Memphis Puzzle

A few weeks ago we put our kids down made some popcorn and slushies and turned on a movie and did this fun puzzle. It depicts Memphis. We bought this puzzle for ourselves for Christmas. We thought it would be a fun thing to have as a memory of living there. We managed to get it done in a couple hours! It is fun to see all the things on it and it really does have most of what is there!

Memphis randoms

These are randoms pictures from Memphis that I took on my phone. 

Driving to graduation! Some of us are happier than others, luckily he had a good 30 minute nap before graduation and was perfect!

My Gracie Bleu Yogurt! Utah needs to get chocolate covered waffle cone pieces at their yogurt places!

Our bag of Donut Holes! The people at this place were always so nice and would always throw a few extra in!

Our way back to the hotel after graduation and dinner! It was close to 10 PM and they had been so good all day! They just crashed! Luckily we were able to get them right in and in their PJ's and they went right back to sleep!

I went and saw my friend Kami and her new baby! She was only a couple weeks old. My kids took my phone and took over 100 pictures while we were there, this is one of them and the next one. She was nice and gave my kids her ipad to play with too! It was fun holding her baby!

My Crepe from Crepe Maker! It was so good and I had Nutella dripped all over my white shorts by the time I got done, it came out the bottom!

The next two are when we drove back into Memphis the night our flights were cancelled! It was raining so hard! Downtown Memphis looks better in the dark!

One of the days while Andrew was in class we ventured up to the mall. We wandered into the Disney store for a bit! They had their sunglasses for $2 and flip flops for 5 so I let the kids each pick one of each since I had a gift card! They love their new sunglasses!

Poor kid got mostly car naps for the whole 10 days we were gone, he was a trooper though! I love how he sleeps with his legs crossed!

This night was a nightmare getting them to sleep. It took almost 3 hrs! Andrew went and worked out and then I did for an hour and came back thinking they have to be asleep but no they weren't! By the time they did they both fell asleep hanging off the bed both of them!

Trying to get kids to nap in a room with people in it was impossible but Easton eventually did for a few minutes!

Flight home

These are some more pictures from the river walk. We decided that all of the sudden we needed to go and off they all went! We had so much fun there, until we went to leave and noticed Andrew sat on some sort of berry while we took a picture and had to dig through his suitcase to find some new shorts to wear!

Seriously the key to surviving flights with kids is tablets and ipods! She watched Enchanted twice on the way home and had juice to drink and snacks to eat, it was perfect for her! She finally did fall asleep as we landed!

Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday we woke up and packed our bags. We had to drive to Little Rock to catch a 5 PM flight to go home. We decided since we knew the storms from Oklahoma were coming our way we would leave early to get ahead a little. We left but not before grabbing some donut holes from the only place in Southaven that had good donuts, Main Street donut! We then left town and got to Little Rock at about 1:30. We found a mall a few miles from the airport and went in to have some lunch. After we walked around and my mom overheard someone saying their flight to Dallas had just been cancelled. Sure enough it was the flight we were supposed to be on. Andrew immediately got on the phone and we headed to the airport to get things figured out. Andrew waited on the phone and stood in line and the counter which was forever long. He left the kids and I in the car and after about 20 minutes I could handle whining kids anymore so we got out and went in. My mom eventually came in as well and she took my kids and our tablet and went to a bench where they watched shows for the next hour or two. It took the guys that long to get to the front of the line and Andrew had just got through on the phone as well. We decided to just talk to the person at the desk. This poor guy had been working since 4:30 in the morning and had had one 20 min break, and this was 5:30 in the afternoon. He looked exhausted. Well from all the storms and tornadoes flight traffic was practically halted. They had no route at all to eventually get us to Salt Lake at all for two days! We thought about just driving! There wasn't a single airport within 5 or 6 hours we could drive to that had anything either. He finally looked at other airlines and found two seats out of Memphis directly to Salt Lake the next morning and four for the afternoon. It worked out perfect except we had to go back to Memphis. We were just grateful to have anything! We then had the problem of the rental cars. We were supposed to return them. Andrew went and talked to them and eventually worked with us. We got one car big enough for us and they dropped all the fees. A one way rental car would have cost us about $1000! They were nice enough to lower it to $200, which is what we paid for a whole 9 days! $200 is a lot for a 24 hour rental! We felt blessed to have gotten the fees dropped so much! We got packed in the new car and started to drive and we were hungry again! My dad had seen all the signs along the road from Memphis to Little Rock for Nicks BBQ and Catfish (there is one about every mile :)). We decided to stop there and at this point it was pouring and we realized it was the horrible storm from Oklahoma. We stopped and ate and just laughed at what a crazy day it had been. The food was actually really good and my parents finally got their catfish! We were so tired we rewarded ourselves and got dessert! We never get dessert! As we were driving back to Memphis Andrew called our Bishop in Mississippi because he works for Hilton to see if he could help us get a room. He told us what to do and to mention his name. We called the hotel in Southaven and they were all booked, along with every other hotel. I think I tried about 10 hotels and they were all sold out. We eventually just ended up back in Olive Branch where we had stayed and walked in laughing. It was about midnight by the time we got back and they gave us a room next to the one we had been in all week. Our kids went running down the hall screaming our room! We hope no one was in our old room because they went and jiggled the handle and pounded on it! We finally made it to bed and were exhausted! We woke up the next day and took my parents to the airport. We then went to lunch at Lenny's and then went to the Mississippi River walk. We were trying to kill time! We had a good time walking up and down the river and the kids walking in the water. We left and made it to the airport. Turned our car in and got checked in and walked right through security. We made it to our gate only to find out none of us had seats and they need like 6 people to take a different flight. I was so mad I wasn't going to stay any longer! Eventually Easton and I got a seat and about 3 minutes before boarding Andrew and Ella got one! I finally was able to relax a little once we were on the plane! It was direct to Salt Lake which was way nice. It was one of the worst flights towards the last 30 minutes due to turbulence. I have never been on such a bumpy flight! Easton slept most of the flight and Ella fell asleep about 10 minutes before we landed! I felt so sick to my stomach after being jolted but once we landed I felt better! We went and my mom had made us dinner, only 3 hours after she had landed! It tasted good to have a home cooked meal after 10 days! We had such a great trip and we were sad to say goodbye to Memphis. It was our new home and where both our kids were born. We have a lot of good memories from there and lifelong friends! We loved the Southern Hospitality and Charm! We are happy to be moving on though and are grateful to Andrew for all the work he put in over the last four years and still managed to be a great dad and husband! We are grateful for this new phase of our lives and look forward to making even more memories!

