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.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program

Okay.  I know what you are all thinking.  I'm a blogging failure.  I was in Alabama a month ago, and still haven't blogged it all!  I'm sorry!!  However, I have worse news.  This week I get to play at Girls Camp so you'll have to wait a few more days... and since Girls Camp means more pictures, I'm going to be even more behind!!!  I promise to finish blogging Alabama... and Girls Camp... and Family Reunion... and ...  oh!!! I'll never be caught up.  I may have to devote an entire Sunday!  Anyway I'll see you all when I get back and hopefully I can get the rest of my life blogged.  Remember when I had a boring life???  Not anymore!!

Sunday in Alabama

 Sunday I slept as late as possible (church was at 9, so not very late) and then we got dressed and ready and headed off to church.  Lynae is the first counselor in the Primary Presidency, and the President had moved away on Saturday, and the rest of the Presidency was not going to be there so Lynae was playing the one woman show.  Tyler is the Elder's Quorum President, so we didn't see him until half way through Sacrament Meeting.  Turns out he had a rather interesting experience getting one of the new converts to church.  He lives in a really bad part of town and Tyler had a bit of a run in with the converts brother who tried to tell Tyler that he shouldn't be allowed to go to church because he needed to be punished for the bad things he'd done.  Tyler tried to explain to him that he just came to give the convert a ride and that if he wanted to go to church, Tyler was going to get him there.  After church when we went to drop him off, he was locked out of the house.  It was kind of nuts, but reminded me of some of the "ghetto" areas on my mission.  Sacrament Meeting was good.  Hannah had to speak and she did a great job.  I was sitting in Sunday School, when Tyler came in and told me that Lynae needed help in the nursery.  I grabbed my stuff and headed for the nursery.  They had a bunch of super cute kids, including Camden, so not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning.  The best part was when we took the kids outside to blow bubbles and they saw a spider crawling on the sidewalk.  We had sung the Itsy Bitsy Spider during Singing Time so I pointed out the spider and told the kids it was the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  They were fascinated.  After church we went home and ate our Rice Box leftovers and put Camden down for his nap and decided to join him.  I spent a few minutes reading (Kayla gave me The Hunger Games series for the trip) and a few hours sleeping.  It was great!!  After nap time, we got in the car and headed out to the Old Railroad Bridge.  It spans across half the Tennessee River, and was used during the Civil War.  It was really cool to see.  It's a little more than a quarter of a mile long and is not used anymore except as a pedestrian bridge, though since an 1872 train accident it stops in the middle of the river so you can't actually cross the river on it.  It was really cool to walk down a bridge that was such a part of history.

 This is the O'neal Bridge.  It's one of the ones you can drive into Florence in.

 All of us on the bridge.  It's kind of a faraway picture because we were the only ones there, so the only way to get a picture was to put the camera on the other side of the bridge rails and set the timer.

 The Florence side.

 The dam bridge off in the distance.  You can also drive on that one. 

 There is kind of an island in the middle of the river right about where the Old Railroad Bridge ends.  

 I really liked how the sun was shining through the bridge on the water. 

 Some river front property on the Sheffield side of the river.  Some are condos, some are houses, all are huge and amazing!

We pushed Camden in the stroller across to the dead end side of the river, but then he wanted to get out.  He ended up pushing the empty stroller all the way back.  Not bad for an 18 month old, who's still a little shaky!!

Alabama is an extremely humid place.  This was one of the first days when I realized I "wasn't in [Utah] anymore"  When we got back to the car, we guzzled water and headed home.  Lynae made pork roast with mashed potatoes and rolls for dinner.  It was yummy.  We put Camden to bed and continued the tournament!  I think we played Rummikub that night, and I think Tyler won once and Lynae won once.  I don't remember, but I know I lost!!  I think living alone has made me rusty!!  Monday and Tuesday are coming!!

