the zoo & the childrens museum...

We can't go to Alabama without a trip to the Montgomery zoo. It is the perfect size for little boys and all of the boys still love it.
We were so so so happy when Aunt Meg surprised us and showed up late late late (or I should say early early early) on the first night we got there. We all thought she had to work and wouldn't be able to make it. But she got people to cover, and drove 8 hours through the night from Kentucky to make it down to spend a week with us! We were so happy to have see her! Unfortunately when we went to the zoo she forgot her sunglasses, so she got to sport Tuckers cars sunglasses all day. She rocked 'em! :)

The zoo train! Can't go to the zoo without going on a ride! :) Jonah, Tuck & Grandma...

It is so extremely hot and humid down there that they have these wonderful misters all throughout the zoo. They are seriously a lifesaver! The boys started a Congo line.

And here are the littler boys just playing around in the mister...

And here's the little Taters; she thoroughly enjoyed the zoo...

da boys...

And in front of the train...

We also went to the children's museum while we were there...

Some of the cousins...

Tucker had to wear the superman cape he found at grandmas house...

Kira taking after her mommy and building houses. :)

Kissing cousins. Kira and Tucker love each other.

Tuck, Everett and Elia playing with the race cars...

Everett & Elia. The disastrous duo! Seriously, these two cause more drama than all the other kids combined! :) But that's why we love them! We have the great Houdini (Elia) and the monster (Everett) :)

But look at that smile, how could you not love him?! :)

After the museum we walked over and fed the ducks. Good times.

Taylor was talking to the ducks the whole time. :) Can't get enough of Taters! :)

Cousins...

The reason we go to Alabama.
We do love our cousins! Tucker always has so much fun. Here's a little review in photos of our 2 weeks in Alabama with our cousins.
Tattoos, woo-hoo!

Noah, Jonah & Tucker (aka Batman)

Baby Everett loving on baby Taylor. Ok, so maybe baby Everett isn't so much a baby anymore, but he sure did love baby Taylor. It was so sweet. It's a good thing that he is getting a baby sister in December. :) And we are so excited!

Jonah & Tucker at Dairy Queen. For some reason the water at my in-laws house went out twice while we were there. It was so random. No water is no good when you have a bottle fed baby! So we had to head out and keep the kids occupied and go somewhere where there was water a few times! :) I had no problem heading down to the DQ, and either did these two! :)

Sophie & Taylor on g-ma's couch. I don't know what it is about little girls and their love of babies. Ok, I do know what it is, but it is so cute to watch little girls and their in-born motherly instincts. Sophie loved helping me take care of Taylor, just like she loved helping me take care of Tucker when he was a baby; and a good helper she is! :)

The kids playing dominoes with Aunt Lynlee...

Alex trying to make Taylor laugh. The oldest grandchild and the youngest grandchild.

Jonah is always posing! Whenever he sees me get my camera out, he pulls a pose like this:

Joshy & Noah...

Jonah, Alex & Tucker...
(There's always a lot of nakedness going on at grandmas house, it is just too hot in Alabama!) :)

The kids watching a movie...

Best buddies, Tucker & Jonah. I love me some Jonah!

One night we tried to catch fire flies, and here are Jonah & Tucker waiting for them to light up in our jar.

Jonah, Noah & Tucker eating grandma's delicious homemade ice-cream...

Taylor and Kaiya, twinners! :) Why is it so much fun to dress babies in matching outfits? Kaiya is just about to turn one.

We are so lucky to have such great cousins! We miss them so much while we are so so so far away!

Alabama teaser...

After a fun filled, but rainy and cold, 4th of July BBQ (our party animal Taylor, shown here at said BBQ, in her 4th of July get up); we (meaning, Tucker, Taylor and I) hopped on a plane and headed south! Yes, that is right, we went to Alabama without Ben; the one who is actually from Alabama! :)

