Goin' to Graceland...kind of

Over the summer we decided that we would make the trek back to Memphis for my friend, Shannon's wedding. (Next Post)  I have made the drive back and forth between DFW and Memphis several times as Grant lived in Irving while I was still in my senior year at Rhodes, it's not a bad drive...but it is different with 3 additional people in the car.  OK, scratch that driving through Arkansas is boring and I can't believe I have done it so many times.

Despite the issues that leaving on Friday presented, we decided to do that anyway in order to give the kids time to stretch their legs and so we could take part in some other Memphis area things.

We set out at about 5:20 a.m. (later than I had planned but the extra sleep was nice).
Stopped at Denny's just outside Texarkana for the slowest service ever and some time to walk around.

Next stop was a McDonald's to play...not happy to learn that McDonald's in Arkansas do not have changing tables (Seriously?!? it's McDonald's!)
Then on to Memphis.  We stopped at Rhodes and got the kids some Rhodes gear from the bookstore and then headed over to our hotel in Collierville.

By this point my allergies were totally being ridiculous, so when I got back from the rehearsal dinner later that evening, Grant went to a 24-hour Walgreen's to get me some stronger medicine.

Saturday, Alexis woke up before the rest of us and though I was able to convince her to sit and color, she wanted me to check her progress about every minute so I did not sleep any more.  We got up and got ready to head to the Ornamental Metal Museum http://www.metalmuseum.org/.  The Memphis travel site I had looked at said “For families with high-energy kids, this is an absolute must-see experience. For families without high-energy kids, check it out anyway. There’s nothing like it anywhere else.”  However, my kids were not interested and had much more fun running around at the park across the street, but oh well.

with the big metal flower

ringing the bell...he was startled by the bigger bell

After this we went to the Fire Museum http://www.firemuseum.com/.  The kids were pretty worn out from the day before, so we decided not to stay but a couple of minutes on the promise that Alexis would nap when we got back.

Alexis and some other kid

After Naptime Alexis and I went to meet my friend Megan while Grant took Andrew for a stroll and late lunch.  During this time Alexis continued coloring the picture that we had to give to the Bride.

And later the wedding. (as noted earlier the wedding will be mentioned in my next post)

Andrew having fun with the AC and curtains and Alexis coloring...this was how they spent a lot of time in the room when not throwing pillows.

The next day, we were going to walk around the historic Collierville Town Square but being Sunday most places were closed, so we decided to head to Graceland and go ahead and leave town. (with a stop at Memphis Pizza Cafe on the way)

Andrew was asleep by the time we got to Graceland and we thought it best to take advantage of this, so we pulled up next to it and took a picture. And then left Memphis.

leaving Memphis

The drive home was uneventful as we were reminded it was Sunday again when we stopped at Chick-fil-A to play...only to get back in the car and drive a while longer so the kids could run around at a rest stop.  Andrew threw a tantrum when we wouldn't let him steal another child's soccer ball.  And after one more stop at Cracker Barrell in Texarkana we were home in time to get a good night's sleep and have a pajama day at home on Monday.