Alabama Vacation

Double Click the picture to see moments from our Alabama trip this Summer. We had a great time!

We enjoyed visiting family and being down South. The kids are even starting to pick up on how different it is from the Midwest. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for supper on the way down there and we barely got in the door when one of the workers stopped me and asked if these were my kids, and went on and on about them and then asked where we were from and wanted to know all about where our family in Alabama was from, etc. While we waited on our food, we let the girls go play checkers since we could see them from our table. Little old people came out of the woodwork to talk to them.

Then, an older lady at the table next to us stopped by and said, "Ya'll have the sweetest little family." We had only been there 15 minutes! Drue came back to the table and said, "Everyone is so nice here!".

One evening at Pine Lake David and my Uncle Tom were serious about wanting to catch a huge catfish. Uncle Tom brought some special bait, and they put special hooks on the ends of their line. They picked the perfect spot to cast. The kids don't care what size fish they catch, they just like the thrill of watching their bobber go down and pulling up whatever caught their hook. Reese had a tiny hook on hers with a worm and cast it out at the end of the pier. Pretty soon it went under and she started reeling it in. She didn't catch a tiny brim this time, she hooked a huge carp! And as she was reeling him in, she caught him on David's and Uncle Tom's lines as well.

Sadly, it turned out to be her "one that got away" story because it broke the line. Well, multiple lines. She was so upset. We would have had to throw him back anyway, but she wanted to get him on the bank and get her picture taken with him.

The beach was a blast this year. Last year we couldn't really get in because of the oil spill. The girls tried to teach me how to boogie board. And we took turns heading down the beach to fetch Tate when the current carried him and his boogie board too far.

The last night we stayed there was by far the most comical. We were sleeping soundly in the hotel and at 5am an alarm sounded from the intercom between our beds. An automated voice came on saying, "Alert! There has been an emergency discovered in the building. Please exit immediately.". I leaped out of bed and started making a plan. "You grab Tate! I'll grab Drue! Reese can walk down the stairs with us!". I headed for the door and turned back to say, "Come on Drue", and found her still sound asleep in my bed.

David is definitely the calmer of the two of us, especially in situations such as this. He was grabbing some shorts and shoes and taking his sweet time. Reese kept saying, "Is there a burglar in the building? Is he going to steal our stuff?". I was sure a tsunami was approaching since the weathermen had been warning of an approaching gulf storm. We made it down 5 flights of stairs with 3 sleepy children and pushed open the door to the side courtyard into the early morning air...and rain. I was barefoot, not having had the forethought to process anything beyond getting the children to safety.

I don't even remember now what the cause of the big emergency was. It was not a tsunami, because I quickly scanned the gulf when we got outside and was relieved not to see a hundred foot wall of water heading towards shore. I think someone smelled something burning in the elevator. Ugh.

We filed back up the stairs and crawled into bed. But there was no going back to sleep at that point. Adrenaline has a way of waking you up, whether you're ready or not. We got up, packed up our stuff, ate breakfast and were ready to hit the road for the first leg of our journey home by 8am. Two hours before we had originally planned.

And we're already looking forward to seeing what adventures next year's trip holds for us!