Alabama: Friday and Saturday

I know you have all been anxiously awaiting my blog about Alabama and since I have limited time in my life, now that I 'm back to work, I decided to do the first few days to get you started and then I'll post the rest.  On Friday May 27 I arrived at the Salt Lake Airport around 1:00 for a 2:30 flight.  I checked my bag and got into a really long security line.  It took about 45 minutes to get through security, but I didn't get stopped so that is good!  I flew to Dallas/Fort Worth where I had an hour and a half layover.  The flight was pretty uneventful, except I had to pee and didn't want to climb over two people (I had the window seat) and cram into an airplane bathroom, so I was praying that the restroom would be close to the gate when I got out.  My prayer was answered and it was a good thing I didn't have to rush to my next flight.  I found a place to get some food close to the gate I needed which was good because the Dallas airport is huge.  They have a tram thing that takes you to your gate because they're so far apart.  I continued on to Birmingham where I found my suitcase and Lynae and we drove into Birmingham to find some dinner.  She took me to a BBQ place called Jim and Nick's (it was after 9:30 so we were lucky to find it open) where we feasted on Pigs in a Potato and "biscuits".  The biscuits were what I would have called muffins, but in the south they are biscuits.  The potatoes were stuffed with pulled pork, bacon bits, cheese, sour cream, and green onions.  They were delicious but huge.  We decided afterward that we could have shared one.  I had texted Lynae a few days before I left and asked her if we would be able to get in a temple session at the Birmingham Temple and since Birmingham is about 2 1/2 hours from Florence, she opted to get a hotel room in Birmingham for Friday night.  We stayed up for a lot of hours talking and catching up and then slept late Saturday morning.  After breakfast at the hotel, and hurriedly getting ready, we ventured to Gardendale to attend the 11:00 session.  We were running a bit late and made it to the recommend desk at 10:59, but they were sweet enough to hold the session a few minutes for us.  It was a great experience in one of the smaller temples and when we were through we got some pictures.

After the temple, we headed north to Florence.  On the way Lynae wanted to stop at this little Dutch bakery.

They had a lot of interesting stuff. We bought some nine grain bread and some sourdough wheat bread and then had our leftover potatoes for lunch on the road.

 

 We passed some fairly significant tornado damage on the way to Florence.  The devastation was devastating. Probably why they call it that huh??  We saw a lot of downed trees, poles bent in half, signs that were blown completely over, and a neighborhood where the houses had some walls but total devastation.  We arrived in Florence a little after 3 and Lynae told me some of the geography of the area.  The whole area is called The Shoals and the Tennessee River plays a big part of the region.  It's really a very beautiful, green place.  She took me the "long way" home so I could get a feel for Old Florence and a little bit of the Campus of the University of North Alabama, where Tyler works.  When we got to their house, I called out a quick hello to Hannah who was on her way to work and then said hello to Tyler and Camden.  When Tyler showed me to the guest room (actually Hannah's room, so thanks to her for sharing her bed) I found this on my bed:

We discussed some of our plans for the week and then played with Camden and the camera for a bit.  That kid moves fast... getting a focused picture was a bit of a challenge.

He was upset because I wouldn't give him the camera, but then Mommy pulled out her camera and we played a bit of a trick on him... the result:  this next picture!  He really is one super cute kid!

We decided to go to a restaurant called the Rice Box for dinner.  It is a Chinese restaurant and I still crave that food!! I had coconut chicken, Tyler had pineapple chicken, and Lynae had honey sesame chicken and we all ate each others.  It was so yummy!!  I was happy we had leftovers because we ate it Sunday after church.  When we got back home, we put Camden to bed and then started a tournament!  When Tyler and Lynae lived here, we used to get together and play games for FHE.  Tyler had a scorecard all set up with games all picked out and so we played the first tournament.  Tyler won.  Tyler often wins.  After that we watched a really dumb movie that we rented from Redbox and exhaustedly went to bed.

Preview

I don't have time to blog Alabama right now, but I thought I 'd do a teaser.  This is what I got to see for the whole 5 days!!

Isn't that the cutest face you ever saw?  (The one on the left!!)

See you in a week!! Hopefully I'll remember to pull out the camera occasionally so you can all share it with me!!

Catching Up

It's been a really long time since I posted anything, so I thought I'd do a quick catch up post.  A few weeks ago I was asked to sing a solo in Sacrament Meeting and that happened today.  I chose the song Once there was One, which is one I've sung a few times before so it's familiar and very beautiful.  It turned out really good and thanks to the Spirit I got through it and added a lot to the spirit of the meeting.  After it was over, I got a lot of compliments and a lot of people told me that they didn't know I could sing like that.  I don't try to hide my talents, but singing solo is not something I'm absolutely comfortable with, except in the shower.  I was happy to share my talent and would do it again if asked, but it's not something I beg for.  In other news, Alabama is 5 days away!!  I am so excited!  It will be so nice to get away for a few days and especially to a place I've not been.  Yesterday I was at Mom and Dad's and 7 year old Colin asked me to bring him something from Alabama.  I asked him what kind of something and he promptly replied, "I don't know, something random... something boy style."  I laughed.  Mom suggested a rock.  He'd love it!!  Anyway I'm excited.  I guess that's all for now!!

Funny Quote

I found this quote the other day.  I don't remember where, so I can't give credit, but I laughed so hard and decided to share it here.  I like it A LOT!!!

I figured out why I’m so fat. The shampoo I use in the shower that runs down my body says “for extra volume and body.” I’m going to start using Dawn dish washing soap. It says, “dissolves fat that is otherwise difficult to remove.”