Walking in Memphis...

O.K. So it was actually RUNNING in Memphis! We ran so much that I didn't even get to take any pictures. I'm still pouting about that. But we did make it in time to see The Lion King! It was spectacular! If anyone has the chance to go, please do!! Pawn your Cd's if you must. Sell your blood if it's necessary. But GO!
So, to start at the beginning of our journey....I picked Chloe and McCade up a few minutes early from school and we met up with Beth to make the trip. She and "Cade" had to come back home after the show, so she drove separate and we were on our way. We made great time of I-40 and got to Southaven, to my parents' house, in less than 3 hours. Beth only had one travel nightmare in her car...we won't disclose here for fear of humiliating an 8 year old, but it was really a travel nightmare! In my car, the boys and Chloe were great, other than the occasional whine and "Are we there, yeeeet????"
So we dropped Cooper and Brody off with my parents and headed to a quick dinner. We got a little carried away and lost track of time. When we got back in the car, we realized that we had less than 17 minutes to drive from Southaven to downtown Memphis, find a parking spot, and get in our seats at the theater, or we'd have to miss the first 8 minutes of the show. From what I had been told, the first 8 minutes are the absolute MUST SEE portion! So I drove like a native Memphis driver and we actually got into a parking spot one block from the theater and had 3 minutes to spare! Whew!
So we're walking to the front doors, when a theater usher yells at us, "If y'all are coming in here, you better run! You don't want them babies to miss the first part! You DON'T want them babies to miss it!!" So Cade, Chloe, and I turned to see Beth making her way...she waved us on to go without her, much like a classic disaster movie. And we started to run! We made it in the theater just in time! Beth quickly followed us and we got in our seats. And I have to say...our seats were great! Much better than I ever thought they'd be!! Orchestra Left, on the row. Probably about 20 rows back. Just far enough away from the stage to see the full view of the scenes and close to the rows so that we could have reached out and touched the animals if we'd wanted as they did the walk throughs. And the usher was so right! We did NOT want to miss the first 10 minutes!! Forget the babies! I would have been crushed if we had missed that!! Of course, being the musical theater nerd that I am, I teared up with every crescendo, and loved every moment of it! And judging from Chloe, Cade, and Beth's reactions, they were just as impressed. I was very proud of both Chloe and Cade for their behavior during the show! To be as excited as we all were, they were quiet and respectful of the other theater guests and the hard working actors! And it only took 2 or 3 threats of bodily harm to get them that way.
And here's the bragging portion for the boys....Cooper and Brody stayed with my parents while we were at the show. I had expected that we'd be headed back to Southaven around 9:30. The show was much longer and we didn't get back to Southaven until 11:00! Cooper, of course, is an old pro at staying with Grandmomma and Poppa for whole weekends at a time, but 10 month old Brody is going through some classic separation anxiety. Add to that the runny nose and teething, and I was a little worried that he would spend much of the time there in tears and worrying his doting Grandmomma to the point of tears herself. I couldn't have been more wrong! They were happily sleeping when we arrived. My parents were bragging about how well behaved they were. Whew...again.
The kiddies and I stayed a few nights, playing with cousin Becca. We went out to eat with the whole crew and quickly found out that, contrary to popular belief, the Glass family is NOT the loudest group in Shelby county! There were some teens at an adjacent table that were joyfully celebrating a birthday. They were so jubilant that we didn't even bother keeping all our little rug rats down to a roar. You know that a group is loud when the 3 and 4 year olds at the table start to complain!
Spent Saturday visiting Memaw and Nonnie in Holly Grove, TN. Memaw is gratefully doing much better!! She's more herself these days than I've seen her in a year or more. Eating better, sleeping better, talking more, crying less. It's a blessing to see her this way again! And it's great to see Nonnie getting a break from the round the clock care that she was having to provide a few months ago. She and Ray Ray and Momma have been so dedicated in caring for Memaw during this time.
After swimming at Nonnie's and a few more hours of chatting, we made our way back home to spend some quality time with Michael Jon on his night off. It's good to be back home again. Now to get all the laundry done and the kids back on a regular schedule.