The First of Many

Valerie and I have been waiting for five years for us to be back in the same city, especially now that we have little ones. Well, I am sure this past Friday was the first of many playdates to come.

Val and Hill met me and my two at the Galleria where we had fun exploring the Build A Bear and Disney stores as well as the new Lego store. Walker and Kathryn were finally able to ride a carousel (They always begged to ride at the Memphis zoo, but Matt and I never remembered to bring cash. We were members and never really needed to have cash on hand to get in and enjoy ourselves, well, except for the carousel!).

I loved this picture of Hill and Walker holding hands. They were having so much fun!

And the winner is....

Jackson, AL!!

The winner of what, you may ask. My quest to obtain a Tagalong Blizzard (pictured below)!! You might remember my disappointment when after a day long trip from Memphis to Mobile, the Mobile Dairy Queen was out of Tagalong cookies! Oh, the agony!



Well, I thought my luck was changing when we returned to Memphis to pack the remainder of our things for Mobile. The little ones stayed on the river with Nana and Papa, so Matt and I took advantage of a night to ourselves and went to the movies (For the first time in a VERY LONG time I might add. So long that neither of us can remember the last movie we saw together!). The movie finished up at 9:30 p.m., so we made a plan to rush out of the movie and swing by the Dairy Queen that closed at 10:00 p.m.

Long story short, we made it in time! We were at the drive through at 9:45 p.m. only to be told, you guessed it, "Sorry, but we are out of Tagalong cookies." Are there not any Girl Scouts on call this late at night???

After our second trip to Mobile, we headed to Camden to pick up the kids and reach our final destination--Birmingham. It was 10:30 a.m. in the morning and we had just enjoyed a very filling breakfast in Mobile just an hour or so earlier, but I knew a Dairy Queen was coming up. Needless to say, Matt agreed to eat ice cream that early and I knew I was willing, so we took our chances.

We were a bit hesitant to ask but were able to let out a sigh of relief when the girl behind the counter simply nodded and started making up the blizzard. FINALLY! Yes, it was yummy (and worth the wait), but we concluded a butterfinger would have had the same taste results.

Needless to say, if you would like to enjoy this month's "Blizzard of the Month"--Thin Mint Cookie--I would go now before they run out of cookies:)

On the Road Again

Tomorrow wraps up our week long trip from Memphis to Mobile to New Orleans to Camden with a final stop in Birmingham.

Last Sunday we pulled into Mobile around 3:00 p.m. Matt drove a very large moving van and the kids and I followed in my truck. After the long trip, we were ready for a big meal, so we headed to the local Mexican restaurant.

Here are the kiddos and Pops outside.

We made an extra stop at the Dairy Queen afterwards. Walker didn't even finish his milkshake. He was one tired boy! Oh, and by the way, I am still on a quest to have a Tagalong blizzard. Can you believe the Mobile DQ was out of the Tagalong cookies??? Very disappointing!

Once the moving van was unloaded, Matt and I set out on a mini vacation to New Orleans. And can you believe the first thing we did there? We went to the zoo! We both have fond memories of this zoo from our childhood, so we thought it would be fun to visit without the constraints of nap time, snack time or just plain unhappy kids cutting our time short. We had a blast!! Here's a statue of John James Audobon.

And here are some Red River Hogs. One of my favorites...

And a white alligator...Only in the bayous of Louisiana are you going to find one of these!

And how precious is this little fox? I wanted to take him home with me!

With the kids back home, we had to settle for taking pictures of ourselves.

The next morning, we enjoyed brunch at the Court of Two Sisters. We dined for almost two hours on a delicious variety of foods.

Then we walked around Jackson Square and the French Market and made our way back to Mobile.

The next day, we headed to Casa del Rio to visit with Nana and Papa. Papa took us on a sunset cruise last night.

Aunt Sissy was also visiting on the river, so we were finally able to get a picture of the "twins"--Sissy and Papa and Walker and Kathryn.

Fourth of July!

I can't believe I'm just now posting Fourth of July pics! Oh, well, I guess there's that little thing called packing up an entire house and moving to another state that's kept me busy:)

Pool

Kids

(Constantin, Kathryn, Walker and Sophia)

Watermelon

Sisters

Coke

Fireworks

Family

Hooked

I found a new hobby during our stay at Dauphin Island--fishing!! And so did Walker and Kathryn! Here they are eating some snacks in Pop's fish camp before our first night of fishing. After all, you can't fish on an empty stomach!

Casting their lines...

They were actually really good at this! Kathryn, of course, had a princess fishing pole. She insisted that she could use it to catch a mermaid instead of a fish.

But look who actually caught a fish!

And another one!! I have to admit, we were using live bait, so I relied on Dad to hook the bait. But I brought these trout in all by myself!!

I guess you could say I'm "hooked" on fishing!

Let Them Eat Cake

I couldn't not have cake on the kiddos' actual birthday. So thanks to the local Winn Dixie, I was able to score these mini cakes for $3.99 each! Kathryn loved her Belle cake, and Walker didn't stop (well, he did have some help from his mother) until his Spider Man cake was all gone! He also entertained us with all of his Spider Man moves.

Long time, no post!

That's because we have been soaking up the sun in L.A. (lower Alabama!). We spent four fun filled days with the Busbee cousins last week. With five kiddos four years old and under, there was never a dull moment!

Here are the fabulous five playing on the beach!

Here are Kathryn, Walker and Devon enjoying popcorn on movie night!

And guess who turned three while we were there??? You guessed it! These two. We all enjoyed a yummy pancake breakfast in honor of the birthday boy and girl. They were so excited to have their family there to celebrate with them!

There are more birthday pictures to come, so stay tuned....