Jeremy Visits! Part I

Consider yourself warned -- there will be a lot of pictures in this post and the next!  I finally met my big brother Jeremy last weekend, so we ended up with a bunch of awesome pictures that I can't seem to narrow down much.

So, contacting my dad led to connecting with my brother and sister, which has been so, so great.  Growing up I always wished I had siblings, ( I knew they were out there somewhere!) and now I finally get to have that relationship with two totally awesome people.  I feel pretty lucky.  It turns out that Jeremy and his wife Flavia have been living in Pensacola (my hometown) for the past nine years, meaning that for a few years we shared the city.  Just another crazy part of this whole story (remember that my dad was working at UF the whole time I was there).  Jeremy is a boat captain, so he has a 28-days on/off schedule, and he was out in the Gulf on my last visit home.  So he made the trip up here to Memphis so we could finally meet!  

He got here Friday afternoon and we had an awesome time hanging out a bit before we went to Central BBQ for dinner.  I was a little worried because when Jeremy was about 10 minutes away, Paul decided to have a meltdown.  He was crying and fussing and just not happy (more teeth?) so I was unsure how he'd welcome his uncle!  Fortunately, he took to Uncle J right away!  He loved him.  He showed off, playing with his basketball and giving high fives and clapping.  

Our first picture together and Paul is taking advantage of it by trying to sneak up the stairs.

Paul and his Uncle Jeremy

On Saturday we went to the market for breakfast -- smoothies, of course, and to look around.  We didn't linger too long so we could spend lots of time at the zoo.  The zoo and Overton Park both had special events going on (besides being a beautiful Saturday) so it was very busy.  All the animals were out, though, and we had a great time.

Red pandas confused Paul -- "cat? ruff ruff?"

This pretty guy was staring me down.

Beautiful lions

Paul had to reach pretty high up for this!

The only picture of all of us, thanks to Mark who was working the SCO event at the zoo!

We parked at our friends' house nearby and Paul and his buddy Brock were extremely excited to see each other.

We left the zoo around lunch time, when the sun was really beating down and we were starting to get hungry.  Michael picked up Soul Fish for us and we ate at the house so Paul could play around a little before a nice, long nap.  Once he woke up, we headed downtown for Main Street and Beale Street.

With Beale Street in the background.

Family picture!

 Naturally, walking around downtown worked up an appetite, so we took Jeremy to another of our favorite places -- Trolley Stop Market.  We shared a gigantic pizza but still had room for some delicious gelato from Yolo.  Once Paul went to bed we looked through pictures and talked.  We have a lot to catch up on!  Our big day was done, but we still had some more fun to come.