The final Alabama post... finally

Okay so let's wrap up May!!!  Wednesday was my last day in Alabama and I had to leave Florence at about 1:30 to catch my plane on time.  It was the day we had to pack in everything else that I wanted to do.  I had no idea that Helen Keller's birthplace was just minutes from Lynae and Tyler, and I decided I'd feel really bad if I didn't take the opportunity to see it.  Tyler went to work and Hannah, Lynae, Camden, and I headed to Tuscumbia to take a bite of history in.  Lynae decided to stay outside with Camden, so Hannah and I went in for the tour.  It's a pretty small house, and I didn't learn a whole lot I didn't know, but it was really fun.  Here's a few pictures:

The house Helen Keller was born in.

 Helen's parent's bedroom, with Helen's dresses hanging in the closet.

 The dining room where the incident with Annie happened. 

 Hannah standing in front of the cottage where Annie and Helen went.  They put Helen in a buggy and drove her around for a few hours and then went to the cottage.  It's about 15 feet from the main house. 

 The famous water pump, where Helen finally spelled "water" to Annie.

 Me, Lynae and Camden

 Lynae and I

After walking around for a little while, we met Tyler for lunch at Ricatonis Italian Grill.

This was the restaurant that Vance said I had to go to before leaving for home.  I asked Cheryl what her favorite was and she said "I can't remember what it's called, but it's got chicken in like a lemon mushroom sauce."  Well that was enough description for me to find it on the menu.

Rotolo di Pollo (al prosciutto e formaggio)  

IT WAS AMAZING!!!  Everyone who gave me suggestions on what to eat, was right on!! It was delightful!! Lemon mushroom sauce is a great idea!!  They also had this AMAZING bread!!  So yummy!!

This is really a terrible picture, but it's the only one I have of everybody.  

When we were done, we went out and I took this picture of the Alabamites!! 

It was nearing time for me to head south to the airport.  Lynae didn't want to take Camden in the car for 5 hours down and back and had an interview with the Bishop before she would make it, so we decided Hannah would take me.  

My last picture with Camden!! I'm missing this face!!!

Lynae asked if I'd mind driving to Birmingham so Hannah only had to drive one way.  I told her I didn't mind, but we'd need Kiki Von Garmin, to tell us where to go.  She hooked it up and I had fun following the directions.  I need to get me a Kiki.  We got to the airport safely and I bid farewell to Alabama!

A big shout out to Lynae and Tyler for letting me crash their house for a few days, and to Hannah for sleeping on the floor in the living room and letting me sleep in her bed.  It was probably one of the best vacations I've ever had!! Love you guys!!

Alabama: Tuesday

On Tuesday, Lynae had to go to work for a little while in the morning and then she and Tyler had an appointment for life insurance.  Hannah and I got Camden up and ready and waited for Lynae to come and pick us up.  We were going to go with them to the life insurance place so that we could go to lunch before Tyler had to go back to work.  Lynae ended up being late from work so Camden and I entertained ourselves with little kid youtube videos.  Camden really likes this one version of Old McDonald Had A Farm, and while it was annoyingly 2 year old, it was pretty cute.  When he (I) got bored with that I went to the Boowa and Kwala website and played silly songs from that and he really seemed to like that.  When Lynae got there, we left to go get Tyler and Camden and I waited in the car while they went in to the life insurance place.  Due to some technical difficulties, it ended up taking much longer than either of them thought it would, and there is only so much you can do to entertain an eighteen month old in the car, so I pulled out the camera.  Here is the result of two people trying their best to be entertained:

Camden took this picture of himself.

When Lynae and Tyler came out, we headed off to Singletons BBQ.  I figured that as long as I was in the South I'd better fit in as much barbecue as I could.

At Singleton's you order your meat and sides and then they have different sauces on your table and  you go wild.  I had pork and chicken and Tyler recommended his favorite sauce and it was delightful!!  Seriously, aside from the company; the best thing about Alabama was the food!!  After Singleton's we went home to put Camden down for a nap and Tyler headed back to work.  Camden doesn't sleep if it's at all noisy, so Lynae and I were really careful to be quiet.  We grabbed the computer and watched the latest episode of The Bachelorette.  Hannah came home and Camden woke up after only sleeping for about an hour.  It was kind of evident to us that he wasn't done sleeping, but he wouldn't go back to sleep.  Lynae said she'd pack up the house for our next round of adventures if Hannah would take me to get the car from Tyler on her way to work.  I memorized the route so I could find the house again, and successfully drove back.  We had decided that day to go to the visiting center and the 5 star Marriott Hotel where Hannah works and to see the fountains.  The point of the visiting center was to see if I could find a souvenir.  I found some free maps and a pen that writes better than any pen I've ever written with.  I love free souvenirs!!

