At 11:24 am, Crosby Fox turned 4 years and 15 weeks old!!! At 1:03 pm, Jane Claire turned 1 year and 3 weeks old!!! Time just refuses to slow down! And this week has been a busy one. I have way to many picture, I know. I just couldn't narrow them down. So I will just dive right in!
Jane Claire and I were still in Huntsville on Tuesday morning. We at lunch with LeAnne's mother-in-law and sister and brother-in-law before walking around Bridge Street. Jane Claire posed for a sweet picture before we got dressed to leave...
Jane Claire would have nothing to do with Darryl the whole time we were at his house. But when we got to Zaxby's and he had a milkshake, her tune changed a bit...
She and Darryl became the greatest of friends...
Can we say rotten?!?
We had a great visit with LeAnne's family and I even managed to squeeze in a little work. Jane Claire was worn out and was sound asleep before we even got out of town! Sweet thing...
On Friday, I made Jane Claire's final appointment...
She had her 12 month panel picture taken at Calvert's!!! I want to cry just thinking about it. My LAST baby in her LAST picture. I don't know that I can take it...
Sweet thing was all about posing with Lulu...
Oh I could just eat her up!!! I cannot believe we are finished with pictures for her panel. Cannot. Now fingers crossed that we got 1 good one out of the 10 they took!!! I can't wait for the proofs to show up in the mail!!
We had big plans for the weekend. Big!!! Based on the very first picture, you might be able to guess where we went. Back to The Loveliest Village on the Plains. Auburn, Alabama! We drove down on Friday night and stayed at a hotel in Montgomery. The Residence Inn to be exact. This, in and of itself, was one of the highlights of Crosby weekend. The hotel. He now LOVES hotels. I can't blame him. I did too when I was his age!! Too cute.
What is a trip to Auburn without making a stop at the ole homestead?!? We knew we were at the right place when we saw our name written in concrete...
Go ahead Bama fans. Laugh away. Make fun all you want. Auburn fans live in trailers. There was a time when I cried over the dreaded idea. Then I did it. I bought a brand spankin' new 2006 Fleetwood Weston 16x80 manufactured home (with a "custom floor plan for the Malones") and I lived in the thing. And I LOVED it. It was the cutest manufactured home I have ever stepped foot in. And I have been in my fair share!! We upgraded the carpet and appliances. Every inch of wall was painted. Custom draperies, made by Lulu of course, hung in the kitchen and living room. We even laid tile in the guest bathroom!!! Of course the tin roof made rainy nights so lovely. Well, unless there was wind involved. That required a trip to the neighbors "site built home" or to the vet school. At least that only happened a time or 2! Yep. There was a day I cried about having to live in a manufactured home. That was until I found a fancy schmancy lot in Conway Acres and did the math. Then I laughed. Sure did. When Blake graduated, we laughed all the way to the bank. Didn't owe a dime to anyone and had a chunk of cash in the ole pocket. Yep. We just laughed and laughed... ;-)
We had to share our past with the children. For some reason they were not as excited about it as we were. Nevertheless, here we are standing at lot, I mean, #150...
And there she is in all her glory. You got to see all 80 feet of 'er when you pulled up the drive. Not just the 16 foot end....
She had her quirks. All the windows were placed on the left side of the place with none on the right. We planted a tree to distract from that design flaw but the current dwellers removed it?!? I am sure they see why the tree was strategically placed where it was now that it is gone. I mean, how could you not?!? ;-)
The four years we spent in Auburn were some of the best years of our lives. The first year was tough due to the fact that I was the breadwinner and my job was less than ideal. Once a position opened up at East Alabama Medical Center and I got it, I fell in love with the place! I had great coworkers. Blake had great friends. We found a small group at church that we loved. I had envisioned Auburn being just another step towards finally getting settled in Tennessee. Boy was I wrong!! It became home. And one that was quite difficult to leave. I never dreamed that would happen! While we are happy to be settled in good ole Tennessee, there will ALWAYS be a special place in our hearts for Sweet Auburn!!
The next stop was the College of Veterinary Medicine, conveniently located a mile down the road from Conway Acres. We knew the kiddos would love seeing where Daddy/Uncle Blake went to school. Or maybe it was the animals we knew they would love...
