Yesterday, my mom-in-law and I took the boys and my precious niece Haley to downtown Memphis. Our plans were to see a Redbirds baseball game, walk around downtown, ride the trolley, see the Peabody ducks, and then meet "Pa" (my dear husband) at The Big Foot Lodge for dinner.

    When we were making these big plans about a month ago, we somehow forgot what Memphis is like on June 26th. As we were leaving the house, I glanced at our thermometer. 93 degrees. And that is on the screen porch in the shade and under a ceiling fan. Just what would it be like in the sun at the baseball stadium? You guessed it! It was unbelievable. Hot. Hot. Hot. I think I have only been hotter one other time in my life and that was scouting cotton in August in a field of hundreds of acres of cotton with no shade in sight. Very hot.

    The kids were troopers. With the help of a $3.50 sno-cone for each of us, we survived to the top of the 8th inning. And I realized that it was a sin that we have not taken our boys to more ballgames. They were fascinated. Jake called every pitch and even towards the end of the game, he began to disagree with the umpire. I told him that he was just like his father (who later chided me for putting that idea in Jake's head...but it was an idea that Jake was very proud of). When we sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the 7th inning stretch, Jake changed the words from "1...2...3 strikes...you're out!" to "1...2...3...4 balls...you walk!".

    We caught the trolley for a joyride and rode it until the driver said we had to get off...we were at the end of the line. So we just caught the next one going in the opposite direction. I never realized how many questions my kids ask and how loud they could be until we were on that trolley with several sleeping people who apparently were just riding to catch a breeze (kind of like us). Jake and Haley were just awestruck by the buildings and the interesting people and the signs and on and on. And they had a question about every detail. My dear Ben was very, very quiet. He snuggled up against me (mama bear) and tried to feel as safe as he could.

    When we finally made it to the Peabody Hotel, I had to tell them that this was a very expensive hotel and that we needed to use our inside voices. My mom-in-law said she felt like she was just back at VBS. I think Jake was the only one who actually noticed and maybe even appreciated the exquisite detail in that hotel. He was pointing things out to me left and right ("the ceiling, Mama, look at the ceiling!"). We rode the elevator up to the Skyway and looked at all of Memphis from a dizzying height. That was just the icing on the cake for those country kids in the big city.

    We really should get out more...nahh...then they would lose their wonder, their joy, their excitement. And that was what our day was all about!