After the visiting center, we took Camden out to the playground and to the fountains.  It's a lot like the fountains at the Gateway mall in Salt Lake, but much bigger.  I am a total failure, and left my camera in the car, so there is no picture evidence, but it was funny!  We hadn't put him in his swimsuit, and so it was like a joke trying to keep him from getting in too far.  We only had one moment when he went running and I had to go running after him, and so resulted in a little soakage, but not too bad.  We laughed about it, and headed back to the playground!  After we left the hotel, Lynae wanted to stop by one of her visiting teaching ladies that lived near there, so we turned on Kiki von Garmin (the GPS system) to find her house.  After a quick stop we decided to head into town and visit Cupcakes and Co.  We'd seen it a few days before, but it had been closed for the holiday.  The lady at the visiting center told us they had happy hour from 4 till 5 every day and so the cupcakes were buy one get one free.  It smelled amazing when we walked in.  They had 6 different kinds and we decided that for 2 for 1 we'd try all 6.  There was strawberry, M&M, red velvet, white, triple chocolate, and my personal favorite, Mississippi Mud.  We grabbed some forks and some water, and went at it.  We each took a few bites of all of them, and then took the leftovers to Tyler.  The only one we didn't really like was the Red Velvet.  It was really dry.  And like I said before the favorite (for me anyway) was the Mississippi Mud.  It was more like a brownie than a cupcake and had lots of chocolate and marshmallows and YUM!!!

Camden and I trying the Strawberry one ( I think this was Tyler's favorite)

Our "Six" cupcakes   The strawberry one was already on our plate!

The spoils.  

For the record, Camden's favorite part was just the mini M&M's from the top of the M&M one.  

After Cupcakes and Co. we went to get Tyler from work so we could go to dinner.  Like I said before, the food was one of the best things about this trip and our choice for Tuesday night did not disappoint.  We ended up at the local Mexican place, Rosie's Cantina.  Jocelyn told me that we needed to go there and since the Cinnamon ice cream with chocolate chips experience, I don't doubt what Jocelyn tells me.  It was DELICIOUS!!!  I ordered Pollo Fiesta!  I think Lynae was jealous!  It was so good!!

After dinner, we had about an hour to kill before Lynae and Tyler's softball game so we drove around and saw some fun sites.  There is this park right near the river.  I took some pretty cool pictures.  Apparently it used to be a golf course, but anytime the river ran high, it got flooded so they just turned it into a park.

I really liked these cliffs reflecting in the water... it was a really cool view. 

They had all these teepees set up.  Tyler took Camden on Saturday while Lynae and I were at the temple.  Pretty cool!

There was something about the bridge and the cliffs and the water.  So pretty!

We also drove to The Rosenbaum house.  It was designed by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright.  I thought it was a little weird.

We headed to the ball park where it was evident that Camden was overly tired.  It was hot and humid and he was so cranky.  He was super sweaty, so Lynae gave him a new spiky hair do.  It was pretty funny.

Anytime Lynae and Tyler went to field or bat he'd throw a fit.  It was hard to take care of him when all he wanted was mama.  If I had it to do all over again, I'd encourage them to take Camden and I home and I would have put him to bed while they played.

 However, if I had done that I wouldn't have gotten these cool sunset pictures.

After a win, and a complete melt down from Camden, we headed home to put him to bed.  As soon as he was settled and Tyler was talked into staying with him (not that that took much), Lynae and I headed back to Ice Cream Corner.  It was actually closed when we got there, but they stayed open to take a few more orders.  Lynae was in the mood for something refreshing, so ended up mixing orange pineapple ice cream with orange sherbet in a waffle bowl, and I got Coconut cream pie in a waffle bowl.  It was so amazing.  Cheryl called while we were out, and was very jealous of us. We told her we'd be sure to have a few bites for her.

This is their mailbox.  It made me giggle!

After our ice cream binge, we headed home.  We sat in the car in the garage for a while and talked about some stuff.  Besides the food, the other thing I miss is just being able to talk to Lynae about anything.  I know I could call her, and chat, but it's just not the same.  While we were talking in the garage Tyler came out and told us he was tired, and ready for bed, but we wanted to play a game.  Hannah came home and we played 5 phases of Phase 10, which I think Tyler won.  Surprise, surprise!!  It was a long day, but very fun and we went to bed exhausted and sad that there was only one more day.

Alabama continued: Memorial Day at Spring Park and UNA

For our Memorial  Day celebration, Lynae had heard about this park in Tuscumbia that had a duck pond, and a train, and some other things that sounded like fun, so we got directions and headed out.  When we got there, Camden went for the playground and we followed.  We laughed a little bit about how we had one toddler and four adults, but we had fun with him anyway.  Everyone took a turn.

