Florence, Alabama

I swear, someday I will actually post about something more than vacations, but for now, it's summer, and that's what we'll do. When school starts in just a few short weeks, I imagine my posting will be a tad less sporadic.

So, Alabama. What a trip!!!! It's been over 5 years since Mark's mom has had the pleasure of having all three of her boys together in one place, and that alone was reason enough for making the 13 hour drive to Alabama with our three dogs and two kiddos. Her 60th birthday was the 29th, which made it just that much more special, I'm sure. I could easily make our drive sound painful and exhausting, but I'd be lying. It was actually an incredibly relaxing, uneventful day. Aside from the occasional unidentified debilitating stinch that made it's way to the front of the van, we never even noticed the 200-ish pound load of animals we were carrying. All three of them are such good travelers, in fact, they are much more well behaved than other two animals we call children.

We spent the week doing all of the fun stuff we normally do, like sitting on the porch swing with Mamaw and chatting about hummingbirds, ducks and the like....





















And we certainly did a lot of riding around with Papa Jack on the Gator...gotta make sure we check those fences ya know I'm pretty sure that's what we're supposed to do out in country...


































And after dark, that's when the crazies came out. Oh wait, that's just uncle Frank and Aunt Nicola. But seriously, these have got to be the luckiest kids EVER. Their uncle Frank and aunt Nicola have to be two of the sweetest, most patient, fun loving people around. They always make time run off with the kids and almost always come back laughing. In fact after this picture was taken I couldn't help but smile when I heard them a few acres over laughing at god only knows what. I am so, so thankful that they were able to make the trip, and I know the kids are too.




















I mean come on, is this not the coolest uncle EVER.





























Or is this is the coolest uncle ever? Steve made such a big impression on Alex (and me) this past week. He took the kids fishing and actually took the time to teach them all the little things that only an amazingly patient uncle would. It was adorable to see Alex look up to his uncle Steve and just take it all in. He taught him a lot about safety (Mr. Game Warden coming out here) and even gave up a few of his catch for Alex and Ash to reel in. I was touched by his efforts to include the kids.
Just about every night we made our way down to the pond to fish and just sit by the pond and have a little fun. The kids looked forward to this each night, as did the adults. Uncle Steve gave Alex his official Native American name, Pants on Fire which suited him quite will during those nights by the pond. This is uncle Steve showing Alex how to hold a fish...he even gave him the whole schpeel on how to kneel down and pose. I think the look on Alex's face pretty much sums it all up. Now that is priceless.

The day after we arrived was Grannie Frannie's 60th Birthday. Before we took her out to dinner the boys gave her the gift that they'd been working on for the past few weeks. They started by letting her open up the wall mount to kinda leave her hanging a bit, and then they led her to the garage where her new plasma wide screen was. I'm not sure how I managed to do this, but of the almost 2,000 pictures I took this past week, I did not get a single one of the new TV! What I did get were these pictures, which really say it all. Fran makes giving gifts such an amazing experience.



"You DIDN'T!" teehee And notice Mamaw's face in the background. Too cute!

































While we were there we did a little hiking in several different places. We walked a bird watching trail where we found an amazing waterfall. We walked an old railroad bridge that is now non functional, a great spot for photos. And one night Frank and I went out and took some night photos. That was a lot of fun, and my first experience with night photography. It was pretty cool having someone around that understood my passion for taking pictures.

I have sooo much to do, and so little time I'm going to have to cut this short. The kids are gone for the week and I have way too much that I want to accomplish while they're gone. I will up date with more photos later.