The original plan was for all of us to spend a week down there, but then me and the kids to stay an extra week. Ben's family always spends the 4th of July together, and his mom is so great at planning all sorts of fun during that week for the kids. Usually a 4th of July parade, and lots and lots of treats are involved. And Ben's sisters come to my in-laws house for weeks at a time during the summer time so there are always lots of cousins to play with. It wasn't until these past few years that we have had a kid at the age to enjoy these events that we have actually taken advantage of this family tradition. Anyway, long story short, Ben decided that he couldn't justify leaving during the busiest time of year for the company, when he makes the most; so we went without him. People kept on asking me if I was crazy for willingly going down to spend two weeks with my in-laws and I had to explain myself over and over again, that it wasn't a mistake. :) I love my in-laws! Ben has 4 sisters whom I absolutely adore, whom I feel like are my own sisters! And I love his brother, and his wife just as much and his parents! They are all great, and I go down there and I feel like it is my own home and my own family. I love it! But
it's hard being the ones who live farthest away, we don't get to see them very often, and especially now that we have kids, we want to especially get them down there as often as we can so that they get to know Ben's family and love them as much as we do!
Anyway... I was a little nervous about a trip across the country with two small children, but I learned that my children are wonderful travelers! Thank Goodness! Because the day didn't start off so great!
Let me start at the beginning. 6am flights mean 4am wake up calls in order to get to the airport by 5. But it also means that our arrival time in Atlanta is 3pm instead of 11pm! Which we will take any day! :) Ben booked these flights for us. I had asked him that week to forward me our itinerary, just so I could have a copy. He kept on assuring me that everything was ok, he knew what the flights were and would make sure that we were where we needed to be! :) Well, we woke up, woke up the kids and were off to the airport. Ben said our flight was frontier so we waited in line, got to the counter, and frontier didn't have a flight that left at 5:55am. After a few rounds of confusion, she looked up and said that United was the only carrier that had a flight into Denver leaving at 5:55. Of course, that is the airline the FARTHEST away from the frontier counter. So, we raced to the United counter, (our return flights were with frontier, and Ben just got them mixed up!) :) and got to the United line at about 5:05-5:10. Of course, we get in line behind the one family that takes ETERNITY to check in. It was like they were doing it for the first time and had no clue what they were doing. And of course, there is only one ticket agent. We FINALLY get to the counter at 5:30. We tell her our names, and luckily we are finally in the right place. She looks at the time and tells us we have missed our flights. We have to check in at least a half and hour before the flight is scheduled to leave, or they won't let us check in at all. I couldn't believe it! We asked her to make an exception for us, did she not see the infant on my chest and the 3 year old by my side, still half asleep, that we ripped out of their cozy beds for this? She wouldn't budge. It was so frustrating knowing that the plane was still here, and we could make it, but she just wouldn't let us because of some technicality! The next flight to Denver was at 11am. So, we headed home, to get a few hours of sleep. Ben let me sleep while he stayed up with the kids, because by that time they were up! So, I went home and took a 4 hour nap until 9:30 and then woke up and did it all over again! It was a bad start to a long day! Because of this delay, or new ETA for Atlanta was 11pm.

Another thing I learned is that Denver HATES me! Many of you may recall my experience traveling through Denver last year with Tucker. He was sick, they wouldn't let me board the plane, etc, etc, etc...
Well, it HAD been a beautiful day, the first leg of the flight went beautifully. Tucker watched a movie, Taylor ate and slept. We land in Denver, and in anticipation of the 10 mile long airport, that I usually have to trek the whole length of, I brought our front pack carrier for Taylor. We get off the plane and our leaving gate is literally right next our arrival gate! It was a Denver airport Miracle! :) We headed to the bathroom and literally in the 10 minutes that we were in the bathroom, a Thunder and Hail storm hit Denver! I am not joking, like rivers on the tarmac!
This picture doesn't even do it justice.

So...they board our flight anyway, thinking that it would just pass. The plane is on the tarmac, ready for take off, and we are denied clearance because of the storm, so our pilot tries the West exit (?-something like that) and denied, tries a few more spots to take off, and denied. They keep us on the plane, on the tarmac for TWO hours! It was misery! Luckily I have the greatest kids on the planet, and I had prepared for the worst and had a lot of extra activities to do! Seriously, when we landed in Atlanta, the people on the plane just kept commenting on how well my kids were. They couldn't believe it!
Tucker decided to color some gifts for grandma & grandpa...

Here he is being silly with his Mater teeth sucker... (the best 50 cents I ever spent!)

And finally, he crashed just like this on his chair:

All the while this one did this:

I seriously don't know how I got so lucky! :) The actual 2 hours in the air were a breeze! We didn't get into Atlanta until 1am and then not into Montgomery until 3am, but we made it! And we even had all of our luggage, which was another miracle for us that day! :)
The rest of our Alabama adventure to come! :)

Enloe's good bye party...

Before we left for Alabama in July, we had to go to the good-bye party for the Enloe's! :(
So Sad!

It was so much fun getting everyone together, even if it was to say good-bye to our most favorite people! :) It still hadn't hit me at this point that they were leaving.
It was at the Shock Center, and so the kids got a lot of playing time in. Tucker, Milo and Carter racing...



Here are the three boys with the 'awards' that Tate made them! :) Tate is Milo's big brother, and Tucker loves Tate! Before Tate started Kindergarten, he would always be at our play groups and was always so sweet to Tucker. Tucker loved him! He even set up this awards stand for them to stand on. :) So cute!

And little miss thing was there. Complete with a bow Caro Syrup'd to her head! :) Ben makes fun of me for doing this to her, but I think it's so cute! :)

Olivia and Ella.. So cute!

I was in charge of taking pictures of all the families/people there to put in a book with good-bye notes from everyone. Danna is such a good party planner! :)
It was so much fun to have everyone there, here are a few of our friends who came.
Us...

The Nelsons...

The Guys...

The McLaughlin's...

The McCombs...

And my dad & Kathryn...

There were a lot more people there, but a lot of them I didn't know! :)
Thanks Danna for the fun party! But let's not have any more of our friends leave, please!