Reunion Weekend in Memphis

This past weekend was Ben's 10th high school reunion. We arrived in town on late Thursday evening. Friday, Ben went to an alumni breakfast and then I met him over at his school and finally got to meet a good friend of his from high school. We walked around and got to see where all the stories I hear took place. We then went to my favorite burger place and I got my Huey burger, first time in over a year. Ben's best friend, Scruggs joined us and we talked for hours. I felt so bad for our waiter!

That night we attended an alumni BBQ and I got to meet so many more people from his class. We hung out and watched the football game that night and Ben talked with his old professors. After the game we headed over to a restaurant for an after-party. I felt like I did the small talk conversation (What do you do....Where are you from....Where did you all meet) a million times. Finally Ben found another old friend of his and I got to talking to his wife and we never stopped. It was good to find someone to chat with!

Saturday we finally got to see Ben's parents that morning before jetting off to hang out with Scruggs. We went to lunch at an awesome Tex-Mex place (an upscale Moe's) and watched football. Here are the boys at lunch.

After that, we went to the botanical gardens and walked around and had so much fun.

How pretty is this?!?!

I am in a cocoon.

Ben staring down a squirrel and the squirrel staring down a nut.

Gingers in the wild!

The massive koi in the pond. It was seriously a feeding frenzy.

Ben, me and Scruggs

That night we went to dinner with Ben's parents finally. Then we went to visit his Grandmother and Aunt on our way to a party at one of his classmates houses'. It was so much fun to get to know some of the guys and hear stories about when they were in school. It just puts a whole new perspective on Ben's upbringing and stories.

After a very late night, we got up early (for us) and went to the zoo with Scruggs. He used to work there so he knows a lot of random things about the animals and exhibits. He is quite the comedian and had me crying laughing with some of his animal tidbits. Like, did you know that red pandas climb in the trees, spin webs and trap young children?

These birds kept sweeping down and flying just over our heads.

Ben had to stare it down too.

Scruggs swears the little one is not his. However, I do think Ben got his hairdo from the adult monkeys.

Meerkats. They are so cute but there is something so creepy about the way they stare at you.

Penguins are so adorable. I want one!

Scruggs, Ben and me.

We went back to Scruggs house and took a nap and then went out to dinner at Bosco's so I could have chocolate bread pudding. We also talked for hours here, after we had already had to move inside because we were too cold, and I felt terrible for our waiter.

The next day we got up, got ready and Scruggs came and ate lunch with us and Ben's parents. We then went on a small shopping excursion to Costco with Ben's mom. Our flight was supposed to leave at 5:10 PM so we got to the airport around 3:20. We sat and waited to leave and we were quickly approaching 5:00 and not being boarded. It turns out that Atlanta was having some bad weather and we would be delayed. We ended up not being able to board until 8:00. Then once we did board, we did not take off for 30 minutes once we pulled back from the gate. We circled Atlanta a couple times in the air and when we did land, our gate was occupied and it took another 40 minutes until we got to get off. The one good thing was that our luggage was already on the carousel when we got there. Then we had to wait 20 minutes for the train to get to the station and ride it all the way to the other end. All in all, when we were supposed to get home at 8:30 maybe 9:00, we got home at 1AM!!! We greatly appreciate our good friends Heather and Steve for being so patient and kind to pick us up so late. Hopefully our traveling to Paris next week will be uneventful!

At least the sunset at the airport was pretty.

Labor Day in Knoxville

This past weekend we went back to Knoxville for the long holiday weekend. We spent the weekend hanging out with family, watching the football game, getting my haircut and watching awesome fireworks at Boomsday. We headed downtown and grabbed my favorite pizza (that is easy because I do not like pizza), salmon pesto, at Tomato Head.


Ben enjoying the pizza, sorry it is blurry.


We then walked down towards the river and decided to settle down away from the crowds up the hill next to the courthouse. It was a pretty good view! Just me, waiting for the fireworks.



Ally is afraid of fireworks so we had to drag her down there, kicking and screaming, literally. She had cotton balls in her ears, a hoody over her head and my mom and her own hands over her ears. In the end, she confessed that she liked them.


So as you can tell, our life is pretty boring. Nothing much has happened that is worth blogging about but life is getting ready to get crazy. In a few weeks we head to Memphis for Ben's high school reunion and then 2 weeks after that we will be going to Paris for our 2nd anniversary, then a week after that, a quick trip to Knoxville to see some family. After that, it is all downhill to the holidays. Hopefully I will be posting more then.