Ribs, Banana Pudding, and White T's

Here are some random pics from the last few days. Unfortunately I have none to add from Dan's trip to Cali.

Ribs that Milton cooked up in Flip last weekend. Oh so good!

Micah and I putting finishing touches on our homemade banana pudding. This was also when Micah stole Morgan's cell phone, which he has by his side at all times.

The finished product!

I usually designate every other Monday as "laundry day." But on occasion the duty calls on other days of the week. This morning I washed a couple of loads, including all of Dan's white t-shirts. Today was a record-breaking day: 23 white T's! Folding all of the laundry goes by a lot faster with The Food Network!

School for Me, Traveling for Dan

Tomorrow is my last summer class...yeah!!! I officially have survived my first two grad classes. They have been overwhelming at times, but I've learned so much about teaching and being in the classroom. But it's almost one of those situations that makes you realize how much you don't actually know...ya know?

Unfortunately a job did not result from my interview last week, but I got great feedback from the principal and am still hopeful about getting a job soon.

Dan's life story right now is travel, travel, travel. He spent Sunday and Monday in the thriving city of Dawson Springs, Ky for a work meeting. And in just a few hours he is leaving with his boss for a trip to Cali. But not just anywhere in Cali, Santa Barbara! Believe me, I'm jealous! They will be attending a conference (5th Annual Remote Presence Clinical Innovations Forum) and will return on Sunday. Neither of us have been that far west, I know he is excited.

So what will I be doing while Dan is away for the rest of the week? Well I have class until Thursday, then I will do a bit of traveling myself. I'm going to a place comparable to Santa Barbara. I'll be cruising around town, laying by the pool, enjoying fancy dining, and living the good life in none other than beautiful Fulton, Ky. Yup, I'm driving home while Dan is away to spend what are sure to be my last relaxing and stress-free days before school starts. Should be fun...never a dull moment.

I'll try to get Dan to take some pics for me to include on the blog. Come back soon for updates and pics on the travels!

The Country Life

Yesterday afternoon Dan and I drove to Fort Thomas Williamstown, Ky to stay a night with his parents, Marc and Sharon. They moved from Fort Thomas a few months ago and I still am not in the habit of saying Williamstown. It will come soon I'm sure.

We drove partly on the interstate, partly on the country roads of central Kentucky. Now, I am no stranger to the country roads because I've driven them my whole life. (And yes, I still manage to get a headache a.k.a. car sick when I am riding in the car on hilly, winding roads, a trait I am praying my children don't inherit.) But Dan however still gets excited about driving on the curvy highways lined with country houses and corn fields. He learned that you have to stay on your toes...you never know when you'll drive upon a truck or tractor going 15 mph.

We arrived in the afternoon and spent the next little while visiting and looking around the property. Marc and Sharon live in a cute white house settled on hilly acreage. We saw the recent updates on the house, toured the huge work shed in the back, and walked through Sharon's incredible garden. Name it...she's growing it! She even was so generous as to send us home with fresh blackberries and raspberries...yum! We also spent some time sitting on the back porch just relaxing. Dan was enamored with watching the birds through the binoculars.

Sarah and Jess came out to visit as well. We spent time visiting, ate a great dinner, played cornhole (which Dan and I dominated), had brownies and ice cream for dessert, and played the Wii. It was a hot day, but cooled off and turned out to be a very pleasant summer evening. We finished off the night with a movie and popcorn!

This morning we got up and ate breakfast at ...Cracker Barrel!!! Always a good choice in my book. The french toast never disappoints! Ha ha! After that Dan and I were back on the "open road" heading back to Louisville. We had a great time visiting family and look foward to returning to the thriving metropolis of Williamstown soon!

We are spending the evening relaxing...I think we're still full from our CB breakfast!

I have an interview at a school tomorrow for a middle school math position....yikes! Excited and nervous! Trying to prepare tonight. Dan is giving me some pointers. Will update soon on the results.

Gulf Shores Days 4 and 5

Saturday in Gulf Shores was another great day! We had full sun all day long so spent most of the day at the beach. The traffic at the condo really picked up because of the holiday weekend. The red, white, and blue were in full force. And Mom even conducted an impromptu trivia game on the beach on the history of America...imagine that! We stayed on the beach until late in the afternoon.

That night the Bell family went out for dinner and the Worley-Dean family ordered carry-out from a restaurant nearby. We ate our dinner on our balcony while listening to a man sing by the pool, with the smells of Fourth of July all around us...lots of people grilling! We all wanted to make sure we were down at the beach in time for the fireworks. They were shot off about two condos down from us, so we had a great view! It was great sitting on the beach in our beach chairs and watching them light up everything around us. After the fireworks show some of us went to get ice cream at Bruster's in Gulf Shores...you have to get ice cream at the beach, right?

Morgan and Micah on the beach before the fireworks show.

Sunday was, of course, the Fourth of July! It was our last official day of the trip so we wanted to take advantage of it. Like every other day, we spent the majority of the day on the beach. Unfortunately the "double red flag" kept us out of the ocean, but we tried to make the most of it. It was another hot and sunny day...one that gave some of us too much sun! We stayed out on the beach until late afternoon, then went in to get ready for the night's fireworks show in Gulf Shores, just a few miles from our condo in Orange Beach. The show started at 9:00 and we watched from the back of Milton's Ranier, which we parked right on the side of the road. We had the perfect view! The show was right in front of us, full of red, white and blue!

After the show we headed into Gulf Shores to eat at The Hangout, a big restaurant with a huge outdoor patio...definitely a family place. Thank goodness we got there when we did; as we were walking in it starting pouring down rain! Imagine that, rain again on the trip? It was definitely a theme of the week. We ate, bought some souvenirs, and headed back to the condo to start the worst part of the trip: packing to go home.

