Alabama Jubilee

This weekend we went to Decatur, AL for the Alabama Jubilee Festival. The main attraction is the hot air balloons, I am not sure how I am going to narrow down which pictures to post for that so for now I will post the non-hot air balloon pics. We went to the park first because we couldn't check in the hotel until 2:00. Then we left, checked in the hotel, let the kids swim for a while and headed back to the park.

Kyle with the racecar



Swimming in the hotel pool, that is really all these kids cared about doing







Then we headed back to the park for the balloons that evening



They played football and frisbee while waiting for the balloons to inflate.





Kyle actually hit the target and dunked the fireman







Sno-Cones



Some of the fireworks from Sunday night











When we left on Monday we went to the Unclaimed baggage store in Scottsboro, AL. It was interesting and big. I thought we would find more stuff than we did but it was really just a glorified goodwill store. I did buy Kaitlyn a digital camera, an old 4 megapixel Canon powershot for $15.



Sleeping and playing games in the car

New pool

Uncle Luke got a new above ground pool (we are still holding out for the inground) this week and we went to play today.

seen its better days

We went to Luke's on Sunday for Cohen's birthday party. He turned 3. Luke got the waterslide out for the kids to play on. The poor thing has just about had it, it kept falling over and deflating with the kids playing on it. They didn't care of course.

Cohen blowing out his candles







Ashley did not want to be anywhere near the water











Then they wanted to go for a bike ride so these three climbed in the baby carrier

Ten for Tuesday

Here is my list of ten for Tuesday. Today's edition is my bucket list.

1) ride in a hot air balloon -- I have done tethered rides two different times but I want to go on an actual ride around

the rest of these are in no particular order

2) see a Jay Leno Tonight show (I thought I had missed my chance on this but alas he came back)

3) see an Oprah show, just to say I did (I don't have much longer for this one)

4) visit Hawaii

5) see the seven wonders of the world all in one trip (is this even possible?)

6) get my National Teaching License (first I have to get my dumb Master's though)

7) see the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade in person -- I want a front row seat!

8) see the ball drop in Times Square -- I know, I know that is probably not as fun as it looks on TV, I just want to be able to say I did it

9) go on a road trip -- I mean a just drive and find neat stuff, no agenda, no plan, stay in random hotels along the way road trip

10) sing Karaoke -- I am just too embarrassed to do this, it would not be pretty

There are more but I will stop for now at ten. What things are on your bucket list? Anything we can do together?

Kindergarten recap

Kyle's last day of school was Friday. He had such a love/hate relationship with Kindergarten. He is still totally disinterested in reading but can spell fine, which doesn't make sense to me, and he loves math (go figure).

Here is a picture of the first day of school:



Here is a picture from the last day of school:

Dinner cruise

So John and I's anniversary was Friday. He sent me flowers to work.



Then last night we went downtown to ride on one of the Memphis Queen boats. They have these dinner cruises and I thought it might be nice. It was!







Then I took some shots of the sunset, bridge and downtown Memphis.

Ten for Tuesday

Okay with all the flooding happening and people having to be evacuated from their homes, John and I were talking the other day about what we would take with us. Or what things we would be upset we lost if a tornado hit (or a fire or earthquake) and destroyed our home. I think the only thing we are safe from is hurricanes here in Memphis. So here is my list today: Ten things (inanimate objects) I would be upset if I lost them in some kind of natural disaster.

1) my scrapbooks -- I have so many of them and really I could list ten of them for the whole list. There are so many there is no way I could grab them all in a fast hurry. Obviously they have pictures in them and those cannot easily be replaced (although with digital that is going to become easier and easier in the future) but also I have put a lot of time in these and made at least a few pages that I really like. I could probably print *most* of the kids pictures again but the thought of having to scrap them all again would probably send me over the edge and make me not want to do it anymore.

2) all the loose pictures that have not made it in the scrapbooks yet -- these would be difficult to replace because most of them are older (like from my childhood)

3) all the cd's I have saved my pictures and videos on

3) my computer -- this obviously relates to number one and three because if I lost those 2 things then I would need my computer to get the files again. I do have an external hard drive that I have backed up my computer on and I keep this at work but it would be a huge pain.

4) diamond necklace from my Dad -- this was for my 21st birthday and while yes I could buy another one it wouldn't be from my Dad because he passed away in 2003.

5) diamond necklace from my Mom -- this was a gift when I graduated from college, she took her engagement ring and had the diamond set in a necklace for me.

6) all of our important papers -- like birth certificates, marriage license, tax info, etc. I know that you can get all of these things replaced but it would again be another huge pain.

7) I have several books on my bookshelf that were given to me and have things written in the front of them. I could replace the books but it wouldn't be the same.

8) my Cherished Teddies -- I started collecting these in high school and I have several in a curio cabinet. Most of them came from my Mom, John and my friend Holly. I don't know if I could find them all to replace them or not.

9) my yearbooks -- I really only have my high school senior year book and my college books down on the bookshelf, the rest of them are in the attic.

10) my cross-stitch pictures I have made -- there are several of them, a couple that are framed throughout my house

So there you have it, there is probably more but these were the first things I thought of.

messy messy messy

We went to Luke's Saturday night and fixed spaghetti, salad and chocolate cake. Ashley (who is 18 months old) had a really good time eating as evidenced by her face.









chillin' waiting to be cleaned off



ETA: this picture of her eating chocolate cake that her daddy fed her right after she got out of the bath

Zoo

We went to the zoo tonight because it was Methodist family night. It poured down rain most of the time we were there. But my mom had already bought the tickets and that included Corky's bbq so we figured we would at least eat. We bought ponchos from the Zoo gift shop (so I paid $2 for garbage bags basically) went to eat then went to see the new Teton Trek exhibit then left.