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Sunday, March 12, 2006

Memphis Zoo

The Memphis Zoo is an amazing zoo. They have lots of exhibits & animals that not a lot of zoos have. Lily LOVES seeing all the animals. This was one of the best zoos we have ever been to.

Lily with one of the panda bears.

Lily & Mommy watching the elephants (Lily's favorite) do tricks & get their morning snacks.

Lily & the giraffesJust "monkeying" around...
Lily "hatching"
This carousel had all different kinds of zoo animals to ride instead of horses. Lily wanted to ride every animal, but she finally decided on the tiger.

Lily acting goofy at the zoo

Friday, March 10, 2006

Peabody Ducks

The Peabody Hotel in Memphis is home to some pretty lucky ducks! These ducks live on the top floor of the hotel. Every morning after breakfast, a red carpet is rolled out for these ducks, who ride down to the lobby in the elevator where they walk the red carpet from the elevator right into the lobby fountain! They swim there all day & then at dinnertime they walk back to the elevator on their red carpet & ride up to their home on the top floor. It is quite a sight & a very popular attraction, as you can see all the people waiting.

Lily waiting for the 'Peabody Ducks' to make their daily grand entrance.

The ducks swimming in the lobby fountain

Memphis Queen

We rode down the Mississippi River on the Memphis Queen Riverboat. We got to see some Memphis landmarks & learn some Memphis history. Lily got a little bored since it was a long ride, but we tried to keep her entertained. It was such a nice day & we were so used to the cold Massachusetts weather it was nice to sit out on the deck & get some sun.

Lily & Mommy sunning on the deck

The "M" bridge which connects West Memphis, Arkansas & Memphis, Tennessee

The Pyramid Arena is home to basketball games & concerts. It is one of the most unique structures in the world & it is taller than the Statue of Liberty & the Taj Mahal. If you look to the right of the picture, you can see the M bridge in the background as well.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Beale Street carriage ride

We went to check out Beale Street our first day in Memphis. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe & found this Cinderella carriage tour that Lily just had to go on. We had never seen a carriage decorated like this, so it was a fun adventure. We had a great tour guide & learned a lot about Memphis.


SOOO EXCITED!Beale Street

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Memphis

Lily, Grammy, Uncle Doug & Mommy all went to Memphis to celebrate Uncle Doug's 21st birthday. (He wanted to see the band '311', who were performing a special concert in Memphis.) This is Lily on the plane with Grammy on the way there. I guess all the traveling we have done has benefited us - travelling with Lily is pretty easy. We are really lucky she is so good on flights - it makes our trips that much more enjoyable.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Playdate with Paige & Lexi


Here is Lily, Lexi & Paige. Paige & Lexi are friends of ours from Virginia.


Paige & Lily playing on the swings behind our house.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!
Lily & Mommy surprised Daddy with a special cake made by us!
Then Lily helped Daddy blow out ALL those candles :o)



Daddy's birthday present was tickets to a hockey game - daddy's favorite sport. I think Lily may have inherited that gene from him! We have an avid hockey fan at the age of 3! She LOVES going to hockey games - she yells "GO HOCKEY!" the entire game & gets up & cheers whenever anyone else does. She also loves dancing to the music in between plays.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Downtown Disney

On our last day in Florida we went to Downtown Disney. It's basically just a lot of shops & restaurants & fun things to see & do. Here's some pics of Lily just goofin' around...

LegoLand
This serpent & family with dogs is all made out of legos! It's fascinating what you can do with a few million legos...


Takin' a ride on the carousel

Lily in the Hundred Acre Woods?

We took Lily to the Rain Forest Cafe for the first time. She loved the elephants, but wasn't too sure about them when they blinked their eyes. She also didn't really like when the "thunderstorms" happened, but she got used to them & was starting to like them by the time we left.
Lily insisted on trying on every single hat she saw while we were in the Disney Store. Here are some of them...



Monday, February 13, 2006

SeaWorld

Grammy took Lily & Mommy to SeaWorld in Orlando this winter. We had such a great time! We spent several days at the park, so we got to take our time & enjoy the park, rather than rushing all over to get it all done in one day. We saw all the shows at least twice, and, at Lily's request, we saw the dolphin show 4 or 5 times.

Unfortunately it wasn't ALL fun in Florida...The day after we got there, Lily woke up in the middle of the night gasping for breath & it seemed like she wasn't able to breathe very well. She was hysterical & after a few minutes of this & nothing getting any better, we called 911. While we were waiting, the ever calm Grammy took Lily into the bathroom & turned on the hot shower to make the bathroom steamy. This seemed to help quite a bit & when the paramedics FINALLY arrived they said it was a classic case of whooping cough! I know about whooping cough, but I had never heard of a child waking up not being able to breathe because of it. Well, now I know better. We took her to the hospital & they gave her a dose of steroids & had her use a breathing machine, which she did not like at all, even though it made her feel a lot better. Thank God it wasn't anything more serious. And we were so lucky to have Grammy there to save the day, who stayed calm & knew just what to do. When we got back to the hotel, there was a basket for Lily from the night staff at the hotel that included a dolphin stuffed animal, a balloon, cotton candy, M&M's & other treats. Lily thought it was the neatest thing & we couldn't believe how thoughtful the hotel staff was. It was such a nice thing to come back to after a night like the one we had. We were a little worried about how she would feel the rest of the trip, but the next day she was back to her old self & acting like nothing had ever happened!
Here are some pics of our happier memories from SeaWorld.

We got to see all kinds of animals. Penguins, polar bears, flamingos, beluga whales, manatees, seals, sea lions, sharks, stingrays, turtles, walruses, Clydesdale horses, dolphins (Lily's favorite) and, of course, killer whales.

Lily & Mommy at the Shamu show
We didn't get to see the whole Shamu show, because two of the whales (brothers) got into an argument. They had to postpone the show & move all the other whales into a different pool until the whales made up & could perform again.Shamu family


Lily was thrilled when she found out she could feed the dolphins. We got a little plate of fish (yuck!) & just held the fish out. The dolphin would swim right over to us & Lily dropped the fish right in the dolphins mouth!
Lily's most favorite thing at SeaWorld was the dolphin show. She told anyone that would listen that "the girl takes off all her clothes". The dolphin trainer comes out at the beginning of the show wearing a dress. She does a skit & sings a song & then her dress is pulled off to reveal her diving suit. Then she dives into the water with the dolphins. I can't tell you how many times I heard Lily say that she wanted to "go see the girl take all her clothes off" & I can't imagine what people thought who were nearby us & heard her. When she told Daddy about it, Daddy said "WHAT!?!?" which made Lily laugh HYSTERICALLY! That was their little joke for a couple weeks & every time they would talk, Lily would make him say it over & over.

We took time to stop & smell the flowers...
ALL the flowers...
I don't think there were any flowers in SeaWorld that went "un-sniffed"

Clyde & Seamore Take Pirate Island
This show was hilarious! Lily laughed almost non-stop. Lily thought the funniest part was when the walrus came out at the end & danced. She said he was "shaking his booty". :o)
Lily & Grammy watching the show

Mommy & Lily with 'Kelly' the Clydesdale

'Shamu & Crew' Breakfast
Lily loved having breakfast with Shamu & his friends. Here's a picture of her with Dolly the Dolphin, Shamu, Miles the Manatee and Pete the Penguin.
All the excitement gets tiring!!