Groovin' on Beale St.~Memphis

Here are some pictures of us hanging out on Beale St.

in Memphis~Tennessee. They close off the street so that only

people can walk through it. There are people everywhere! We

spent most of our time there during the day...it gets a little

crazy after dark, especially for the kids! Cool places to eat &

bands playing every couple hundred feet trying to get noticed. Dave had Ty on his shoulders and we were walking

through Beale St. Loud music was playing, people were dancing and rockin' to the beat of the blues. Dave was dancing around with Ty and we walked by this family and another dad had his son on his shoulders doing the same thing as Dave. Dave and this guy looked at each other as they were dancing around and said, "HEY!", and just laughed. Then his wife and I took a picture of them both, it was great!

Leave my mommy alone!

As you can see...Tyler is at that age where any time Dave

and I have a "moment" together...he is not a

happy camper. Hopefully he will get over that one soon.

Finger Lickin' GOOD

This was definitely one of Dave's proud moments
as a father. We were in Memphis, eating at Corky's,
which is the #1 BBQ restaurant in the nation. We ate
a lot of good food while his sister Casie was here with us.
Most of you know that Dave is a huge lover of good food,
especially of good BBQ. Not hamburgers and hot dogs
BBQ...I mean ribs, brisket, pulled pork, anything that
takes hours and hours to prepare...cooked in a pit
in the ground or a smoker. So when we sat down to eat and
both of our children devoured some ribs together, Dave was
so proud and grinning from ear to ear! This was just one of
our family's happy moments.

I'm all Shook Up...MMMmmmmMMM~

"GRACELAND"

We have a whole new love for Elvis Presley~

Oh my goodness...how cool was this place! We had the greatest time here in Memphis! It was seriously so cool to walk through Graceland and to see where Elvis lived. Totally surreal and unbelievable! I grew up with my Dad being an Elvis fan and shaking his hips to a good Rock 'n' Roll song. So in my family we all knew who Elvis was. Coming to Graceland was a huge deal for me and I think it was for Dave too. We just had a great time and we also had Dave's sister Casie with us and her daughter Kenzie. We just walked around in amazement and had so much fun! All of his clothes were on display from his shows and his cars, rooms and rooms full of things. Sooooo cool!! We were able to get a sitter for our kids for the afternoon and that made things so much better. We were really able to look at everything and thoroughly ENJOY ourselves! It took me forever to try and curl my upper lip and I still couldn't do it very well. It might have been because I had an older man standing in front of me saying..."Curl that lip baby, curl that thang, curl it!" I was laughing so hard! Dave had a double curl, upper and bottom lip! We really had a fun time, totally recommend it if you are ever in Memphis. There is a lot of history here, really cool stuff, cool town!

Campbell & Johnson family fun!

We had such a wonderful time with our families in Iowa! We are so grateful and feel blessed that they were all able to come. Good memories!

Good Times with Good Friends

Here are just a few of moments that we have had with our friends back in Iowa. There are a few missing from the pictures, a few are in Utah on vacation, some in New York and some in Arizona. We sure missed not being able to see them! It's hard when you all start to scatter all over the place. But things always change and you just have to figure how to make the best of things. Good times...good friends!

Our Graduation Activities

We just wanted to show the good times that we had in Iowa while we spent time with family and friends. We went to West Lake, Field of Dreams Movie Site, Maquoketa Caves and a friends pool. Dave gave our families a tour of Palmer and they were able to see where we have been for over 3 years. It was so much fun! The corn wasn't too high yet, but we still had to walk through it at "field of dreams". The only picture that we weren't able to get was me (Dara) being taken away by an ambulance after being hit by a car at Bluff Lake Restaurant. At least this excitement happened at the end of our trip and we were able to do all that we had planned. I'll explain...we had just finished eating dinner and we were all waiting out front for Dave to bring the car around. I was talking on the phone and couldn't hear so I moved around a bit, away from my kids, thank goodness! A guy was coming down the parking lot trying to get this space right in front. As he was turning to straighten out his SUV to back up into the space, he ran right into me in the parking lot! He wasn't even looking in front of him and didn't even see me. He hit me right in my low back and pelvis. An ambulance ride, x-rays and a cat scan later, I left with bruising and swelling and pain medication. What an eventful evening that we had! Thank goodness I know a good Chiropractor! I have been going into Dave's office that he is working at twice a day and Dr. Breck has been taking great care of me. I basically have whip lash in my back and have been extremely sore. Thank goodness that Dave's sister Casie is here visiting because she has been my saving grace! I know she was supposed to be here for a reason, she has been wonderful! Graduation weekend was full of excitement and interesting events, never a dull moment.