Picnic Time!

In Memphis you have a very tiny window of good picnic weather. Between the sweltering heat and crazy mosquitos it's really not that much fun late June- September. But in April it's just right! Here are some shots from our recent picnic in the park.

Pretty girls on a pretty night

Did I mention our church parish has like a billion kids in it..

Bubble chasing

These were my favorite (obviously) I never could get all 5 to smile at the same time

Slight mishap in the bubble chasing led to the bubbles being dumped on her head, I have a feeling she wasn't innocent in this.

 So get out there and picnic folks! It'll be 100 before we know it. And if your looking for someone to go with, I think we'll be in Overton almost every Wednesday from now till we can't take the heat.

Obligatory Beach Post

We hit the beach last week and it was glorious. This time we were a little nervous because Tropical Storm Debby rolled in with us, but lucky us we only got rain the first day! We all called it a 'Florida Miracle', because all signs pointed to a rained out beach trip, or worse evacuation. See, Jim Mann (Stephanie's Dad) says "Debby who?"

We got 5 straight days of sun, sand and clear water. Like I said, glorious. And it was a good thing we had 5 days, because it took 3 to convince Wee the ocean was fun. She loved the sand, but decided the ocean was too loud. Matt thought it would be a good idea to just take her out in it, that was SUPER successful....

Mommy, tried to reason with her, equally successful. In the end, just like every single thing in her world, it had to be Wesley's idea to go into the water. And once she figured out she could, with a little help from her new friend Josie (Cliff and Stephanie's niece), we couldn't get her out. 

We had to force her to take "safety breaks" once an hour to get in the shade of the canopy, eat, drink and reapply. Man did we reapply! I coated that sweet baby skin over and over, but I tell you she is still evenly brown everywhere! We covered her every hour (LITERALLY) and every once an awhile ourselves, Wesley is golden brown all over and Matt an I have some tan, some red and streaks of pale white. Oh well, at least no one was seriously sunburned, I call that a victory!

Other than spending time in the ocean we didn't do much, which was fine with me. We were there with our best friends and annual beach travelers Cliff and Stephanie, and we were fortunate enough to also get to know Stephanie's family this year, who were at the beach this week as well! So nights were spent swapping embarrassing stories and playing games. Perfect I tell you, just perfect!

Under a Big Blue Sky

As native Memphians, Matt and I know, when the weather is good-- you get outside. You never know how many chances you'll have to enjoy 70+ degree, less than 50% humidity days before the 90+ and 100% ones set in. See in Memphis, we have two seasons- Winterish and Summer with quick glimpses of normal temps in October/November and March/April. But this year has been amazing, we never really had a Winter and Spring really started in February.

**That makes all of us a little nervous about what the summer has in store for us, so we are soaking in the gorgeous weather we are getting right now!

I even had class outside this week!

And everyday just seems to be more beautiful, so...... my house is a wreck, my clothes are not folded or hung up, and if "they" stop by I will be thoroughly embarrassed...but dammit we had to PLAY this weekend.

We really started our fun on Thursday afternoon. We are members of our #1 Zoo in the country, and we happen to live across the street from it. So Wesley and I have a new habit of stopping by on our way home to check out the animals when no one else is really there. 

We started with the brand new dinosaur exhibit. Wesley was scared last time, but she loved it this time, when she had plenty of space to see.

Cat Country was super busy this afternoon, all the big cats were out and right up close!

This jaguar was in a feisty mood, this is her growling at us, seconds later she leapt from that perch to the one behind her in a single bound.

Friday was another gorgeous day, and I have been in a funk lately so I knew that meant I wasn't exercising enough. I searched for a 5k when I got home from school and found Opening Eyes to Autism downtown. The course would take us right by the river at sunset, it was going to be great and a beautiful cause! So I called Matt, he was all for it, we loaded up the jogging stroller and headed downtown. I ran with Wes because I'm not a fast runner anyway, I'm never in it for the "time" I just like running and being outside. Matt on the other hand has been training like a mad man because of his 1/2 marathon back in March.

He had a fantastic run. He finished in 26:37! That is a 8 min mile pace! I was so proud, especially since I just threw it at him like 30 mins before it started. He came in 66th place overall out of over 600. I on the other hand finished 38:35, 12ish min pace, 316th place....oh well we had fun being outside and watching the river roll by. No pics, sorry we were busy.

Saturday morning we got up and immediately needed to be outside, again. So we loaded up our bikes and headed to the Memphis Greenline. I wish I could say that was easy, but we are just now getting into the biking thing and we are not good at it yet. First our bikes have been in our basement for 2 years, so last weekend when the biking urge hit us, we had to drag them to the bike shop and get them working. AND we had to figure out how Wesley could ride with us, so we invested a bike trailer. This weekend we had the bikes and the trailer, but no bike rack, so we spent about 45 mins just trying to get 2 adult bikes, a trailer and three people in our SUV. We quickly realized we had to get a car hitch so we drove straight to the sports store and grabbed one, and while we were there I needed a helmet, Matt needed a bike seat cover, and Wes wanted a bicycle bell and basket (she did not get them b/c she doesn't ride the bike she has now, so I'm holding them over her head as an incentive). 

Finally, we hit the Greenline on our bikes and immediately stopped to eat lunch! Luckily it was on the trail and it was amazing. I highly recommend Cheffies!!!

**Note the PB&J smears on either side of her mouth, someone was way to hungry to take lady like bites!

When our bellies were full we finally set out for our bike ride that we had intended to take 4 hours earlier. And man it was worth the wait. The Greenline is awesome. Seriously, if you are in Memphis check it out. You can even rent bikes. About halfway through we found this great mural, and of course I had to get pictures.

And now it's Sunday. The day the Lord hath made. And again we rejoice! We hit up the church house and then you guessed it, headed outside. This time with our church family. I didn't take many pictures, as I am trying to be better of living in the moment. But here is a sweet one of the precious friends enjoying being outside together.

I hope you all had a wonderful week(end) and I hope this next one is just as great, no matter what the weather brings. Put down the chore list and soak up the world!