Breaking in the neighborhood

This past weekend, Nana and Papa were in town for a visit. Matt and Papa took the kiddos to the McWane Center for a little scientific exploring. I sent the camera with Matt hoping for a few cute pics, and this was the one picture he came back with...

I did dress Walker and Kathryn in matching outfits so they would be easier to keep up with, but I don't remember picking out the storm trooper costumes:)

Nana and I did a little shopping to take advantage of the tax free weekend. We found this fun Diego slip and slide at Target for $2.50! Needless to say, the kids couldn't wait to try it out!

Because our back yard is all deck (great for riding bikes, not so good for slip and slides), we had to set it up in the front yard. Kathryn was wearing a much too small swimsuit and a sunhat that I know she wore when she was about 3 months old!

These are a few of my favorite "Alabama" things.

Now, that we are back in the Heart of Dixie, I can't wait to enjoy some of my favorite 'Bama products. Here are my top three...

Wickles

Wickles are yummy spicy pickles. If you love hot, you will LOVE Wickles!!

Naturally More

Cori introduced me to Naturally More, and I LOVE it. Bye bye natural peanut butter. This is my new favorite!

Big Sky Bread Company

And if anyone knows me, they know I live for Big Sky's granola and chocolate chip cookies. These cookies were like medicine to me when I was in college. If I had a bad day or got a little homesick (or really any excuse I could come up with), a Big Sky cookie always seemed to make everything better!

Check on the websites to see if you too can enjoy some of these local favorites in your hometown!

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!