Walking in Memphis...and dodging bullets

We decided to have a family weekend Memphis style. What better way to celebrate the 4th? Will was actually a guest speaker in a large adult SS class on Sunday where he told about our journey, gave several points on the question "Why", and then I came up to help him answer questions at the end. It felt strange being the missionary speaker when we haven't actually been missionaries yet. And seeing my family's picture up on the big screen was nerve-racking as well. This is getting real folks!

After church, we went down to Service Over Self (SOS) with the young couples class to clean up their facilities before the next youth group came in to stay. SOS does a great ministry in the Binghampton area of Memphis helping clean up the city and build houses for those less fortunate. Our family was assigned bathroom duty which ended up being pretty gross. Emma and Jack were troopers and did everything we asked them to do. We were very proud of their willingness to serve and help without complaining at all.

Once we finished cleaning, our family headed downtown to hang out in Memphis for the rest of the day. The temperature was blazing hot, the people were friendly, the views were amazing, and of course the food was awesome...a perfect Memphis day. We went to the rooftop of the Madison hotel with the amazing view of the Mississippi River:

Jack said it was too hot on the roof & found a shady spot under a table for him & his coke

Next we decided to walk down main street with the trolleys and make our way to The Peabody Hotel. We got there just in time to see the famous ducks make their grand exit down the red carpet & up the elevator to the roof.

After this we decided to go eat at Rio Loco for dinner until it was time to go to the Memphis Redbirds game.

At the end of our day we went to the Redbirds game with our old neighbors the Matochiks. While we were there I get a text from my mom saying that they were eating dinner across the street from the stadium at TGIFridays and a guy was shooting in the lobby of the hotel connected to the restaurant. They hid under the table and were eventually herded out the back door of the restaurant. It ended up being a domestic dispute, but two people were killed, one of them being a Memphis police officer. From the game we could hear tons of sirens and helicopters, but they managed to keep the game calm and contained. You really never know what to expect in Memphis, but we enjoyed our time with friends and the fireworks at the end of the game.

Mom looking pretty good after her near-death experience. She claims we have no pictures together, so here is proof that we have at least one.

We sat on the bluff so the fireworks were really really really close

Which seemed cool until smoke, burning paper and gunpowder come raining down on us the whole time. Emma was laying on the ground gagging after it was over the smoke was so thick and Will had to dig black ash out of Jack's eye. Note to self: Redbirds fireworks are overrated.

Then today we finished off the weekend at the Magowan's house visiting with them. They will be moving to Nashville in a few weeks so we wanted time to just hang out before both of our lives get turned upside down. And I found 3 huge packs of bottle rockets in our move, so I thought Bart and Christy would just love it if we brought them over to share.