Wildlife and Flowers at Rock City

Rock City has lots of beautiful flowers blooming right now. I won't list the names, but there are lots of colors and varieties.

We also saw more wildlife than we'd expected. Rock City has white deer there year-round but we also saw a squirrel scurrying across the rocks (or as Grady called it, a "squell") and there was also a groundhog waaaay below us at the lookout point. I had my camera zoomed in as much as I could and you still can't see it well. It was hard to spot with the naked eye, it was just a grey spot on the ground below. I don't know how Tommy ever saw it to begin with!

Michael Sings

One of Michael's favorite songs is Little Fuzzy Caterpillar. Since he started speech class a few weeks ago, he is saying some of his letters (including f) much clearer. So, I videotaped him singing "wittle puzzy caterpiwar" while he still sang it in his little boy way. It's so cute...

Little fuzzy caterpillar, climbing up a tree
He wiggled long, he wiggled short
He wiggled right at me.

I put him in a box, now don't you move I said

But when I opened up the box

He was a butterfly instead.

Now I could never make one,

Not even if I tried.

'Cause only God in Heaven above can make a butterfly.

Michael also loves to sing the books of the New Testament, though he skips a few of those.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

Acts and the letters to the Romans,

1st and 2nd Corinthians,

Galatians and Ephesians,

Philippians, Colossians,

1st and 2nd Thessalonians,

1st and 2nd Timothy,

Titus and Philemon,

Hebrews, James, 1st and 2nd Peter,

1st and 2nd and 3rd John,

Jude and Revelation.

Edited to add: I haven't been able to get the video to upload yet, but I'm still working on it. It's so cute!

Good helpers

All of our boys are good helpers. They don't always want to be when I want them to be, but they're always good helpers. One afternoon we were working in the house together and Michael offered to wipe off the table for me. I was washing dishes and looked up to see him on the table, scrubbing those sticky spots with his sponge. I had to grab the camera!!! His brothers were cleaning up their room, if I remember correctly, and there wasn't anything spectacular happening there (there usually isn't as that is their least favorite chore). But, I had to show how hard Michael was working!!

Feeling spaced out?

Adam and I had a dinner to attend in Huntsville, so while we were there we went to the Space and Rocket Museum. Neither of us had ever been before, so it was very interesting. As you approach the entrance, this is what you see:





There are all sorts of exhibits based on the various space expeditions that have taken place over the last few decades. Before man entered space, monkeys went into space to see how their bodies would react. Adam loves monkeys and thinks you can't go wrong with anything if there's a monkey involved. So, this is a fitting description...


















They also have interactive exhibits set up so that you can "experience" space. In this one, I was landing a space shuttle. I did so without crashing, by the way. Adam didn't -- he crashed before he got the shuttle back on the ground.

Outside the museum, there are all sorts of missiles, rockets and military planes. Here's a rocket, Adam standing under it, a space shuttle and an SR-71.

I usually try to take a picture of Adam and me together wherever we go. Sometimes, they turn out better than others. It was a cold, windy day when we were in Huntsville and the glare from the sun made it difficult to tell what we were photographing (especially since we were doing it ourselves). It's not the best picture we've ever taken, but I still like it.





The moon was out the day we were there, so I thought it was fitting to take a picture since we were at the space museum.

Do you recognize this car??

I couldn't believe it when I saw this ad in a magazine. I just laughed out loud. I couldn't resist posting a picture of "Adam's car" from a magazine ad!! Obviously it isn't actually his car, but it sure does look like it.

Chuck E. Cheese

On January 20th, we went to the party supply store to buy Jackson's birthday party invitations and supplies. While in the area, we decided to go to Chuck E. Cheese since we hadn't been in a while. Boy were they busy!! It was a Saturday evening and there was a line out in the door into the (cold) parking lot. You couldn't even get in to the place, much less find a table or easily navigate between the games. We went in anyway. We were there for about 2 hours but only because that's how long it took to get our food and use the tokens we got with our meal. That's how crowded it was!! The boys had a good time, though, and we enjoyed playing games and spending the evening with them. It was actually a good thing that we went because up until that point we were considering having Jackson's birthday party there. We quickly changed our minds!!! Even though it would have been an afternoon party instead of an evening party, it still would have been crowded. So, the trip was actually beneficial in helping us change our minds on the party venue.

Anytime we go to Chuck E. Cheese, I always use 3 of our 50 (or however many they give us with a pizza) tokens and get a picture with each of the boys. They have a little videogame-type machine that takes your picture and then sketches it on the screen and prints it out. They're cheap, but I love them! I had to take a picture of the picture, but it still came out pretty well. Here's me with the boys.

