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!!)