woke up and drove by Sun Studio (known as the Birthplace of Rock N' Roll and recording home to the "Million Dollar Quartet"- Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins) and Beale Street. Then we went to Graceland! We didn't actually go inside Elvis' house since our children can destroy a place in 2.5 seconds and we thought that would be disrespectful to the King :) Owen and I did tour Elvis' private airplane (named "Lisa Marie") and his private jet (named "Hound Dog II"). Elvis traveled in style, that's for sure!

Check out the bright green and yellow fabric on those seats of the jet! Too funny!
I don't think Elvis did subtle...

Olivia and I were peeking at Graceland over the massive rock wall lining the property.
People have written messages all over it as a kind of tribute.
The grounds in front of the house were so pretty.

They were having a car show in an adjoining property, so we were able to look at some nicely restored antique vehicles. Owen wanted to look at each and every one of them, but it was blazing hot, so we saw some then headed to lunch.

Jacob and I are all about food and love to find fun restaurants the locals love. Urbanspoon is one of our favorite sources for scoping out hot spots. Sunday we went to The Germantown Commissary which is mainly Bar-B-Que and it was SO good! They served tamales, so I ordered one. I took a few bites, then gave Olivia a taste. The little stinker ate the rest-she and I agreed it was delicious!

Our last stop was at a really nice shopping center where Jacob and Olivia browsed the Apple Store and Owen and I meandered through Anthropologie-such fun (and radically different) stores.

We made it home and dubbed our trip a successful family adventure! Looking forward to more fun times with my sweet family and exceedingly cooperative husband :)

You Know You're Tired When...

You fall asleep during a ride in Papa's Gator! Bless his sweet heart, Owen had a busy weekend and was just plumb wore out by Sunday afternoon. He, Deeda and Papa went on their first camping trip Friday night and though I haven't seen pictures, I hear Owen wanted "to stay there forever" (melt my heart). A crate full of toys, dirt, motorcycles, a campfire and a sleeping bag...who could blame the boy?



Papa drove up to the back door so we could all have a good laugh. His little head was bobbing and he was drooling something fierce. Sweet, sleepy boy...

Our Girl

Here are a few more pictures from Olivia's 1-year photo shoot with Cha Cha Joe Joe.

I have to say, it sure is nice having him (and his camera) back in the U.S. :)

A Few More Birthday Pics

Owen helped Olivia blow out her candle.
Then, he stepped back and let her enjoy her cupcake.
However, she was not interested.
What girl doesn't eat cake? Silly sister...

Olivia enjoyed opening all her sweet presents.
She (and Owen) have been playing happily with all her new toys since her party!

Cousins!

We took a few pictures of the cousins at Olivia's party. As you can see, Elsy Kate had a rip-roaring good time...her expressions were so funny!

"Would you like to play with the yo-yo, Elsy Kate?"

"Let me help you. You do it like this."

"Well, if she's not going to play with it..."

Silly kids...

Carson loves his Elsy Kate! Ahhh...

I am so looking forward to watching these cousins grow and play together.
They will make many sweet memories together!