One more...

By the way, I did lose weight while on vacation!! When I weighed this morning, I weighed one pound less than I did when we left. Yesterday, we slept in and it was a couple hours later than my normal weigh-in time and I guess my body was still adjusting to all the travel, so I weighed the same. Today, I weighed less! It's only a pound, but you gotta lose it one pound at a time, right? Plus, losing one pound is better than gaining a pound, or two, or three...


I want to share these photos with you since I haven't given an update on Riese lately. He has grown so much in the almost 3 months that we've had him!! He isn't a tiny puppy that fits in your hand anymore, he's a rambunctious (I have no idea if that is spelled correctly!) teenager now who hardly ever slows down!! One night, after playing all afternoon with the boys and missing his afternoon nap, he was so tired that we couldn't wake him! He was in Adam's lap and Ad was trying to wake him up for a while so he'd sleep all night and it was so funny, I got the camera out. No matter what position Adam put him in, he just wanted to sleep!

An apple a day...

keeps the doctor away, so does a post a day get me caught up? I sure hope so!! I'm going to try to do one or two quick posts a day to catch up on all that has been going on since my last real catch up in January. So, I'll just go through the pictures I have downloaded and post according to what was going on. Most of the time, if it's worth mentioning on here, I have a picture of it. So, that's a good way for me to remember everything that has happened.



One warm Saturday in January, Adam and the boys went out to play football. John-William and Jackson had gotten football accessories for Christmas and they decided to use the no-glare strips to play that day. They were so cute!! Once again, my camera didn't detect the kitchen light too well (I'm looking into a regular digital camera with a flash instead of using my camcorder's still shot feature all the time), so you can't see them as well as I'd hoped. But, you can tell there are two little boys grinning ear to ear and ready to play football. They even tackled Adam before they got outside.

Brotherly Love

Last night as I went in to check on the boys before going to bed, this is what I saw. John-William was sleeping in Jackson's bed with him and I found them snuggled up against each other, with Jackson's arm around John-William. I couldn't resist taking a picture. Of course, the pics looked much clearer on the camera, but this is the best I have.

The Beginning of Our Skiing Adventure!!

Have you ever lost weight while on vacation? Well, me neither. But, at least this time I didn't gain any weight, either!! And, it wasn't for lack of eating. I was just burning so many calories trying to stay on my feet while skiing and getting up out of the snow when I didn't stay on my feet that I guess I burned off everything I ate!! Adam and I went to Sugar Bowl Ski Resort in California a few days ago and we really enjoyed ourselves!!! We got there during the height of the snowstorm that passed through earlier this week and that caused some problems in our making it to our destination on time. When we landed in Reno, it was blue skies and beautiful. However, going up the mountain was a different story. Fortunately, my friend Chris picked us up at the airport and drove us up the mountain. Otherwise, we would have rented a car and that would have turned into a disaster!! Due to the weather, it was mandatory to have chains on your car or have 4-wheel-drive. Chris had 4WD, so we didn't have to worry. But, if we had rented a car, Adam and I would have had to stop on the side of the road and buy chains from a chain installer and then pay them to put them on the car. Then, we would have been driving in snow and ice all the way up the mountain. Naturally, living in Alabama, we aren't accustomed to snow and ice. That's why we took Chris up on her very gracious offer to drive us up the mountain!!! So, we started up the mountain and it was no problem to begin with. We got into California and traffic was slow and it was snowing more, but there still weren't too many worries. However, it started snowing much more and traffic stopped. Chris kept checking the highway information line and found out that the interstate had been closed at the California/Nevada state line because there were so many spinouts and a "traffic hazard" though we never could figure out exactly what that meant. We were already past the state line, so we thought we'd be okay. We kept on trying to travel, though the spinouts ahead of us were causing major delays. Fortunately, Chris was prepared with bottled water in the back of her Jeep and I had snacks in my bag, so we were okay for a while. The snow kept getting heavier and several inches accumulated while we were sitting on the highway!!! Adam and I were both amazed at the snow and how heavy it was snowing and the accumulation. We just don't see that here. After 9 hours in the car, yes 9 hours, Chris decided that we were better off turning around and heading back to Reno for the night. However, her husband said that was a bad idea as it had already snowed about 4 inches in Reno and we had to go back down the mountain. So, we stopped in a little town called Truckee, California, for gas (we had burned half a tank of gas just sitting on the highway) and to use the bathroom (9 hours in the car) and that's when we found out that the interstate had been closed completely just 2 exits ahead of where we were. So, we decided to find a hotel room and stay there for the night. We found a little bar and grill that was open and still serving and we ate dinner and then headed to the hotel. We got a couple of nice rooms that had heat and hot showers and crashed for the night. Unfortunately, Chris had not intended to be gone overnight so she wasn't prepared. Of course, the hotel had soap, shampoo and conditioner and we loaned Chris an extra tube of toothpaste and a comb, so she made it through okay. We were fortunate enough to have our luggage with us, so we had everything we needed and Adam had just happened to pack his travel toothpaste and I'd packed our regular toothpaste. Anyway, we stayed the night in Truckee and got on the road again the next morning around 9 am. It took another hour or so to make it the rest of the way up the mountain. By the way, those 9 hours of travelling on Monday had only taken us about 26 miles!!! So, in all, it took over 10 hours to go what should have been 45 minutes up the mountain!! Chris was diligent and determined to get us there, though, so she got us up to Sugar Bowl on Tuesday morning. It only took her about an hour and a half to make it back down to Reno, but she said traffic in the opposite lanes (the way we were headed getting to Sugar Bowl) was backed up all the way down the mountain to Reno. Thank goodness we didn't turn around and head back to Reno like we'd planned! Or even stop for breakfast on Tuesday like we had discussed!! By that afternoon, the interstate was completely shut down again and we might not have made it up if we'd let anything slow us down. We finally made it to Sugar Bowl by mid-morning on Tuesday and we were skiing before noon!! I don't have any pics of us actually skiing yet as I haven't dropped that film off. And, the disposable video camera I bought so that we could get footage of us skiing died after only 6 minutes of use!! I did get a little bit of Adam skiing but it died before he could really tape me. It must have been too cold for it or something. Anyway, I'll post those pics and video when I get them developed. I do have some pics of our travels on I-80.

