Memphis Bridges: February 2013

Monday, February 25, 2013

Nashville Get-a-way

On a day's notice, we took a little get-a-way to Nashville. It has been almost 6 months since I've been out of town (that's a long time for me!), so I welcomed the one night away with lots of fun. We visited the Adventure Science Center, which is a great museum in Nashville. The fact that we were able to get in free also made it that much more enjoyable :). The museum had so many fun, educational science opportunities ranging from weather, medicine, and space.

Nashville is home of country music, so the girls posed in these guitars!

Dr. Brook

Lots of fun slides inside this heart

Gross Anatomy...We took this in honor of Grandad (my dad) who is a professor of Gross Anatomy

They just had climbed down the spinal cord

They also climbed a tower to the top observation level. They were both trying to be tall in this picture, so Brook is trying to pull Isabella down, ha!

A little too much fun was had in the wheelchairs!

Weather girls bringing the forecast

Welcome to space!

I spy the International Space Station.

Moonwalk area

Me doing a "moonwalk"

Isabella & Avery moonwalking

Brook moonwalking

Avery & Brook

Isabella

Brook at the end of the afternoon with her glow in the dark mud from Mars!

After a fun afternoon at the museum, we spent time with a friend of Avery's from high school. They are a sweet family & we enjoyed being with them for dinner, then swimming at our hotel. I am thankful for a safe, quick (we were there less than 24 hours), fun get-a-way. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend too!

Monday, February 18, 2013

Outdoors Again

We've had few days of nice afternoons, so it has been good for the girls (& me a little) to be outside. The girls are counting the days down until summer. And crazy as it sounds, we actually had some snowflakes on Saturday, although nothing stuck to the ground. The girls are looking forward to shorts & flip flops every day. Spring break is around the corner. Until then, they've enjoyed their outside time again!

Taking a walk

Walking our dog, Beckham, around the neighborhood

An afternoon coffee

An evening fire

Friday, February 15, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you all had a good Valentine's Day! Ours was filled with lots of love here. Our family tradition is to decorate for the holiday & have a special dinner meal at home as a family. Today, after bible study, we celebrated February birthdays, which included Isabella. So she got showered with more birthday love! The girls & I went for the second day in a row to spend some time at my sister's classroom. She does the best job teaching special education at a Memphis City School to some sweet kiddos. We love being there & really I think we would love hanging out there a lot more. The weather was so nice, the girls spent some afternoon time outside & I cooked dinner. We enjoyed dinner & of course, our dessert! It was a good day & I am so thankful for the love from my Jesus that never fails. May I learn how to love better (1 Corinthians 13).

Welcome to our home!

Table centerpiece

Ready for dinner

Delicious salad

Bacon wrapped filet (& we had chicken too), homemade scalloped potatoes, & homemade yeast rolls

Yummy red velvet milkshakes!! Yes, they were delicious.

And homemade sugar cookies, which are Avery's favorite cookies

(I'll be glad to share any recipes....leave a comment or email if you would like any!) Enjoy your weekend!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins touring Broadway production has recently been in Memphis & we were able to go see it. Isabella & I saw it 6 years ago in New York City, but this was Brook & Avery's first time to see it on stage. It has such fun music & is very colorful. My favorite numbers are Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (spell check did not like this word!) & Step in Time. Super..... is a fun sing-a-long song, but the choreography on stage is so impressive & energetic to me. Step in Time is one of my favorites because of the tap dancing. Tap dancing numbers always steal the show! It is also impressive as Bert taps along the walls & ceiling. Of course, no pictures were taken during the show, but here are some before pics!

Eden & Brook posing

The beautiful Orpheum Theater in Memphis

Cousins waiting on the show to start

Monday, February 11, 2013

Showered with Love

We had the opportunity to shower my niece in honor of her upcoming wedding celebration. She gets married next month & we had a family shower for her. It was fun, sweet, & special. This has been such a fun time for Nicole! She has enjoyed her engagement time & I know marriage will be even better for her. We had a fun time with family, ate delicious food, & heard Nicole share her sweet engagement story. We also had a Nicole & Tyler crossword puzzle & wedding mad lib game for some extra fun. What a great time of year to celebrate love!

Nicole & I

Isabella wrote our welcome sign

Nicole & Tyler Cole (yes, Nicole Cole will be her name :))

Yummy Muddy's cupcakes!

Food table

Brook drew this on our white board at home!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Birthday celebrations, part 2

Here are a few more pictures from some of Isabella's 12th birthday celebrations (& she still has one more to come next week!)

On her actual birthday, we spent a few hours with Mallie & Mia, some of her oldest, dearest friends.

Birthday dinner at Holiday Ham

(love kids eat free night :))

We had an afternoon celebration with Isabella's sweet friend, Charlotte. We celebrated with yogurt at Yolo...

...and then shopping at Target.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Birthday Celebrations, part 1

Isabella had her first of celebrations with some friends from church. They went swimming and had a sleepover, thanks to the generosity of some friends who opened their home to us. It was a fun (long) night!