Family Visit!

So, my mom, brother Makaeden, and Grandpa Darnell came out to visit us!  They got here on June 16th and left on the 19th.  They arrived on Tuesday night at about 6 and I had dinner waiting for them.  We ate chicken enchiladas and then headed out to see downtown Memphis!  Nate was working that night so he didn't go with us.  We rode on the Trolley and walked down Beale Street.  I haven't done much sightseeing myself so it was a lot of fun!

This is in front of the FedEX Forum.  It's their events stadium.

The next day Nate was able to get work off!  We went to Graceland first.  It was really neat!  It was a lot different than I expected though.  His house was not anything like I had imagined, and they had a ton of museums and exhibits to go through.  That took a good portion of our day.  I took a million pictures but I'll just post a few.  

This is the living room.  This is the first room you see when you walk in the front door.

Here is the kitchen.  Not at all what I was expecting!  Pretty much just an average 70's kitchen!

This is the "Jungle Room".  Probably the most famous in Elvis' home.  This is an awful pic but it was the best I could get.  You weren't allowed to use flash and it was dark in there...

This was in front of Elvis' plane "Lisa Marie"

After we were done at Graceland we grabbed some lunch and then headed to Mud Island!  Mud Island is a 5-block long replica of the lower Mississippi River, from Cairo, IL, to New Orleans, LA.  

You can take a tram from the mainland over to the island.  

On the island they have a museum about the transportation that is used on the Mississippi River and how it has changed over the years, exploration and settlement, music, the Civil War, etc.  They even had a life size river boat you could walk around on!  It was actually really neat.

Kaed loved the cannons

Outside playing in the "river"

It was SOOO hot and we were all pretty exhausted!

Afterwards, we drove by the Civil Rights Museum.  Unfortunately, it was closed so we didn't get to go in.  But this is the hotel that Martin Luther King was assassinated at.  The wreath on the railing is where he was standing.  I have always really admired him and actually was able to meet his widow and to talk her for a little bit in Little Rock a few years ago!  She was such a sweet lady and it was so interesting learning a little bit about her.  We were in the Civil Rights Museum there when we met her :-)  Anyways, I really want to go inside the museum next time, but for now I will have to settle for just driving by.

When we got home that night Nate and Kaed went swimming!  (Kaeden had been begging ALL day long!)

Isn't he so handsome?!

This picture cracks me up!  They were SO tired by the end of the night!

The next day we woke up early and went to the Fire Museum.  It's the same one Nate and I went to for my birthday, so I won't really post many pics.  

Nate and my grandpa were good buddies that week!

After the museum we hurried over to the Peabody Museum to watch the famous "Duck March" that was started in 1933.  The story is actually quite amusing.  They live on top of the hotel in fancy duck cage and every morning at 11 o'clock they are led down to the lobby fountain.  Then at 5 o'clock every evening, they are led back up.  It was kinda fun to go and watch!

After that Nate had to head to work so we split up and headed to the Memphis Zoo!  It was a really big zoo, but not the greatest on in my opinion.  It was REALLY hot so it made it not as enjoyable as I'm sure it could normally be.  A lot of the zoo was empty (I'm assuming it was because we went on a weekday) so it was a little bit eerie in some parts!

This was out in front of the zoo

Waiting for the tram to take us to the next exhibit

They had a fun little fountain you could swim in to cool off!  Kaed took full advantage of that :-)

Grandpa was pretty hot and tired from all the walking!

After the zoo we went to a park that we have nearby.  It looks almost exactly like "Castle Park" in Kaysville.  For those of you who don't know what that is, I apologize but I didn't take any pics of the park :-(

Then we finally got to eat dinner!  We went to Buffalo Wild Wings.  I personally don't think it's the most amazing restaurant in the world, but they have some pretty good wings!  

Kaed found a hunting game and just HAD to play it, LOL.  

It was so much fun having them here!  It was good to see them and it was SOOO nice being able to get out of the house and do some much anticipated sight seeing!  Luckily, they were able to stay with us since we have a 2 bedroom apartment.  It was nice to be able to return the favor to my mom for letting me live with her for 18 years and my grandpa for letting me live in his basement apartment for 2 1/2 (although I still have much more to do to show my gratitude)  You guys were great house guests!!  Love you!!