Hiking Lake Nicol

Exploring caves...

 Not to worry.  We were armed.

 

 

Treasures.

Slides.

 

We'll be back.

Krispy Kreme

Krispy Kreme is one of the landmarks of Tuscaloosa that was destoyed by the tornado in April of 2011.  It's back.  And it's HOT N NOW!

 

Snow falls on Alabama

It snowed.

In Tuscaloosa.

Alabama.

It even stuck to the roads and the driveways.

Ask Dylan.

He licked it up.

There was enough to make a decent sized snowman.

That lasted until about 6:00 that evening.

 

Plenty enough to throw snowballs.

The boys threw snowballs at each other until we couldn't scoop any more up out of our yard.  There is a definite heirarchy to this thing.  The biggest brother attacks the big brother.

The big brother attacks the little brother.

I've tried to warn Joe that there may come a day when he's not the biggest anymore. 

But who listens to their mother when they're eight?

But then who asks to get buried in the snow?

An eight year old boy.

It was a fun afternoon.

 A nice surprise for the kids.

They have been asking when it would snow here.  We tried to warn them that it probably wouldn't snow here at all but that we could take a trip to the snow one day.  "Like to Georgia" Trek said.  Hmm.  Well, what do you know.  We got 6 whole hours of snow fun right in our backyard!

 

Happy winter, yall!

 

Monster trucks

Joe got tickets to a monster truck rally for Christmas. 

Jono took him with a couple other dads and their boys.

Ear plugs in--ready to rally.

Joe was the camera man for the day.

It was pretty cool to see pictures of life size versions of the boys toys.  I mean, Grave Digger looks exactly the same!  How do they do that?!

 

From what I gathered from the guys was that they weren't super impressed with the trucks but the motorcycle show at half time was totally worth the ticket.  He had several videos of that.  I think it probably would have been more exciting if Joe had taken his redneck mother so she could have shown him how to scream and yell at a monster truck rally.

Cause I know.

Well, next time.

Christmas Tree found

At Home Depot.

No traipsing through the forest looking for the least scraggly tree to cut down.

(see last year's post)

No, sir.

We got one of those farm grown and groomed fir ones that are shipped in from some place no where near Alabama.

 

 

 

 

 Could be our prettiest Christmas tree ever.

 

Hiking at Sokol Park

What do you do in Tuscaloosa in the fall when there's not a football game?

I know you'll be shocked to know that there are other options.

Of course, you need to bring a football with you wherever you go to keep the spirit alive.

 

 

 

Look!  The leaves are gone!

After living among the pines the last 5 years, this was a welcome sight.

A Day in the Life

 One weekend this fall, we had the privilege of sharing the experience of an SEC football game with some friends from Cali. We wanted them to get a true feel of the seriousness of SEC (or more specifically, Alabama) football.

 

From Dreamland barbecue to Bryant-Denny Stadium.

From Eli Gold to Alabama fashion choices.

From cheerleaders to the Million Dollar Band.

From hocking tickets to over-sized bronze statues.

You know, the basics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think they got it.

 

 

Thanksgiving 2012