Micah, Morgan and I watching the fireworks show. Like our red, white and blue?

We packed up all of our things that night, so we could leave soon after we woke up Monday morning. Our family had to go back through Nashville, so I could get my car and drive back to Louisville. The Bell family went back through Mississippi and West Tennessee. Our goal was to leave at 7:00 am. If you know our family at all, you know that we set goals, but rarely attain them. Ha ha! We ended up waking up at 7:15, so we quickly got up and moving!

After a short detour (okay, okay we got lost, with no iPhone or GPS) we were on our way! We made two stops between Gulf Shores and Nashville. The first was to get gas and no one even got out of the car except me. The second stop was to eat breakfast/lunch at one of the best restaurants ever: Cracker Barrel. I don't think my mom could have let the vacation go by without at least one visit there. We made it to Nashville in good time, then parted ways from there. I rolled into Louisville and parked on 2nd St. right at 10:00 pm.

All in all the week was great! We got some sun, ate good food, watched Morgan "fight the waves," saw two fireworks shows, and had some good laughs during all of it. Rarely is there a dull moment when it comes to our family! But as Mom always says, "It's back to the real world now." So as I finish up this blog post, I am dreading looking foward to going to class in a couple of hours. And I can't tell you how much I'm looking foward to walking to campus on what is going to be the hottest day of the year. :-)

Gulf Shores Days 2 and 3

Well Thursday and Friday turned out to be much more eventful than Wednesday. Thursday was cloudy/rainy as well but we spent the day at the beach anyway. That night we went out to eat at a restaurant called Cobalt. The food was good and it had a great atmosphere. We began the dinner outside on the patio, but were fighting rain so had to move indoors to finish our meal. We all tried to leave room for dessert, of course. Everyone can ask Mom about the apple dessert she got. It was a deep fried apple pie dessert with ice cream...the best apple dessert she's ever had, she claims. It was very good, I can attest.

Mom, Micah, Morgan and I at dinner.

Friday was a much better day for the beach. We woke up to clear skies!! After we all slept in a little bit we headed down to the beach with supplies in hand: coolers, chairs, sunscreen, and the radio of course. Unfortunately because of the oil playing in the ocean is less than thrilling, so we filled the day with other activities: playing baseball, crab hunting, swimming at the pool, and laying under the umbrella when the sun was too intense. We came in from the beach late in the afternoon and spent the night at The Track, the arcade/go-kart/putt-putt golf place in Gulf Shores. It was Morgan's first time driving a go-kart so he was very excited. We all had fun racing each other around the track. We found that some of us are quite competitive...maybe too competitive (cough cough Micah). After go-karts we played putt putt golf. It was a quick game because right at hole 10, once again, the bottom fell out. Surprise surprise...rain got in the way of our plans. Our fun but rainy time at The Track was soon followed by the most interesting trip to McDonald's ever!

Two more days of fun left! The forecast looks good so far!

Morgan got sunburned on Wednesday, so he spent some time covered up and under the umbrella.

The oil, or "tar balls," that are on the beach. It does seem like each day that goes by, the worse the conditions get.

About to ride go-karts!

Micah and Katherine playing putt-putt.

This is how we all felt when our game was abruptly ended by the rain.

Gulf Shores Day 1: Rain

Mom, Morgan, and I arrived in Gulf Shores right around 2 am Wednesday morning. It was a long drive, but we managed to stay awake and entertain ourselves. The stop at Chick-Fil-A was also a plus!

We woke up Wednesday morning to a somewhat cloudy sky, but good beach weather nontheless. The "kids" (Katherine, Micah, Morgan and I) were preparing for the trip down to the ocean: putting on our bathing suits, lathering on the sunscreen, and filling the cooler with water and DC (diet coke). We got our beach chairs, walked out the door of the condo, and before we took 5 steps, the bottom fell out. (For those of you who have never heard the term "bottom fell out," it started to rain.) And never stopped....all...day...long. We were definitely bummed but tried to make the most of it. As mom said, "Would you rather be sitting on the beach watching it rain or sitting in Fulton watching it rain?"

Morgan eating and Micah laying on the couch. I guess no matter where you are, some things never change.

At around 3:00 or so we were all sitting on the balcony of the condo eating lunch and enjoying the rainy afternoon as much as possible. All of a sudden a huge swarm of seagulls began flying right up to the balcony. They just continued to fly back and forth in front of us. I don't know whose idea it was originally, probably my Mom's, but we started feeding the seagulls Wheat Thins. They would come right up to our balcony and eat them out of our hands. They would catch and eat them if we threw them into the air. It was pretty crazy.

Mom placed some Wheat Thins on the rail of the balcony. You can see one in this bird's mouth.

Around 4:30 we decided to go down to the beach even though it was still raining. I think Morgan was just too anxious and excited about getting in the water, especially because the last time he came to the beach was in 2002, when he was 7. He jumped right in! The waves were big and the water was rough and good for playing. Of course it's no surprise that Mom got out there and eventually Morg had to rescue her because she couldn't stay on her feet. (It's always the times you don't have a camera that you really need one. haha) After our trip to the ocean we made a short stop at the pool then went back upstairs to the condo.

Morg and I before going down to the beach.

We spent the rest of the day just hanging out in the condo. More rain is in the forecast, but hopefully it won't stay too long. We are looking foward to a good remainder of the trip. Morg said it best in his Facebook status update: "Feeding these seagulls and fighting these waves have been awesome. Can't wait for the fireworks and the amusement park."