 Mommy and Camden hit the slide...

Hannah and Camden on the big purple dinosaur...

 Daddy helps Camden "fly"...

  "Aunt" Julie and Camden swing...

 Lynae thought this would be fun... Camden, not too sure!!

After the playground, we headed over to the duck/geese pond.  These are birds that are used to people, because they were not shy.  We didn't have any bread with us, but Lynae found some graham crackers in the diaper bag and it turns out, the ducks and geese are not picky. 

 Camden was a little shy.

 This picture kind of made me laugh because I told Camden to point to the goose and my camera has a kind of long delay, so it's kind of amazing I got a picture with his finger pointing exactly to the goose.  He was pretty excited by this point. 

 Hannah was a little nervous about how close this goose was getting.  I thought it was a funny picture. 

 This one really wanted his picture taken up close.  He's the same one Hannah is afraid of in the earlier picture. 

 This is me feeding the goose a graham cracker... he was hungry and ripped it right out of my hand. 

After a few minutes at the duck pond, we decided to check out the train.  They also had a little roller coaster and a merry go round.  You could ride all of them for $7 each so we bought the passes and set out.  Lynae and Tyler decided they could share one pass and took turns taking Camden.

 The girls and Camden. 

 Lynae didn't want to ride on the roller coaster so Hannah, Tyler, Camden, and I went on it.  I took Camden with me, and Hannah and Tyler rode in front and in back.  It was a pretty rickety jerky roller coaster and I couldn't tell if Camden was enjoying it.  He was crying by the end.  It was all I could do to hold his head against me so it wouldn't jerk violently.

The merry go round had a 150 pound weight limit so we put Camden on the horse and I rode standing next to him.  It kind of freaked him out, but I think he had a good time.

After the carousel we decided to go on the train again, this time with Tyler, and this time I sat in front of them so I could take pictures of Camden.

One more time around was enough for us (doesn't Camden look bored) so we decided to head over to Big Spring (hence the name of the park) and take in the waterfall.

We played for a few more minutes at the park and then left to get some lunch.  We ended up getting take out from a fast food place called Zaxby's.  It's not really any different from regular fast food, except they have Zaxby's sauce which if you ask me is a take off from fry sauce, but better!  Yes folks, you heard it here first.  My company invented fry sauce and we've found better!!  Don't tell my boss okay??  After lunch we put Camden down for his nap and Hannah decided to nap too, so we left them home and Lynae and Tyler and I headed out again, this time for a tour of UNA-- The University of North Alabama-- which is where Tyler works and the reason for them living in Alabama!!

This is Tyler's office.  He's the ticket manager for the University.  He's been a pretty big asset to them.  Before he came they didn't sell tickets online or have Credit card options.  He's also redesigned the season tickets to make them look a little more appealing.  Over all he has a pretty cool job, if you ask me.  He may feel differently, but it's well suited to him.  We took a tour of campus and stopped in to see Leo and Una, the school mascots.  UNA is the only school in the country that has live lions mascots living on campus.  They live in a 12,764 square foot habitat right in the middle of campus and people can go and visit year round.

The University of North Alabama is a pretty old school.  It started as Grange College in 1830.  Some of the buildings date back really far and it is a very pretty campus.  This building Wesleyan Hall, was used by both sides during the Civil War.  They have the original building built in 1855 and then a new building that was modeled exactly after the original.   

While we were in Tyler's office, Lynae was looking for a souvenir for me and Tyler pulled out this shirt.  It's a fun souvenir and it was free!!

After the campus tour in the heat and humidity, we decided it was time for some ice cream.  There is a great place called Ice Cream Corner where they make all their ice cream, and sell different flavors daily.  Lynae had told me about it, and then on Sunday we were talking to Jocelyn (Lynae's sister in law) and she told me I had to try the cinnamon ice cream with chocolate chips.  Lynae called ahead to make sure they had it, and when we found out they did, we went and got a half gallon.  Jocelyn knows her ice cream!!  It was sooooo good!!! After ice cream, Camden woke up from his nap, so we decided to pull out the kiddie pool and let him swim while we played Yahtzee.  I'm pretty sure Tyler won that too...

Dinner that night was a cook out.  Lynae had planned on hot dogs and hamburgers and sent Tyler out to the barbecue.  We had baked beans and chips and lemonade.  It was really good.  Later that night, we decided to leave Tyler with a sleeping Camden and have a girls night out.  We went to the movies.  Lynae said she hadn't been to a movie since Camden was born.  We went and saw Something Borrowed.  I didn't really like it.  It looked really cute, but I didn't really like how the plot progressed.  After the movie, Hannah was all ready to go out on the town, but Lynae and I didn't get our naps that day so we were ready for bed.  We went home and hit the sack.