Safari in Alabama

You'll have to consider the word "safari" loosely in this case, but it was still a fun experience. On Friday we drove about 45 minutes to take the kids to Harmony Park Safari, sort of a pseudo-safari in my opinion. It's a drive-thru type (stay in the car, doors locked, windows mostly rolled up) and you can actually feed the free-ranging animals, which we opted not to do. Of course, the animals themselves didn't know we had nothing to feed them, so they swarmed the car pretty aggressively thinking they were going to get hand-outs. We saw all sorts of things: emus (they were really creepy and I was thankful we were separated by the car windows), deer, rams, ponies, a monkey, zebra, some sort of African steer with the hugest horns ever, a turkey, peacocks, alligators, llamas, and bison. I have to just say that seeing their biggest bison, a gigantic 2000 pound dude, at eye level out your car window was neat and quite unnerving. This enormous guy came and put his face right at the window, as in fogged it up. The pictures don't portray well at all just how absolutely HUGE he was. After the driving around part, we went to the little reptile room and saw some cool stuff in there like a baby gator, baby water turtles, snakes, and lizards. Then we walked into another enclosed area to see some tortoises and alligators, and another monkey. We had a good time and the kids really liked seeing the animals up close.

Oh, this part has nothing to do with the safari, but yesterday Dallin hit a big milestone by moving into his new big boy bed since we'll need the crib for our new baby in just a few weeks. We bought a mattress and boxspring off craigslist for $50 (a sweet, cheap find!) last Saturday, purchased some bedding during the week, and got it all set up for him yesterday. We really talked it up, so he thinks it's great. He's done wonderfully so far for his two naps and last night; he stays in bed when he goes to sleep and stays in bed when he wakes up till we come get him. I can't believe my "baby" is big enough to sleep in a real bed.

He thinks it's awesome.

Sleeping in his big boy bed for the first time for yesterday's nap.

The F2

On Wednesday, the 6th, a real live tornado ripped through our town, literally less than a mile from our house. It was around 9 in the morning when we heard the tornado siren for the first time that day. It seems like it goes off often, but when the lights began to flicker, and it was really windy and rainy against the back of the house we went into the closet. Within minutes the power went out and stayed out for about 4 hours. Danny's boss sent him home at about noon to come and be with us since more storms were supposedly coming. So, that was a huge perk! We didn't even know a tornado had actually touched down till the next day. It was an F2 with winds reaching 115mph that did quite a bit of damage. I uploaded these pictures from the local news website. The billboard is right up the road from us. We feel very grateful we were safe.

Atlanta

Once we knew we'd be moving to Alabama, Danny and I made a list of things we wanted to do and places we wanted to go while living here. Making a roadtrip to Atlanta just for fun is one of those things on our list and we finally got the chance to go this past weekend now that work has slowed down for Danny. This was our very first family trip. We left Thursday after work and made the nearly 4-hour drive to our hotel. As we drove, we realized the route mapquest gave us maybe wasn't the best, as beautiful as it was. It took us through all these tiny towns, there were tons of speed limit reductions, and lots and lots of highway changes. Once, we literally drove down the side streets of one dinky town, having to stop at stop signs and all. Nonetheless, we arrived in Atlanta safe and sound. It was the first time staying in a hotel for our kiddos and they loved it. Thinking they'd be plenty tired since it was so late, we initially put them in the same bed on the floor. Not a chance!! They were so giddy and it was all so new, they just played and laughed and giggled even when the lights were out. Danny and I couldn't help but laugh ourselves at their antics. Eventually, we put Dallin in his playpen and that settled everyone down.

On Friday we headed to Stone Mountain Park, a whole theme park dedicated to the Confederates (they love their Confederates down here!). Stone Mountain is a huge granite mountain with three Confederate soldiers carved into it. It's pretty impressive. We took a sky tram to the top and wandered around up there for a while. That was really fun and the view was spectacular. We then took a train ride around the park, which the kids enjoyed a lot. They were celebrating "Frontier Days" and had a whole bunch of tents set up showing what it was like living on the Alabama Frontier. It was all outside on the property of a big plantation house. There was even a farmyard and the kids liked petting the sheep and the goats. We saw pigs (Emily's really into pigs right now and loved that part), but we had to keep our distance. We also spent a lot of time in the 4-story Big Barn. Inside were a ton of little foam balls and places to drop them. There was a whole electronic point system set up and you moved from story to story trying to get as many points as possible. We didn't worry about the points, though. We just let the kids put the balls in the holes and then play in the little kids area. We also played miniature golf, saw a glass blowing demonstration, had lunch, and helped Emily do an above-ground obstacle course. We spent a total of 7 hours there and walked our keysters off. We were completely worn out by the end of the day. It took Emily about two minutes to fall asleep in the car, followed by Dallin a few minutes later. That 15 minute late-afternoon nap did us in when it came to getting the kids to bed. Emily did well, but even though Dallin was in his play pen, he knew we were all around and had a hard time settling down. Eventually he did, and Danny and I literally went to bed with the kids at like 8 or 8:30.

On Saturday we went to the Georgia Aquarium, the largest in the world. It really is a fantastic facility and we had a great time there. Their bread and butter are four 30-foot whale sharks in a 6.3 million gallon tank. They are massive and it was neat to see them up close. We also got to touch sting rays, baby hammer head sharks, star fish, and a horseshoe crab. We saw otters, sharks, all kinds of fish, and beluga whales. It happens to be mating season for the belugas. Let's just say that if our kids were older, we'd have had to give them an anatomy lesson and "the birds and the bees" talk after seeing some interesting interactions between two of them, if you know what I mean. Yikes! After spending a few hours at the aquarium, we went across the street to the Centennial Olympic Park. We didn't stay long, but let the kids play on the playground. We headed for home mid-afternoon, and took a much better route home that saved us quite a bit of time. When it's all said and done, we've gotta say we loved Georgia!