Nashville Zoo

My oldest sister, Lezlea is now a grandmother. I don't know if any of you remember my nephew Cory (previously Courtney), but he is now the father of a little boy and girl. There were several little kids hanging around so my sister thought it would be fun to take them ALL to the zoo. (CRAZY!)

I was going to be meeting up with my friend in Nashville so it made since to have a little fun in that area before I met up with her. The only problem was...that morning I woke up to Morgan throwing up. I mean she spits up here and there, but I have never experienced this as a mom..so I was a little worried. I didn't know if I should take her or stay home. I knew I didn't want to be in Tennessee and not get to see my friend, but I just didn't know what to do. All the other moms around me said they thought it was allergies. I finally decided they were right because Morgan was still in pretty good spirits despite everything she was going through. So...we packed up the cars and went.

I hate to say it, but the Nashville zoo was kind of disappointing. My two favorite things to see are the gorillas and giraffes and I didn't see either. We didn't even get to see the elephants. They were worried about rain so they had them inside. The zoo does have a pretty awesome playground for the kids. I know if I were little I would have been all about it.

Unfortunately, the zoo was right....it was going to rain. Right as we were headed out to the parking lot, it started to rain. HARD! I actually miss those kind of storms. The kind that come on like a light switch and have  rain drops as big as your head. We looked like we had jumped in the swimming pool by the time we actually made it to the car.

Here are some pictures before we got drenched.

Lezlea

Front row: Calvin, Carmen (my nephew's kids)Brent's son Adam, Morgan, and Julia ( a little girl my sis-in-law babysits.) Back row: Rebekah and Hannah-Brent's daughters

This is one view of the playground. It branches out on both sides. It was pretty big.

A quick little photo shoot

When I found out I was going to be going to Tennessee I called my parents to see if maybe they might be able to drive up there as well. My parents live in Florida and are taking care of my grandmother so I knew they might not be able to leave. I'm glad I gave them several weeks notice because they were able to work things out and drive up and see us.

My sister, Lezlea is sort of known as the photographer of the family. As much as I would love to be...I'm just not quite as knowledgeable in that area as she is. So....I asked her if she would take some nice pictures of Morgan, myself and my parents since we don't get to spend much time together. I thought Morgan might like some pictures of her as a baby with my parents. Here are some of the pictures from that shoot.

Having some fun with the wide lens.

My nephew, Adam wanted to get in on some of the action.

Cross Country adventure day 5

DAY 5

Start in West Memphis, Arkansas-Stop in Cookeville, Tennessee

Graceland! Yep...that is where we went on our last day of travel. I had never been there before, and since my Mother is a HUGE Elvis Presley fan, I was pretty excited to see it. The only bad thing was that it decided to rain really  hard that day. SO....we had to put on our coats and wrap Morgan in a blanket to try and stay dry.

I took a few pictures but I apologize for the quality. They won't let you use a flash inside so some of the pictures are fuzzy. It was a fun tour and interesting to see how "The King" lived.

The dining room

Kitchen

The den. Apparently one TV just isn't enough.

One of the MANY, many places where his gold, platinum, etc. records were displayed.

Here is a picture of his grave site. On either side of him are his parents. We didn't really get to pause and look closer. It was still raining and we didn't have an umbrella so we had to run from one spot to the other.

Here is the outside.

Along with the tour of Graceland we got to look at a museum filled with different cars that Elvis owned or purchased at one time or another. So I had to get a picture next to the pink Cadillac!

We also got to tour his planes as well. Unfortunately, right when we got onto the plane Morgan decided she was done. So we quickly walked thru the plane and headed back to the motorhome. We got back on the road and made it safely to my sister's house in one piece.

Thanks again Kerry for driving Morgan and I across the country! We had a great time and we hope you did too.

Cross country adventure day 4

DAY 4

Start in Sallisaw, Oklahoma-Stop in West Memphis, Arkansas

We didn't really have a stop planned for this day, but Kerry has some books filled with different attractions in different states. When looking through Arkansas I really only saw two things that were along our route. My first choice (An old brothel called Miss Laura's visitor center. Wouldn't that be interesting?)didn't work out because it opened at 1:00 PM. So we walked around the trolley museum and Fort Smith instead.

I actually have a picture of me on a cannon when I was little...so I thought it would be fun to have her sit on one as well.

When we reached West Memphis we ended up staying at an RV park instead of a Wal-Mart parking lot. They had some stuff there to entertain their patrons. One being a large checkers/chess set. Kerry and I decided to play chess and for fun substituted Morgan for the Queen.

While we were at the park we decided to take advantage of the playground they had and let Morgan have some fun too.

This little girl was such a good sport about having to be stuck in a motorhome all day.

Now on to day 5!

Cross country adventure day 3

DAY 3

Start in Amarillo, Texas-Stop in Sallisaw, Oklahoma

We started off day 3 by seeing the Cadillac Ranch.I had actually heard about this before we left on our trip. For those of you who haven't heard of this odd ball attraction before, it is basically 10 Cadillacs buried nose down in the dirt. Of course I know there is a more artistic explanation, but I was excited about it because I knew it might be an opportunity for me to do a little graffiti. As it turns out, I was right :) In front of all the cars there was a tire filled with spray paint bottles for everyone to use. I grabbed myself a blue can and had some fun!

Here is a view of the cars from the entrance.

It was fun "putting your mark" on those cars. It must have looked like it too because I convinced Kerry to join in.

(Kerry and Linda)

Cross Country adventure days 1 and 2

I'M HOME! Of course you probably didn't even know that I had left :). Well I did and this is why.

My father-in-law was taking a trip in his motorhome to the east coast and he offered to drive Morgan and me to Tennessee to see my family. A lot of my family hasn't seen Morgan yet. So, eventhough I was a little cautious about taking my 5 month old baby across the country in a motorhome, I jumped at the chance to see my family.

Kerry (my father-in-law) loves to travel and he loves to stop and sight see along the way. Which was great for me because I think it is fun to see little places that some people might overlook. We started our Trip on a Thursday and arrived in Tennessee on Monday and we saw some neat stuff in between.

DAY 1
Start in Corona, California-Stop in Flagstaff, Arizona

On our first day of travel our only real stop to sight see was along the old route 66. We got out to stretch our legs and see some shops. Here are some pictures from that day.

DAY 2

Start in Flagstaff, Arizona-Stop in Amarillo, Texas

We started off this day by seeing a meteor crater that is about a mile across and 2.4 miles in circumference . At the crater's location there was a information center and a movie, but what I found most interesting was that it was privately owned. How strange would it be to have a meteor crater passed down to you from your relatives.

Wal-mart.....I am usually not a big fan of that corporation and I try to go elsewhere for my shopping, BUT did you know that they will let you park your motorhome in their parking lot over night for free? I didn't and I think it is great.That is what we did for most of our trip. Of course it is brilliant on their part too. I mean if you are parked outside of a Wal-mart you can usually think of something you "need" to buy.