Notice this 18-wheeler's cab lights -- they're hidden under the snow!! Keep in mind, most of this snow fell while we were on the interstate! And, we saw lots of pick-up trucks like this one with snow in the back. It snowed so much, the bed of the truck was full and they leave it like that to help with the travel -- the weight makes it easier to stay on the road.

This is the hotel in Truckee. Check out those icicles!!! And that's a 20 ounce bottle of root beer Adam put in the snow to show how deep it really was. There's Chris on her balcony, just across the way from us.

These are cars parked in the hotel parking lot. Chris' Jeep wasn't that snowed under, but we'd only been there about 10 hours.

Here we are, finally at Sugar Bowl. Chris and I are standing in front of a huge pile of snow in the parking lot. Adam is in front of Chris' Jeep to show how much snow it had, even with us driving!! Thanks again Chris!!

Happy Birthday Jackson!!!

Today is Jackson's 6th birthday!!! I can't believe he's 6 years old already. We had a great day with a party in the park and then dinner with Ninny and PawPaw at our house. Even though it was quite chilly outside (it was only about 40-45 during the party, but it was supposed to have been about 50), we still had a good time. We had his party at Kids' Kastle but we moved out of the pavilion (it was even colder in there) to the tables in the sun and that helped make it more tolerable. Trent and Grady were able to join us and there were two kids from Jackson's class who were with us, too -- Kyle and Savannah. Christian and Autumn couldn't make it today, but we were thinking about them and missed them. Gigi and Jack weren't able to travel here from Florida for the party, but Ninny and PawPaw and Grandma and Grandpa were there along with NaeNae, TD, Uncle Troy and Aunt Amber. Other friends had planned to be there but were unable to for various reasons, with the weather probably being part of the problem. We had cake, ice cream (you have to have ice cream with cake, even when it is only 45!), chips and dip, Chex mix, chocolate doughnuts, mixed nuts and mandarin oranges. The kids ate, played in Kids' Kastle and then Jackson opened his gifts. He got lots of clothes, some cars and trucks, a wallet, new programs for the Leap Pad, a game for his Gameboy, money, a bubble wand and lots of bubbles, fishing rod, noise putty (fart maker), a rocket launcher and a giant stuffed Alabama elephant with red and white balloons tied to it!! He really enjoyed answering the door this morning when it arrived via special delivery and knowing this his Gigi had it sent to him. We invited the family to come eat dinner with us, but some were tired or not feeling well and some had other plans, so only Ninny and PawPaw came over. We had good food, though, and enjoyed a little more time with them. Now, we're all just settling down for the evening and getting ready for bed. All in all, it was a very good day. Here's PawPaw enjoying the fart putty!