Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day, aren't these glasses a trip! Happy Anniversary John...I love you!

Memphis Symphony Orchestra Field Trip

A few weeks ago Emma-Rae's class went on a field trip to see the Memphis Symphony Orchestra perform a concert for young people at the Cannon Center. The kids seemed to enjoy it, Emma-Rae thinks she wants to play the violin so she was paying pretty close attention to everything that was going on. The conductor was great, she spoke in between pieces and shared info. with the kids that they could actually relate to.

Emma-Rae & her classmate...downtown Memphis

Memphis Symphony Orchestra playing some W.C. Handy, enjoy it, we sure did!

Epcot

The following info. was taken from allears.net
Dedication Plaque;
To all who come to this place of joy, hope and friendship, welcome.

Epcot Center is inspired by Walt Disney's creative genius. Here, human achievements are celebrated through imagination, the wonders of enterprise, and concepts of a future that promises new and exciting benefits for all.

May Epcot Center entertain, inform and inspire. And, above all, may it instill a new sense of belief and pride in man's ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere.

**********

Epcot has come along way since the early days. On October 1, 2007, Epcot celebrated it's 25th Anniversary!

On October 1, 1979 ground broke for the second Theme Park at Walt Disney World. Three years and $1.4 billion later, on October 1, 1982, Epcot Center opened at the Walt Disney World resort. The new Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow was connected via monorail to the familiar Magic Kingdom theme park.

It was Walt's Dream to have a self-contained city reside here... unfortunately he passed away before it could be built. The Walt Disney Company created a theme park which incorporated Walt's love for World's Fairs and the promise of the future!

A few of our favorite Epcot pics from our 2008 visit-

Afternoon @ the Memphis Zoo

We've managed to stay pretty busy during Spring Break. After John-Rob's appointment with the orthodontist yesterday we went to the zoo...yes, I know he's only 6 and that is pretty young to be going to the orthodontist but we've got some issues going on in that mouth of his. Big fat bunny teeth + a wittle bitty mouth = our new BFF Dr. Crowder. Although I tried my best to explain what an orthodontist does...John-Robert still had some anxiety about going to see Dr. Crowder. Whenever he would say he was going to see Dr. Crowder he would say "Dr. Crowder...dum, dum, dum" Not like stupid dum but like scary dum, the kid is a trip.

We met my Dad, Miss Angela, Kaitlyn, & Zachary around lunch time. It was cloudy & looked like rain, but it actually turned sunny & was pretty warm. We didn't take too may pics of the animals...just the crazy kids.

John-Rob, Dad, & Rae @ the entrance to the Zoo. John-Rob said the gator was eatin' his head!

Emma-Rae, Kaitlyn, Zachary, & John-Robert...posing in front of the stinky antelopes.

Emma-Rae took a bunch of polar bear pictures, the bears were really doing some swimming...they are HUGE!


Emma-Rae wanted me to take some pics of her with one of the bears, she loves these pics...they just pretty much creep me out.

John-Rob was posing with his bow and arrow...he said he's the chief!
No bow & arrow necessary for Rae, just a pretty smile.
Rob, Rae, Kaitlyn, & Zachary...acting crazy in the Northwest Passage area of the Zoo.
The geysers out in front of the Teton Trek area...I said they could get their feet wet, John-Rob listens SO well!

After my children were completely soaked we said goodbye to my Dad & our friends. I had the kids strip down in the car & put on whatever dry clothes they still had...I think they managed to come up with a flannel shirt, hoodie, & raincoats. We stopped by Sonic for some ice cream and came home to crash in front of the T.V. We found a new show to watch on A&E...it's called Billy the Exterminator, he's an exterminator in Louisiana...it's so gross!

We watched these crazy Siamang Gibbons for a bit at the zoo, check out our video. They put one of their Gibbon friends over with the orangutans...now that Gibbon is BFFs with the female orangutan Chickie...the Gibbons are hilarious because they "yell" back and forth to each other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Zoo

We Love You Kaygen

Yesterday we had to let one of our very best friends go. For us it has been awful, horrible, gut wrenching, traumatic, the list goes on & on, we're all a wreck around here...but in the end, it was what we needed to do for such a loyal & loving friend. It's hard to believe that it was almost 15 years ago when John was at the casino & won some cash playing craps, he spent that money the next day when we went to pick up Kaygen...hands down, best money he's ever spent. We picked Kaygen's name out of a baby name book I picked up at a garage sale. Kaygen means little fiery one & was he ever. I remember the first time we ever left him alone, right after we moved into a duplex together...I came home to what looked like a tornado had gone through that duplex. Every cushion on the couch was in a different room and he "peeled" an entire bag of potatoes! John spent a lot of time training Kaygen, he was an excellent duck dog, super smart & super tuned in to John. Kaygen adored us all but in the last several years he became John-Rob's dog in particular. John-Robert is scared of everything, he won't go to the bathroom by himself, his room by himself, you name it...he requires an escort. Kaygen very happily obliged John-Robert in his needs, even when his arthritis was getting him down...John-Robert just had to call..."Kaygen, heel" and Kaygen would drag himself up. Kaygen lost his hearing this past year & John-Robert had to resort to hand signals, he slept with John-Robert in his bed every night until about a month ago when he just couldn't jump up there anymore. Kaygen was a part of our family, we are all better people for having this amazing creature in our lives. We love him and will always miss him.