Day 1 - stop in Memphis

We decided to make the trip in 2 days since it's a minimum of 13 hours in the car. Our neighbor is from Memphis and gave us some suggestions of things to do.

Heading South

We hit the road Saturday morning and made our way to Memphis for the night. We had a lot of fun visiting Beale Street, riding the trolley cars, and eating dinner at a local burger place named Hueys. Thanks to our Memphis neighbors for giving us all the great ideas!

Sunday morning it was back into the car, headed for New Orleans. We made it to Diane and Lance's house about 2pm, so the kids were able to play all evening. We went to a park and grilled out for dinner (we don't grill in Peoria in the winter, too cold).

Monday we planned to go to the French Quarter, but a lot of stuff is closed on Mondays post-Katrina. So instead we found a playground and bike trail and spent the afternoon wearing the kids out. Diane went to a fish market and got TONS of seafood for dinner (also unheard of in the midwest). She and Lance made hardshell crabs, softshell crabs, crawfish, shrimp, oysters, catfish and I don't know what else. Very yummy - thanks guys!!

I'll get pictures up when we get home, I forgot the camera cable.

Lindsey lost her first tooth!

Her tooth has been wiggley for about a month, and it was really getting ready. She could have pulled it when she went to bed last night, but didn't. When she woke up this morning, she went right to the mirror to look at it and it was hanging sideways, barely there. And so she pulled!

Here's the before a couple weeks ago, and today!

Weekend out of town

We went to St. Louis for the weekend, a great escape from everyday life.

Our friend Maddie had a birthday party Saturday at a fun place called Pump It Up. It's a bunch of inflatables that the girls LOVED. They had a wonderful hour and a half of jumping, bouncing, and sliding.

We stayed at a hotel with a pool, so we got some swim time in after dinner. It had been a while since the girls were in water, and they had been begging to go to the pool. What's awesome is that Leslie can stand in 3 feet now.

Sunday we had some time to kill in the morning, so we went to the park just ahead of the rain storm. It was warm, so they had a great time outside.

Then we went to the Magic House, which is a children's museum. It's a huge place with lots to do. I think their favorite part was the Children's Village. It was a whole town - bank, grocery, post office, care repair, restaurant, house, fishing pond, library and more.

And since it was so nice outside and only 2pm, we headed for the zoo for a short visit. And it was short, we were only there an hour because we were all pretty tired. But we saw a few things and spent so more time outside in the warm, windy air.

I'm putting pictures up through a link...so click here to see them.

Lindsey got her hair cut!

About 6 inches off, she LOVES it!!

BEFORE

AFTER