We Did Enjoy

 I remember the days when Todd wrestled with the Mark and Josh.  It seemed they were always wrestling around and I was laughing and wondering if someone would get hurt.  These days I know who would get hurt if he was wrestling with one of them.  He would!

This little wrestling match began at Grandmas house.  I think Avery won.

One activity Avery enjoyed in Tennessee was this.

 I know---- CRAZY.  I promise we did not lock her in there while we shopped.  She thought it was great... 

There was one little incident while we visited.  Grandma let Avery play with one of her many dolls.  This one happened to be porcelain.  None of us thought twice about it until Avery dropped her on the kitchen floor.  Whoopsie.  The baby had to have major surgery.  Dr. "Uncle" Johnny was the surgeon.  The lengthy surgery was a success, however the baby may need a bonnet from now on.   :)

ON one trip to Memphis, Johnny drove us by this old house.

 It is the house that our family lived in when I was born.  It is not in the greatest neighborhood.  In 1965 it was great.  Now---not so much.  Johnny and I still decided to peek in, much to moms despair.  Johnny went in first and went to the back.  I just went right in the wide open door and stood right there in the kitchen.  Thinking more about the fact that my mama used to make bottles right there for me and cook supper for us than about the mound of a blanket spread out on the living room floor or wondering if someone could actually be sleeping under it...  It was cool to be there not that I have memories of it.  We moved when I was 2.  It was  neat to see it though.

Back at Grandmas we took advantage of one of our favorite photo spots.

 How sweet.

Getting a little sassy here,

This picture shows her attitude about being at Grandmas!  HURRAY!

Avery loved running in Grandmas back yard and jumping up to make these wind chimes sing.  She did it over and over.

Did I mention we enjoyed our visit.  Oh I did.  Okay, just so you know.  We did.

SOAKING IT UP

 We had such a great time at my mothers Thanksgiving week.

  Todd and I planned to go see her, and Casey and Avery decided to join us.  We were so GLAD they did.  The trip was so nice.  Avery did great.  It was so nice to see my family.  My brother had a little exciting news.  A friend of his is a real descendant of the McCoys.  You know, the Hatfields and McCoys.  So anyway, the friend and some of his family are involved in a new show on the whole Hatfield and McCoy thing.  Johnny (that's my brother) got involved somehow.  So they are going up to Kentucky I think.  Anyway -somewhere, to shoot the reality show and Johnny will be there.  He seems to think he will be in the show too.  We will see.  He did get to meet the guy from the History Channel which he was pretty pumped about.  I said, when they talk to Johnny  they may just say "Who's that guy? We want to do HIS show." :)  He grew his mustache out just for the occasion. 

While we were at moms Avery had a great time playing with (of course) Bogie.  Bogie is moms dog.

  As a matter of fact we got to spend a day at the zoo and I thought it was so funny that we would be looking at the Lions and Avery would sigh and say, "I miss Bogie."  Then a little later we might be looking at the Bears and again, she would say, "Aww, I miss Bogie."  Seriously I heard her say that at least 3 or 4 times while looking at the zoo animals.  hehehe

Speaking of the zoo, we had such a good time there. 

 

Memphis zoo is great.  Mom was such a trooper and hauled herself along with us the whole day.

 

 The animals were all out and about.

 

 The day was beautiful, sunny with a cool breeze.  So nice.

 We loved the Panda.  We made it there just in time for the Pandas lunch!  This is Avery showing me how he was eating his lunch.

 

Looks like Avery thought Pandas lunch looked pretty good.  :)

 Avery really wanted to see the zebras! 

 

Surprisingly the reptiles were definitely a favorite.  She actually said while looking at one snake, "Oh, he's just precious."  Or rather, "Pecious"  That cracked me up.  Never have I ever referred to a snake as precious.--Or pecious...

We had lunch there at the zoo.  The restaurant was right next to the Monkeys!  The monkeys come up to the windows while you eat and watch you through the glass and you can watch them.  Pretty neat.

 Of course there was ice cream and where there is ice cream, there is this...

Avery enjoyed hers too. 

 Lately Avery is into directions, or the lack thereof.  She seems pretty concerned that we are sometimes not driving the right direction.  She will ask us if we are going the right way, and is not always reassured that we are.  Inside the zoo was not a lot different.  She had to make sure we were getting where we were suppose to be, thus-the map. 

Our little tour guide checked the map from time to time to make sure we were on the right path.  She made sure to keep it handy, you know, just in case.

 

Of course there was also some dancing going on.  You didnt doubt it did you?

Avery really enjoyed Uncle Johnny.  She wanted to go where ever he was going.  Once I told her that her mama was going some place, and I was going somewhere else.  So I asked her who she wanted to go with Mama, or Nonna?  She said I wanna go where Uncle Johnny's going. :)

I really LOVE this picture of my mom with her Great Granddaughter behind her.

Once again, I will say it.  The zoo was GREAT.

The visit went by very fast.  I hate that the visits are few and far between.  On the trip up Casey was talking about how long it had been since she had seen Grandma.  She said how she was going to just enjoy the visit and while she was there she planned to just "soak Grandma up"  I like how Casey put it, we "soaked it up" while we were there. 

Speaking of "soaking it up"...

Balloons

 Last weekend was our annual Balloon Race Festival.  It so happened that none of our children came home for it.  :(  My plan was that I see balloons every year.  Once you've seen one, you've seen them all.  I planned on sleeping in on Saturday and skipping the whole finding balloons thing.  So I slept till I woke up which turned out to be pretty early.  I made coffee,  had a cup and then decided, WHY NOT?  I love to take pictures.  What else did I have to do?  So, by golly, I got ready, grabbed my camera, and was ready to go.  Just about that time, Todd called.  He was working and wanted me to know that the balloons were all over at the mall.  He suggested I go on out and have a look at them.  :)  So then I knew which direction to go!  I drove over the bridge and saw several just across the bridge at the hotel there that used to be The Ramada.  So I drove up there and enjoyed those there for a few minutes.  Got a few good shots there.

 Then I headed on over to the mall.  There were so many people behind the mall, I COULD NOT find a place to park!  So I hauled my little Camry right into the grass and parked before all the balloons flew away and I missed all the good shots. 

 This one was coming down.

 Even though I thought I didnt want to go do this at first it turned out pretty nice. 

 I guess no matter how many times you see all these things in the sky, it never gets old.

 I loved the shots where I could just look up into the balloon.

 It was a BEAUTIFUL day for it.  The sky was gorgeous.  Weather was great.

 I love the close up shots.

 It was pretty fun, even by myself.  I was even a little disappointed when my camera battery died on me and I had to head on home.  By the way, when I made it back to my car there were plenty of other cars that followed my lead and parked there in the grass.  :)   I think I got some good pictures.  Maybe one day I will get to take pictures from inside a balloon flying across the sky!  Yes, I would love to do that!