Memphis

What a fun weekend.  But lordy is it hard to travel as a family of five.  One hotel room for all of us tight quarters.  Especially when a certain one year old has trouble sleeping in a pack n play :)

We headed down on Thursday.  Russ had meetings Friday morning, so we basically hung out and explored walking distance Memphis.  We stayed at The Peabody so the hotel itself was a big hit.  C loved the ducks and there was so much entertainment.  A local choir singing Christmas carols had J mesmerized for what seemed like forever.  We found a little playground inside Autozone Park (home of the Memphis Redbirds) and had a fun lunch where we got to make our very own s'mores (yum!!)

Friday night was a pasta dinner for the St. Jude heroes...absolutely touching to hear about the millions of dollars raised for the hospital and the personal stories of patients and their families.  Heart wrenching.  If I'm honest, it was frustrating to hear these stories of "what could be" and all you want to do is hug and love and hold your children and instead I have a one year old throwing food and pulling my hair, a three year old that is so exhausted she falls asleep fork in hand, and an almost five year old that has to be coerced into taking x number of bites of her dinner so that she can have the brownies and cookies she is driving me nuts asking for....ggggggrrrrrrrr.  Really makes you realize how we get caught up in the small, mundane moments of parenting when there is really such a bigger picture.  They are healthy.  They are happy (most of the time).  They are the biggest blessings in my life.

We enjoyed being spectators for Saturday's run.  Enjoyed beautiful weather and good friends.  Par for the course we missed seeing Russ run past us, but managed to cheer on all the other JL runners. After a little rest time we headed out to dinner as a big JL group celebrating everyone's accomplishments.  We had 7 running the full marathon and 9 running the half.  WOW.

My middle girl...she is a trooper trying to hang with the big kids but not *quite* there :) 

(On a different note, didn't realize my lack of sleep was so apparent until I saw the pics...ugh.)

My C was so happy to see her daddy post-race and have a broad shoulder to lay her sweet head on...she slept like that forever!!

And my big girl....with her new BFF Ashley :)

Headed home Sunday after a quick swim.  Stopping at Lambert's with two other families travelling with us.  Yummy.

Overall, a great getaway.  A perfect way to put the Christmas season into perspective.  We have three beautiful girls who are healthy, growing, happy.  I am blessed in every way imaginable.  But I gotta tell you, next year our plans are for Russ and me to run the half and leave the little ones at home.  I think all the moms and dads agree that it was fun to have the kids participate, but when it comes down to it you are too consumed by all the weekend 'adult events' to have littles along for the ride!!