Road Trip: Alabama and back

We spent a full week in Alabama visiting with two separate friends. The first was my friend Kelli, who I've know since I was a kid. We grew up in Mesa together, just a few blocks away and were in the same ward and school together. It has been years since I saw her last. She also has three boys. It was pretty crazy at times, but it was so nice to be able to see her again and meet her family! She is a fabulous cook, and it was wonderful to eat REAL food again!

Next stop, was to see our good friends the Toronto's. Our husbands went to law school together and we got together several times when they lived in Ohio. They're now in Alabama and Ethan just loves playing with her boys (she's got 4 of them). Her husband was even brave enough to watch all 7 boys (by himself!) for a couple hours.

The boys had lots of fun just being crazy boys. We also took a trip to the Montgomery zoo. I couldn't believe it when we saw this animal (left)- I thought I took a picture of the name, but can't seem to find it now...It said it was a cross between a rabbit and an antelope. All it needs is antlers and it's a jackalope! And I always thought it was a mythical animal... They had a great playground, a train- perfect for our boys- and the giraffe habitat was pretty awesome.

On our trip back home the boys got Mardi Gras beads at the Louisiana welcome center, we stopped in Dallas to see my friend Katy from when I used to work at Novell, and got to see our good friends the Bachan's who we knew from New Hampshire. It was so nice to break up the trip visiting with friends. We also stopped by the Hot Air Balloon museum in Albuquerque before heading back. It was a great road trip, but it is always nice to come home!

Memphis, Tennessee LDS Temple Artwork

It was quite the rainy day in Memphis and I tried waiting for it to clear up, but no such luck. Sorry this is the best I could get! You can download free photos or order prints of the Memphis, Tennesse LDS Temple http://www.freeldstemplepictures.com

Road Trip: Texas to Kentucky

It's time to wrap up this road trip! (btw, happy birthday to my sweet husband, son Joshua and of course Dr Seuss). We left Houston and drove up past Hot Springs, Arkansas (on my list of vacation spots). It's so beautiful there and wish we could have stayed a few days rather than just drive through.

The reason we drove 2 hours out of our way to come here was to hit the high point of Arkansas. My husband is working on going to the high point of each state. I think this was number 36... It was hurricane like conditions by the time we reached  Magazine Mountain, torrential rain, gusty winds, and lightning that lit up the sky. Umbrella or not, my husband was soaked after just a few minutes- hard to stay dry when the rain comes horizontally. But that didn't deter him. I waited in the car with the boys while he hiked over to signal hill to take a picture of the sign. It seems that almost every high point adventure we've gone on ends up in torrential rain...

We stopped in Memphis, TN to take pictures of the temple (will post next) and then next in Jackson, TN, home of famous train engineer Casey Jones. Since my boys are such train fanatics, they were excited to see his home and the train.

 

We were so happy when we finally made it to Kentucky. The boys were so excited to be "home" again, although they were disappointed they couldn't play in our old backyard. It was so nice to see all our friends again and feel like things were back to normal again, at least for a day or two. My husband had to fly back two days later, but it was better this time knowing it would only be 4 months before we see him again.

We went to Music Makers, the weekly activity we used to attend when we lived here. Ethan was so excited to see his best little friend. She was excited to see him too and they hugged nonstop the whole time. It was so cute.

We stopped by the Louisville Zoo on our way to take him to the airport... 

Grant was asleep by the time we got to the airport, but Ethan and Joshua gave him great big hugs. Grant still asks "where dad'n go?" We feel really blessed that we will be able to see him twice during one deployment, breaking it up into 4 month segments sure is easier than taking 6 months at a time.

We miss you already!

Houston, Texas LDS Temple Artwork

I was so glad to I could photograph the lovely Houston, Texas temple. It is such a beautiful temple, and this is in the middle of winter! Actually both times I've been here were in the middle of winter. I can only imagine how beautiful it would be in the spring. You can download these images of the Houston temple on my free lds temple pictures website.

Road Trip: Houston, Texas

We were so happy to finally get to Houston and see daddy! The boys could hardly contain their excitement. We stopped on the way to visit the Sam Houston memorial. All I can say is WOW. I was shocked at the massive size of this statute! They sure don't mess around with stuff in Texas, I'm think I understand why they say everything is bigger there...

So, we got to the airport and waited for his flight to come in. After a few minutes I got up to look at the board for his flight number and saw that it was cancelled due to weather. After talking to several people I was told that the flight would be in at noon, but the flight number they gave me was for midnight. We waited until about 12:30 and then finally decided to leave and come back when he called. We just pulled out of our parking space when my phone rang! He was able to fly standby on the last flight that morning. The boys had fun running around and wrestling with daddy, it was so nice to be together as a family again! 

                 

We had a fun time at the Houston Children's Museum (which is probably where we caught a cold virus that left us trapped in our hotel room sneezing and coughing for five days!) They had these machine lego's where you could build tractors, airplanes and more. We're definitely adding those to our future Christmas list... 

This is what we did to pass the time while we were sick...

and lots of this...

We did manage to see a few other things while we were in Houston despite being sick for half the time (during beautiful 75-80 degree weather).

Right next to the zoo there is a huge park and look what we found climbing out of the lake! The boys of course chased the poor thing around and Grant almost jumped/fell in after it...fortunately we didn't have to rescue anyone...

The only disadvantage of owning an SLR...when you ask random strangers to take your picture, they can't seem to get that you actually have to look through the lens and focus...oh well...we tried.

The aquarium was a lot of fun. The boys really enjoyed the train ride which took us through an aquarium tunnel. They got to pet baby sharks and sting ray's and we ate dinner in the restaurant surrounded by fish. Reminded us of the Bahamas- Atlantis has an amazing floor to ceiling aquarium in the restaurant and a huge tunnel you can walk through with huge shark floating right over head (not to mention next to you when you slide down the water slide- creepy even though there is glass between you). Anyway...they also had a huge white tiger which actually jumped up and started pacing back and forth right next to the glass, the boys loved it.

We really loved Houston and only wish we hadn't been sick for half the trip so we could have seen and done more. The shopping there is AMAZING. I couldn't believe how many fabulous shopping centers there were within a 3 mile radius. It was interesting to see the transformation in the boys' too. Joshua magically stopped being so grumpy and Grant actually slept in his own bed again. It was wonderful (and gives me hope that the grouchiness and sleepless nights won't last forever)!