ramblings

Our move from Memphis is approaching in 1 1/2 days and all I can think about is how much I don't want to leave.  I have not fallen in love with Memphis but I have fallen in love with many of the people here.    Memphis will always hold a soft spot in my heart.  Our marriage grew more than I ever thought it could while here and we had our first child in Memphis.  When we were trying to decide where Zach should attend optometry school Memphis seemed like the craziest place for us to move but we soon realized that it was the place we should be.  It didn't take us long to figure out why we felt like we should have moved here.  There are too many reasons to list and many of them too personal anyway but I know that God definitely knew where he was guiding us.

I'm going to miss the amazing friends we have made while living here.  We have had some very fun times the past 3 years and I can't imagine my life without any of them in it.  It's funny how when you first meet someone and you think, "I probably won't be very good friends with that person." and then that's the person you end up being the closest to.  You know who you are...Marissa. :)  I never would have survived this Memphis journey if you had not been here also.  Thank goodness we didn't judge on first impressions (ha ha), had a race to get pregnant (I won :), and have raised the first year of our kids lives together.  I'm kidding about the race by the way in case anyone took me seriously.  Thank you for being such an amazing friend.  You really have always been there for us, especially during all of our crazy hospital adventures these last 3 years.  Just remember to always watch out for snakes while you're walking. :)  Hopefully life brings us closer together someday.  California?  Declan and Emery get married?   I'll miss you and Emery like crazy...and even Jesse, heck, I'll even miss Riley!

Trolley and Peabody Ducks

We were able to cross two more things off our Memphis bucket list this past week.  Last Friday we took Declan on the trolley downtown and went to a few art galleries.  It was fun but very hot.  We also ate at one of our favorite places, Fino's, and we found out that Declan likes salami.  Weird.

Declan LOVED the trolley!  Except when it would stop to drop people off or pick people up.  Then he would immediately start crying and wouldn't stop until it started to go again.

On Tuesday Zach took the day off and we had big plans of taking Declan to the zoo but the weather was not on our side.  With the heat index it felt like 120*.  Way too hot to walk around the zoo.  So, at the last minute we decided to go to the Peabody hotel and watch the duck march.  Every day at 11:00 and 5:00 they have a duck march and it is quite the production.  They have a duck master and the ducks march on a red carpet into the fountain in the hotel lobby.  I couldn't believe how crowded it was.  You can kind of tell from the picture but there were so many people there!

Declan loved the ducks!  He was one of the first kids that raced to the fountain once they were all in.  It was really cute.

He pretty much just loved the hotel in general.  There was lots of room to walk and a lot of new places to see.  He even made a few friends. He's not shy around other little kids.  He will walk right up to them and start playing.  

Don't worry, I didn't let him dump the fake grass all over the nice carpet.

We joined a babysitting group in June so we are able to go on a date every Saturday night for two and half hours; unless it's our turn to babysit.  There are 9 kids total in the group (we're the only couple with one kid) so when we babysit it's a full house!  Anyway, the older kids love playing the wii and the younger ones are entertained with Declan's toys.  We babysat a couple weeks ago and after all the kids were done playing for the night we put a movie on.  The kids all piled on to our big couch to watch the movie and Zach sat on the love seat.  Well, about 2 minutes into the movie this is what happened...

They all just wanted to sit by Zach!  These are the cute kids in the group (minus the 3 babies).

Last week I was unloading the groceries and had the fridge open.  When I turned around I found Declan stuffing his mouth with watermelon.

At least he didn't eat any of the pieces that fell on the ground!  I thought the picture of him with his mouth full was so funny.  He loves watermelon!

This is my new favorite picture of the little man.  I love that he is walking now!  Except lately he has started to walk faster and trips a lot. 

Mud Island River Park

I made a bucket list for everything we want to do before we move in 5 weeks so we've been keeping busy crossing things off our list!  We took Declan to Mud Island River Park on Friday and he loved being able to walk in the water.