Lyndon visits Memphis

Last Saturday Zach and I drove up to Nashville to pick his dad up, who had been at a conference all week. I guess Nashville and Athens are "sister" cities so they built an exact replica of what the original Parthenon looked like right in Nashville. We went there on our anniversary trip in February but this time we went inside and this is what we saw...
The largest indoor statue in the United States is of Athena in the Nashville Parthenon! It is HUGE. We spent some time looking at all the other drawings and sculptures inside and then drove back to Memphis. That night we took Lyndon down to Beale Street. We were finally able to see the "flippers" there. We had heard so much about them but had never had the chance to them. Here's a video Zach got of them. In the background is an Elvis impersonator. :)




Can you see Lyndon's sweet hat? :)
Cool shirt huh? This is just goes to prove that I have the most awesome father-in-law ever. He has a tradition of buying a biker shirt on every trip he is on. He got this on Beale Street at Tater Reds, a freaky little shop. Even though there were babies and little kids running around everywhere they wouldn't let me go through the top part of Beale Street because I forgot my I.D. Luckily, there weren't any cops guarding the far end and we were able to buy this wonderful shirt! ha ha

Sunday we went to church and played Mario Party on the Wii. Really, that is all we did! Zach and his dad were able to go golfing on a really nice country club course up by the temple on Monday. They both said it was one of the nicest courses they have ever played on. Of course, they forgot the camera so we can't enjoy any pictures of it! That night after I got off work we went and had some of Memphis' famous BBQ at Corkys! I never enjoyed BBQ much until I had Corkys. It is delicious.

The next day was Lyndon's last day with us and luckily all but one patient canceled at work so I was able to leave at 10:30 and spend the day with them! They played frisbee golf for the 2 hours that I was at work (and of course forgot the camera again). Lyndon bought another shirt at a Memphis Choppers store, unfortunately we didn't get a picture of it. We had a typical Memphis lack of customer service at Subway that I am so glad Zach's dad got to experience! ha ha. The lady kept asking Lyndon if he wanted his sandwich toasted but all she said was, "toast?" but it sounded more like "tst" with her lack of annunciation and thick accent. Lyndon had to ask "what?" about 4 times and she never tried explaining any better, just kept saying "tst?" Zach and I were trying so hard not to laugh right there. This all happened right after the lady we couldn't understand got done yelling at the other worker for not giving the previous customer a free bag of chips...gotta love it! We took our sandwiches home and played cards and more Mario Party.
Playing baseball, a favorite card game among the Oswald family.
It may look like I am smiling but I was really really mad...I should have totally won that game of Mario Party, stupid bonus stars!!

We had a great time having Zach's dad here! We miss having him around to play games with. I have been truly blessed with the absolute best in laws. We always have so much fun with them and love spending time with them. (Don't worry mom and dad, Zach feels the same way about you guys :) Without Zach's dad, we probably wouldn't own any knives or flash lights, and really, what would life be like with out those essential items? :) In all seriousness though, I couldn't have asked for a better family to marry in to.

4th of July

Zach and I both love the 4th of July! It's like Christmas all over again, just without presents, trees, snow, and okay, so maybe not quite like Christmas but it's just as much fun! We were pretty bummed to not be able to go home for the 4th and miss out on the annual Rockwood party and Melaleuca's amazing firework show.

Well, this year we got together with a bunch of friends here in Memphis and had a BBQ at the Rudd's house. Thanks again guys! After wards, we all headed downtown to watch the firework show on the Mississippi River.

What a beautiful sunset huh?


Some of the optometry nerds...Brandon, Jason, Zach, Adam, and his son Cameron.

It was a cool experience to watch fireworks by the Mississippi. The best part was that we didn't have to stake out a spot and sit in the blazing heat all day! It made the day much more enjoyable. We showed up about an hour before the show started and we got seats right in front of where they shot them off. It was awesome!


The firework show was very cool. It didn't seem as long as the IF fireworks but nothing can compare to those, could they? :) Yes, that is a street lamp in the picture. We all were surprised that they left all the street lamps on during the firework show, but of course, we were in downtown Memphis...I don't think I would have wanted them to turn them off! Don't worry family, only 2 people were rushed out in an ambulance from gun shot wounds from where we were. No joke. The news says that the police believe they were hit by "celebratory" gun shots. How sad.

Anyway, we had a great 4th of July with our friends out here! We missed being around all the family but we are anxiously waiting for next weekend when Zach's dad comes to visit!! :)

Arthritis Walk

Last weekend Zach and I participated in a local Arthritis Walk. Dr. Powelson is on the board for the Arthritis Foundation here in Memphis so we got a little team together and walked 3 miles in humid heat. We were glad that there was a thunderstorm the night before so it wasn't too hot. The walk was at Shelby Farms which is the most gorgeous park I think I have ever seen. It's so green and big and has so much to do, we love it! Anyway here is a picture of Mike, Katie, Zach and I right after we got done with the walk.