The kids wading in the river. The riverwalk is in downtown Memphis along the Mississippi and is an exact replica of the Mississippi from North to South. It is a mile long and at the end has a big pool that is supposed to be like the Gulf of Mexico. I wish we would have gone here more but it was fun the times we did!

Monday

Monday in Memphis we got up and headed to the Peabody to see the ducks march. My kids were excited to see it again! We got there just in time and there was a ton of people there it not being a weekend. I think they dropped off a few tour buses of older folks. We sat down and they literally came off the elevator about a minute later. Easton was a little hesitant after last December when the duck spread it's wings in his face but he got really excited in the end. We walked around the mezzanine and showed my parents the little museum they have and while we sat there a nice worker brought my kids a bag of pretzels and some granola bars. We then showed them the roof where the duck stay and where we had had our rooftop party the week before. After we left there we were going to go to the River walk but forgot they are closed Mondays so we turned around and went back and parked again and then rode the trolley along main street and the river. It was a nice day for a trolley ride! We then got off and went and had some lunch at Gus's fried chicken! We love Gus's! We were so full by the time we left! We went back to the hotel and the kids swam for about an hour and then we rested and watched TV and watched the tornado news from Oklahoma right after it had happened. We later went to Costco and a couple other stores and ended the night eating at McCallisters at about 9.

I had wanted to get a couple souvenirs of Memphis while we were there. We walked in the Peabody and saw this rubber ducks that said Peabody on them so I thought we should grab one for the kids before we leave. Well Andrew had the kids by the fountain and this nice lady came up and gave the kids each one! It was truly so nice of her and the kids were so excited! I don't know what they cost but we were very grateful to her!

Riding the Trolley! Seriously the highlight of Easton's day. He loves all things that are like a train!

My Parents!

Sunday

Sunday in Memphis we woke up and headed to Church. It was nice to visit our old ward and see old friends! We loved our ward there and it was nice to be able to go back and visit. After church we got some yummy pizza at Avellinos. We then went and let the kids nap for a little bit then we went out for a drive. We drove out to the Tunica River park along the Mississippi River. I always loved that drive and we always did it on Sundays! It was cool to go out there when we did and I'm glad we did because they had just reached the highest flood level that week for the year. It was amazing how high the river was. The main road to the visitors center was closed because it was under water so they detoured us around the back of a casino. It did worry me a little to let the kids run loose, it was so high! It was such a nice afternoon and not to hot!

The water was so close to the top of the walk out. The water is usually I don't know 10 feet lower or so.

My mom loved the rocking chairs last time we took her there so we went and sat on them for a bit!

They wouldn't let us walk south of the visitors center because the water had come up onto the sidewalk. It was crazy to see the water so high, right where we used to walk! This was the southern look out point all under water.

After we left Tunica we asked my parents if they wanted to eat and we decided on the Olive Branch Catfish Company. We drove all the way out there and they had closed. They had been in business for over 50 years. My parents were really disappointed (Andrew wasn't :)) because they loved that place they went every time they came! It was a major hole in the wall but they had the best hush puppies I thought! We couldn't decide what to do after that but eventually decided on Dyers Burgers on Beale. So we drove another 25 minutes. We parked and walked to Beale. It was crazy! I had been on Beale Street a few times but never on a Sunday! It was insane! I have never seen so many kids with parents carrying around drinks, it was really sad actually! We went in to Dyers and ate some yummy burgers and fries. Dyers was on one of those food shows and are famous because they haven't changed the grease they fry their burgers in since like 1930 of something! It was really good! My Dad talked Andrew into sharing a fried Peanut Butter and Jelly with him for dessert with a side of Ice Cream. My mom and I just looked grossed out while they ate it! It was an interesting night on Beale and we were happy to leave! There was a whole different crowd than what I had seen before there. We went back to our hotel and we were the only ones on our floor and they had left every room open. We were able to put the kids down and go to another room while they went to sleep so it wouldn't take 3 hours like most nights! It was kind of creepy to be in an empty hotel but was nice to be able to be noisy if we had to be!