The Blues Trail. . . Clarksdale, Ms!

This is where it starts! You have to shoot to Clarksdale, Ms and stay a spell. When Michele and I were here this place had so much history in music and not just the blues.

The man in the photo with me is Rat and he owns and operates the Riverside Hotel. You don't learn anything about Clarksdale and the history unless you have been to see this man. Now let me tell you something. . . If you don't stop at his place first, you will never get to meet the real him.

Rat has been host to Martin Luther King, JFK, Bonnie Rait, Miles Davis just to name a few. This place is still in it's glory and has business like you wouldn't believe. Let's not also forget Morgan Freemans restrurant is located here with many great performers and singers.

Now, for you food lovers who may watch the Foodnetwork channel, there is Abes BBQ.

Voted best 1000 rib places to eat before you die and best bbq. You have to eat the pulled pork sammie with coleslaw and a vinegar bbq sauce!

This place has it all. . . food, good time and plenty history for the buff.

Hillary and Jeff

Married on April 14th in the Oakland Temple in California.

We are so happy that Jeff has found his eternal companion. Hillary is a wonderful welcome to our family. They are so cute and happy together.

Both of them are attending BYU Idaho right now in Rexburg. Jeff has decided to get his degree in Accounting and work towards his CPA. I think that's a great idea for him and it will be a great way to provide for his family.

Both of them are enjoying sports right now playing softball and baseball. I'm excited for their new and eternal life together.

Adrian and Amanda

Adrian and Amanda at the temple in Oakland. Amanda was one of the bridesmaids and she looked beautiful in her dress. She is pregnant with our 2nd grandson, Adezmus. She is due in July and we are very excited to meet the little guy. Adrian has been such a blessing and it was so great to see him for this trip.

Great smile...

At the temple.... what a wonderful day and so grateful that we could be inside the temple with Jeff and Hillary. An experience we will not forget.

Brought back memories of our own sealing. The temple is such a sacred place and the spirit was so strong.

I feel truly blessed!

Mother, Daughter...

Me and Amanda at the wedding.

It was so nice to spend time with Amanda and Adrian. We even got to spend some time with Brian while he was in between jobs.

I sure wish that he would get an assignment out this way. It would be nice if she could have the baby out here where we could help. :-)

I'm praying for it!

Handsome men...

At the Oakland Temple for Jeff and Hillary's wedding. Jeremy, Shaun, Curtis, Troy and Dad.

Adrian and the horse...

We stopped in Utah to pick up Adrian on our way to the wedding. Here he is trying on the horse costume that Debbie and Bryce gave him when we went to Colorado last summer.

We were so excited to have him ride with us. We left Monday morning and stayed the night in Reno. He took his bike and rode it around the hotel parking lot with Papa and Max. He rode it around in the room too and bossed Max around telling him to get out of the way.

I love being a Nana.

National Arches

4 Wheelin' in Moab

April 2011: On our way to California for the wedding, we spent the night in Moab and then went to Arches National Park the next day and we took the 4 wheel path. Spent four hours 4 wheeling and saw the beautiful views of Moab.

Neither of us have stayed in Moab, nor been to the National Arches so this was a great experience.

Michael had a dream come true to be able to 4 wheel here. It was alot of fun!

Cadillac Ranch in Texas

Stopped at Cadillac Ranch just outside of Amarillo Texas. This started out as a bunch of cadillacs of different years as an art piece and then over the years people started adding the grafitti and although it is posted as you come in that grafitti is illegal, it is a tradition that the owner of the land supports.

It was interesting to see. We had seen it driving by the first time we went to Mississippi on Hwy 40, but never stopped. Now we can say we've been up close and personal.

It does snow in Mississippi

There is snow in Mississipi. Here's Max walking around in it. It doesn't last long, but they shut everything down for snow days. No school and many businesses are shut down. This is not much snow, but they take it very seriously out here. It's interesting.

Road trip to Biloxi

2/5/2011: We took a road trip with Max down to Biloxi, Mississippi. When I was 5 years old, I lived in Biloxi with my mom and my brother Michael for a few months. I still remember a few things from that time period. One was the beach and a jelly fish grazing my leg and stinging it.

We were able to see alot of the devestation cleaned up from Hurricane Katrina. It was amazing how many empty lots there were along the beach.

We also enjoyed a very good meal at a restaurant called The Bonefish. We later found out that they have one here in Memphis as well. Best seafood we have ever had to this point. Michael tried the Wolf Fish -- ugliest fish you will ever see, but tasted great!

We hope to make a trip to New Orleans soon to see more of the coast and also to see the Mississippi river from down there too.

Mississippi River

Nov 2010: We took the boys down to see the Mississippi River. Today (May 2011), the river is flooded above where they are standing by several feet.

Ole Miss vs State

We were able to get 4th row seats to the Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State game and took Jeff and Shaun. It was alot of fun! State won the game, but it was an exciting game. It was cold, but we enjoyed ourselves. They have really good BBQ Nachos at the games, yummy! It was Jeff and Shaun's first time at an SEC game. The stadium is awesome.

Graceland - Nov 2010

During Jeff and Shaun's visit, we took them to Graceland. It was our 2nd time attending and each time you see new things. It's really fun living only 20 minutes from Graceland.

After the tour, we went to a really good BBQ eating establishment down the road where a guy was singing Elvis songs. Good food, good company, lots of fun!

Thanksgiving 2010

Jeff and Shaun came to visit for Thanksgiving 2010. They flew into Nashville, TN and then rented a car and drove 3 hours to Memphis. After all was said and done, we realized that really wasn't cheaper than just paying the extra bucks to fly them into Memphis since we live a few short miles from that airport. Duh!

We had our Thanksgiving dinner at Brent and Stacie's house across the street. It was a great day! The food and company were great and we celebrated Michael's dad's birthday as well since it was the next day.

The four of us stayed awake and went Black Friday shopping starting at midnight for Jeff and Shaun's Christmas presents. It was fun.

Jeff had proposed to Hillary just before coming on the trip so he was preoccupied with thoughts of his fiance. :-) We had a great time with them here!

Our first Ole Miss game!

9/25/10: Our first Ole Miss game. Since that game, we were able to attend 2 more. One with Brent and Stacie and one with Jeff and Shaun. We hope to go to all the Home games for the 2011 season and beyond. We have grown to love Ole Miss, the official school of my favorite movie, The Blind Side.

In addition to loving football, we were able to see them play Fresno State and also the favorite Mississippi rival game of Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State. You are definitely either an Ole Miss or a State fan living out here and they love their football teams.

Michael is attending a program with Northwestern Mississippi called a 2 plus 2 program where he is wrapping up the Associates degree with NW and then he gets to attend Ole Miss for the Bachelors. We are very excited about the possibility of moving to Oxford for the 2 years. He can also take the courses at campuses in Desoto County where we live so if we end up purchasing a home before we move to Oxford, he can still get his degree from Ole Miss, which is a great accomplishment and we are very excited about that.

The team has tailgating in The Grove that lasts from Friday night at 10 pm until Saturday evening when the game is over. They take that very seriously as well. I've added some of the grove pics in the pics at the bottom. The fans set up tents with a full living room luxury feel, including their sattelite dishes and flat screen tv's and couches. The tables with the food are deocrated and the food smells yummy and there is alot of celebrating going on. We look forward to our friends and family coming to visit and attending games with us each year.