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.