Recent Travels Part 3: Graceland

On Memorial Day weekend Ryan and I made the "pilgrimage" to Memphis to visit the home of The King, Elvis. Ryan, his sister Rachel and their aunt Mary are HUGE Elvis fans. I myself am a new fan since I married Ryan. It has been Rachel's dream to go to Graceland but with a very busy husband finishing his residency, 6 kids, and a pending move at the end of June her window of opportunity was getting slim. So Ryan and I coordinated with Reed (her husband) and some fabulous friends and pulled off an awesome surprise birthday trip to Memphis!

Rachel thought she was just being taken out to lunch for her birthday and was asked to find a babysitter for a couple of hours. Little did she know that I had already coordinated with her friend who offered to watch her kids to keep them through the weekend. The 4 adults piled in the car and took off towards Memphis. On the way is a state park that is known for its dinosaur bones. Reed particularly likes this park but it is not what Rachel would consider a fitting "special birthday surprise". So when we pull up to this park and were headed in to the visitor's center she tried to put on a happy face. As we were about to go in Ryan turns to the group and Rachel says, "Oh great, are we going to have one of your awkward speeches?"(which would be entirely fitting). Instead Ryan says, "This is lame! I don't want to go to the park. Let's go to Graceland!!!" Rachel was stunned! It was great. We piled back in the car, ate snacks on the way to pig out at Lambert's: Home of the Throw'd Rolls, and then on to Memphis. We had a blast, and it was a great trip for all of us!

Happy 30th Birthday Rachel! 

In front of the famous front gate of Graceland.

The home of Blue music.

Classic street performer/dirty old man. 

Our home away from home.

Love the decor. 

Home of The King!

The royal family, Lisa Marie and Priscilla. 

The Jungle Room aka: Ryan's Future Man Cave

The Gold Lame suit.

From Jail House Rock.

Tha Capes.

As is custom we all signed the wall outside of Graceland. 

USO Mud Run

On Saturday 4 of my running friends and I ran in the USO charity Mud Run, a 5k run with military style obstacles in the mud. It was a blast! My mother was not at all surprised that I participated but was thoroughly disgusted! Sorry Mom, I'd do it again tomorrow! Seriously, how often do you as an adult get to play in the mud and it be totally "OK"? 

Check out the pink duct tape on our shoes. This is to keep them ON when sludging through the mud. 

Thanks to Lisa (middle) and her incredible thrift store shopping and sewing skills we were outfitted in some ridiculous combinations of pink accented by pink tulle tutus. They were definitely a hit. Even teams we didn't know would cheer us on as we passed them or slopped by them in the mud pits saying, "Go pink tutus!" 

The last of 3-4 mud crawls. Look at the clean girls on the right side of the picture....we had WAY more fun than they did. 

Somehow I ended up with the most mud on my face and in my hair out of our group. 

After a quick rinse in the fire hose spraying in the background, the last obstacle.

Don't you want to give us a big hug?

NICE!

Recent Travels Part 2: Hawaii

This will be the 3rd time I have tried to make this post, but for whatever reason the computer/blogging gods were against me and all my work and picture uploads were for naught as it all "disappeared" shortly after publishing. So, here is a quick summery of a really fabulous trip!  

In February Ryan and I were able to get away for a 5 day trip to Kona, Hawaii.  We were able to leave Owen with Ryan's parents who conveniently live close to LAX.

We scuba dived...

went to a traditional Luau... 

visited the famous Black Sand Beach.....

met the locals....

and just relaxed!

But the coolest thing we did was scuba dive at night to swim with 12 ft.+ Manta Rays. (you read that correctly, they are like giant, gentle school busses gliding through the water 6 inches over your head.) The plankton they eat is attracted to the lights we carried, therefore they come swooping by when the lights are on.  It was simply amazing! Definitely a must if your ever in Kona, HI!!!

Owen Turns 1!!!

The Birthday Kidos

Sarah and Callum, Tori and Alexis, Ann and Owen

Friday March 5th was Owen's first birthday! It was quite a weekend. On Friday I helped host a baby shower, Saturday we had a "triple birthday" party with two good friends who were born the same week (Alexis on the 2nd, and Callum on the 7th), and then a family party on Sunday. Lots of parties, lots of cake, and lots of good times! Thanks to all who helped us celebrate Owen's first year. It has been a great ride. He's such a blessing in our lives.

Our 3 little birthday kidos, stripped down and ready for cake!

In Owen's words: "This is not my first rodeo guys....I know how this works! Give me the cake!"

Owen LOVES to share his food. 

Callum still wasn't feeling well from earlier in the week so he basically finger painted and smeared his indian war paint with his icing!

After all the sticky cake and ice cream, it was bath time in the sink. Owen loved sticking his toes in the drain, making the water pool up around him. It's the simple things in life for this little guy. 

I worked really hard icing this cake. It took about as long to mix all the colors of icing as it did to pipe it all on. By the end of decorating it my hand was cramping. Those on Ace of Cakes must have great hand muscles. Owen has a little "lovey" that is a giraffe that he LOVES, and got a rubber toy giraffe from his grandparents. This was truly the year of the giraffe! 

By now, he knows the drill. He KNOWS when there are sweet treats around. We've ruined him already! 

Playing with the tissue paper that makes such fun noises. 

Owen got his very own Sophie. This is a rubber squeeky chew toy-esk giraffe that kids love. It is a running joke in the Brown family that it is laced with crack because ALL kids, regardless of age, seem to love the French produced rubber chew toy. Don't know why....but they do. So Owen got his very own. Now he doesn't have to share with the cousins.

Opening his present from Ryan and I. 

Yeah, we guessed right...he loves it. I gave a lady on Craig's List a minor guilt trip when she didn't want to sell this separately, only in a set of 5 other large toys. I simply said, "Shoot, OK well it's my son's first birthday on Friday and he loved it in the store, so let me know if you change your mind." She replays, "Ann, you run a hard bargain. How about $10." I said, "Sold!" I sure didn't have to try too hard.

All-in-all it was a wonderful birthday weekend for little Owen, though he didn't even know what was going on, except that he'd died and gone to Heaven with all the sweets he got to eat.