Hatchlinks: July 2009

Aloha to another great school year.

Summer brings . . .

Softball!
Shortstop, 2nd Base & Left field.
Kelsie played for the varsity and jr. varsity teams.
She is also playing summer tournament softball.
She plays left field and short stop and has been working on her switch hitting.

A 1st Degree Black Belt!

Nice job Dylan!

Aw, they grow up so fast.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Dylan & Kelsie~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

********************Kalley age 7*******************

*******************Hailee age 3******************

~~~~~~~~~ Justin, Alisha and the girls~~~~~~~~~

Tennessee!
Justin has been in Tennessee since November when he moved for a job transfer.
The rest of the family couldn't move down until March.
Boy have we missed them!!
I was so happy to finally get a chance to go visit!

Memphis

We took this tram accross the Mississippi River
to a place called Mud Island River Park. This park features a 1/2 mi. long scaled replica of the Mississippi River where you can get in the water and follow every turn of its path. The park also had a museum, picnic and grassy play areas, some water features throughout and a big fountain to play in at the end.

A great place to cool off on a sweltering Memphis day!

The famous Beale Street

This is a famous street in downtown Memphis where for 2 blocks the street is blocked off for only foot traffic. There are tons of funky little shops, cafes, pubs and clubs all up and down the street. Lots of the cafes and clubs have live jazz & blues singers performing either inside or on their patios. Depending on where you stand on the street, you can sometimes hear 2 or 3 different performers singing from different places. There was so much going on I forgot to take pictures. We ate a great little cafe called Miss Polly's. We tried lots of Memphis favorites. We had fried catfish sandwiches, fried green tomatoes with fried dill pickles and for dessert fried southern pecan pie.

Sunset on the Mississippi

There was a pretty sunset the night we stayed at a hotel on the edge of the Mississippi River. In the river itself we saw lots of red ear slider turtles, softshell turtles, gar, and brim or sunfish. We also took a paddleboat river tour but I can't seem to upload any of the video pics. The next morning a storm rolled in. And when I say rolled I mean ROLLED. From the hotel window we saw the dark rainy storm clouds coming from over the river, to right in front of us to being swallowed by the dark cloud and heavy rain. It was kind of eerie. It came in FAST! And I now definitely know how the term rolling thunder came to be. You hear a LOUD clap of thunder and you can literally hear it rolling through the sky for a good 10 to 15 seconds. No exaggeration!

Elvis Boulevard

No trip to Memphis would be complete with out a stop at Graceland. I do like his music and all but we just were not up to dragging the kids through an hour and a half tour of his house and museum. We visited some of his shops and a cafe on his strip and saw his private plane the "Lisa Marie" and we could kind of see the mansion through the trees, up on the hill across the street but that was it. (Just you and me next time Alisha.)

Nashville

We only had one day in Nashville because I had to get to the airport at 3:00. We spent it seeing a little bit of Music City. Including of course the Grand Ole Opry House. We couldn't go in but we saw the building and a little museum. We saw part of the country music walk of fame and went to a very cool Aquarium Restraunt and Sting Ray touch tank!

Hailee waves to her audience.

Minnie Pearl invites us to sit with her!

Ah, my car and driver awaits.

One of the stars on the walk of fame. Hailee wanted to know who this one is.

The Aquarium Restaurant

This was an Awesome restaurant!! In the center of the restaurant was a 200,000 gallon aquarium with over 100 species of fish from all around the world. As you walk in, you go through an underwater tunnel with the fish swimming on either side of you and right above your head! The table booths made you feel like you were sitting in part of the ocean. They served all kinds of yummy food. I loved it here.

We saw sharks, stingrays, eels, tuna and other big fish. There were even 2 scuba divers in the tank cleaning all the coral and anemones! Very cool!

Waiting for our order in our table booth at the restaurant.

The Singray Reef

When we walk in we see this sign and are given some quick instruction on the right feeding techniques for the stingrays. They tell us there are no stingers on any of these rays and then give us a little cup of shrimp. They tell us that the rays get a little excited about their food and may reach up to the side of the reef tank to get it They assure us that they are all very mild mannered. Well, we found out that some of them get more than just a little excited!