Southern Tour Day 2

We were up early and did a quick driving tour before leaving Memphis.

AutoZone Park is home to the Minor League Baseball Memphis Redbirds.

FedEx Forum is home to the NBA Memphis Grizzlies.

 

 Bridge across the Mississippi River

 The biggest Bass Pro Shop we've ever seen!  Also has a hotel and multiple restaurants inside.

 Statues of Elvis Presley 

 and B.B. King inside the Visitor Center.

 Wish we had more time to explore Tennessee, but off to Mississippi we go!

We arrived at University of Mississippi, more commonly known as Ole Miss, after about a 2 hour drive.  

It was pristine and just beautiful!  Blooming flowers everywhere and stunning brick buildings with classic columns and southern architecture.

The Pavilion at Ole Miss houses the basketball arena 

 which looks brand new.

On the perimeter of the arena, there were several study areas and restaurants.  We had to eat at Steak N Shake!

 Such history and tradition at the Vaught-Hemingway football stadium.

Matt and I snuck in to get a quick picture on the field.

 The campus had so many open quads with large paths, sprawling grass areas and southern charm!

Sorority Row was just amazing! 

 Look at the sizes of these houses!

The soccer facility was perfect too and this school moved up to the top of Allison's list for now!

Then we drove into the cute college town of Oxford.  The clock tower sits right in the middle with cute side streets of restaurants, antique shops, coffee houses 

and this cute sweet shop where we stopped for ice cream.

We got sliders at this cute new restaurant Thacker 564 before heading back to campus for the Ole Miss baseball game.

 The weather was perfect and Ole Miss beat Southern Miss 7-6!

This place was pretty impressive and I can see why Allison wanted to check it out.  It will be tough to beat!

Southern Tour Day 1

Allison's Spring Break was officially underway with our flight to Memphis, TN today to begin our southern road trip to see 4 SEC colleges.

We didn't land until dark, but had to see Graceland since in Memphis.  No time for a tour, but can say we've seen it.  The home and grounds were beautiful, but it sits on a very busy street next door to a Taco Bell and other commercial buildings.  That kind of took the magic away!

We checked into the hotel and asked the shuttle driver for a good dinner spot at 9:30 at night.  We quickly learned Beale Street is the "french quarter" of Memphis.

A lively street closed to cars and full of bright lights, loud jazz music and lots of Memphis BBQ!

We stopped in to Blues City Cafe and got a good sampling of some of the favorites...delicous ribs, baked beans, cole slaw, white toast and fries.  Yum!

Crystal

Tami invited me to see Crystal by Cirque Du Soleil at Valley View Arena in SD tonight.  We had a nice dinner at Wood Ranch Grill before heading down to the show.  The whole performance was on an ice rink and it was fantastic!

There were acrobats, tumblers, ice skaters, jugglers and much more...

 along with great music and special effects.  A fun night out!!

Taylor's Spring Break

Unfortunately, Taylor and Allison's Spring Breaks didn't coincide, but we were happy to have our girl home for a week and she was happy to have a week of relaxation!

Her sweet friends, Lexi and Devan, joined us at the airport to surprise her when she landed!

She had nice visits with friends over yogurt, lunches, dinners, parties, etc throughout the week.  We got to watch some Jayhawk basketball together

 and had a lovely day in Pacific Beach riding bikes and getting some lunch.

 She loved seeing the sunshine!!  It's been a long Kansas winter.

 I sure loved having her home

 getting lots of cuddles while I could!

The week went by too fast, but I'll see her in 2 weeks for Mom's weekend and then she will be home for summer on May 11th!

March Madness

SDSU was hosting the first and second rounds of March Madness!  Tickets were pricey, but totally worth it!

Matt and I attended 4 games on Friday...Marshall vs. Wichita St., West Virginia vs. Murray St., Auburn vs. Charleston and Clemson vs. New Mexico St.

I was most excited to see West Virginia and their coach Bob Huggins, as we watched all of the Big 12 games this season.  They are a huge rival to KU! 

We saw some close games, an upset or 2 and then 2 huge blowouts on Sunday for the 2nd round.  Clemson beat Auburn by over 30 points and will face KU next week in the Sweet 16 and West Virginia took it to Marshall and will face Villanova.  It was a really fun experience and we are already looking into tickets for March Madness 2019 in Anaheim!

Rock Chalk!!  I have KU defeating Kentucky for the championship...fingers crossed!

Wisdom Teeth

It was finally her turn for wisdom teeth extraction...ugh!  We were able to schedule it on a Saturday so Matt could take her.  I don't do teeth!!  All went smoothly

and she was sending me Snapchats the whole drive home.  Day one of recovery was a little tough adjusting the medication and finding foods to eat, but by Sunday afternoon she was doing great!  A little puffy and sore, but went back to school on Monday and never looked back.  I think it helped that she got stitches, so there were no holes to heal or keep clean from food particles.  I'm glad there are no more wisdom teeth in this house!

Blackhawks vs. Ducks

We weren't really able to celebrate Matt's birthday on his birthday due to schedule conflicts, but I got him tickets to his first NHL game...Chicago Blackhawks vs. Anaheim Ducks.

It was a high scoring matchup with the Ducks getting the victory and a fun family day.  

Happy 47th Matt!