Snow, Hail, Rain, and a Pocketful of Sunshine

Warning: This is a long post...sorry!

Zach and I headed to Idaho for a short but very fun visit on June 5th. We were so excited to find some cheap plane tickets from Memphis to Jackson Hole...who would have thought?! We were supposed to have a layover of 20 minutes in Minneapolis but instead it ended up being 4 very long hours. It wouldn't have been so bad except they had us board the plane and sit there for 4 hours until the storms cleared and they finally let us leave at 9:30 Central time. The pilot kept saying that we would leave in a half hour and then come back on and say another few minutes and then finally he said "it may be awhile folks, they let one plane head to North Dakota and that didn't turn out so well..." I'm not sure what he meant by that, but I was glad at that point that we were still on the ground! We finally arrived in Jackson Hole at 10:30 Mountain time where Sara and Brody had been waiting for us all night. When we got to IF at 1:00 AM we talked with Zach's parents for awhile and then opened our luggage to find everything inside completely wet. I think they just left our luggage out in the rain the whole time we were sitting on the plane. Luckily, Zach signed us up for frequent flyer miles before we left and we just got a letter in the mail from North West saying because of the delay they were giving us 2,500 extra miles! Even though it took us forever to get to Idaho it was totally worth it!

On Friday we just hung around Zach's house and dried all our clothes :) Later in the afternoon we all (Zach's family and my parents) drove up to Island Park to spend some time at my family's cabin. I have so many memories of spending lots of summer days and nights at this cabin so I was excited to get to go during our short stay! We had a lot of fun playing frisbee golf up there. Our neighbor in Island Park made a frisbee golf course a few years ago on his property and it is amazing. I think this is the only time I have played where no one lost a frisbee! Afterwards we tried to make smores but our fire was kind of pitiful considering it had been raining off and on throughout the day.

Saturday morning we had my dad's famous Pat's Hash...a cabin tradition. Then Zach, Lyndon, and my dad decided they wanted to go fishing. Coleman and I ran the shuttle for them and as we were waiting in Cole's truck for my dad it started snowing!!! Only in Idaho does it snow in June! At that point, Coleman and I weren't sad that we weren't going fishing with them! When we dropped my dad off at the drop off point Zach was freezing already but they still went...crazy boys! Zach said it was the coldest he had been in a long time and that he actually missed Memphis weather. By the way, it was 93* the day we left Memphis!

Saturday night we met up with my best friend, Becky, and her family to celebrate her dad's birthday! It was so funny to see Kim's face when I walked in his house! He looked so confused, almost like he knew who I was but didn't believe it since he had no idea we were coming to visit! I absolutely love spending time with Becky's family and it was nice to see both her sisters, grandma, and dad. Later that night we went bowling with Becky, Kim, Ashlie, Brent, and Justin (Ashlie's little brother). I hadn't seen Ashlie and Brent for almost a year so it was great to hang out and have fun with them!

Sunday morning we got up and drove to IF and went to church with Zach's family. It was fun for Zach to see some people he hasn't seen in awhile. After church we went and visited with Grandma and Grandpa Oswald for a little bit and then drove back to Rexburg to have dinner with my parents. After dinner we drove back to IF (we did a lot of driving back and forth if you can't tell) and spent the evening playing redneck golf with Zach's family. If you don't know what that is then you are missing out! We were able to see Grandma and Grandpa Pilkington for the first time since Grandma had her heart attack. It was awesome to see them and see how well Grandma is doing. It's hard to be so far from family, especially when things like that happen, and it seems as though all those types of things have happened since we moved!

Monday morning Zach, Lyndon, Grandpa Pilkington, Hilary, Hailey, and I went golfing at Sage Lakes. The boys and girls split up and we had a lot of fun! I think I do better golfing when I don't have someone standing right beside me telling me what I do wrong every time I swing...ha ha! After golfing we went and ate at Craigos, yum! We miss their chicken ranch pizza so much! After pizza we played cards with Zach's family until it finally came to the time we had to say bye to them. We drove back to Rexburg and stopped to see our friends Bryson and Katie. Bryson and Zach were roommates back in the day and it was great to see them! We ended the trip by going to Wingers with my parents. They don't have Wingers in Memphis and we crave their sticky fingers all the time!

Our flight left Jackson Hole at 9 AM on Tuesday morning, so we left Rexburg at 6 AM. Luckily, the flight home was not delayed at all and we were back in 90* weather at 5:30 PM. We had so much fun spending time with family and friends while we were home. It was a much needed vacation. It's always so hard to say bye to them and not get teary eyed, especially since we most likely won't be going home again until next summer. We are anxiously awaiting July when Zach's dad will be coming out for a visit! Zach did his part of the blog by posting the pictures from our trip! :)