They had lots of activities for the little ones to participate in...
Like making animals out of their hands...
Touching snakes...
So proud of himself...
Some of us decided to just take pictures of such activities...
Touching a bearded dragon I guess...
Finding the Dr. Malone in the Class of 2006 picture...
Walking around on the vet school campus...
Petting cows...
And goats...
Jane Claire was thrilled to see them too...
She LOVES animals!! Hmmm?!? Maybe she is in the right place...
Saying hello to a horse...
Blake's least favorite part of the school!! ;-)
We chose to come to Auburn this weekend for a very special occasion. The final rolling of the Toomers Oaks. It was planned around the A-Day game so there were TONS of people in town. And lots of activities planned. Blake, Buddy and Crosby went to the game while Lucy, Anne Claire and I kept up with Jane Claire, Charlotte and Malone! I am not sure who got the better end of the deal there... ;-) It was so much fun to be back on campus...
The gals and babes headed towards Toomer's while the boys were at the game. It was pretty emotional to see the trees in this state. We had not seen them since they were poisoned. We were so used to old, beautiful, green trees that shaded the intersection. There was little to no green left. At least seeing lots and lots of white was fun...
Jane Claire took a little cat nap while we strolled around downtown...
Crosby didn't make it through the whole game. I picked him up shortly after half time. Blake waited too long to get Crosby lunch. By that time, they were running out of food in the stadium. They underestimated just how many fans would be there that day! Luckily the place we girls ate at in the student center was still serving food. By that point, folks were making their way from the stadium to the trees. Blake and Buddy found us shortly there after. Crosby was pretty excited to be in the middle of all the fans...
He LOVED throwing toilet paper...
A few pieces made it on GranBuddy...
Jane Claire woke up and participated in the Toomer's rolling fun!
Toomer's Baby...
Family picture in front of the Old Oakes...
We didn't get to stay for the evening activities due to a tired bunch of kiddos...
They were such troopers. It was a lot of work but so worth it to have them at the final rolling of the Toomer's trees. They may not remember it but we sure will! ;-)
We headed back to Montgomery and got carry out for dinner. Of course Crosby was thrilled to be back at the Residence Inn! ;-) A few folks went out after dinner for ice cream at Brewster's!! So delish! We had another reason to celebrate on April 20th!! It was Lulu's birthday!!
We actually did the celebrating on Sunday. We checked out of the Residence Inn and headed to Birmingham to spend the day with Jason, Kerri, Sam and Gid. The kiddos had soooo much fun playing together outside...
Sam and Gid were so sweet with Jane Claire...
She and Sam almost have the same face!!!
I LOVE the pictures of got of Charlotte and Jane Claire...
Could these girls look any sweeter???
Lovin' on Lulu...
Me taking a picture of Lulu taking a picture!!! Kinda silly but I thought it was cute!
Sweet Malone...
You can celebrate a birthday without cake, candles and singing...
And how cute is this cake?!? Whole Foods decorated the cake for the final rolling of Toomer's!!! Gotta love the trees with toilet paper hanging from them!!
Gid just wanted to eat the icing off the bottom of the candles!
We had a great time spending the whole afternoon with the WHOLE Malone crew!!! Of course it never lasts long enough. The next thing you know, GranBuddy, Lulu, Anne Claire, Charlotte and Malone were in the car headed back to Tennessee. Then we loaded our car up and headed off to... Chattanooga!?!
Blake decided to take Monday off so we could have a long weekend with the kiddos. We wanted to go somewhere that had fun activities for little ones that was also relatively close to home. Chattanooga seemed like the ideal location. We arrived Sunday night and checked into our SECOND hotel of the weekend. Let me tell you, Crosby was on cloud 9. Seriously. He LOVED the hotel. This time, it was the Staybridge Suites. I will have to say, it was a nice, new hotel. It was a studio type room with the PERFECT size closet for a pac-n-play. We got Jane Claire set up, shut her little door and she was golden! We could carry on and she never skipped a beat. Fabulous!
Enough about hotels! Monday morning, we headed straight to the Tennessee Aquarium. You may recall we went once before with Margaret and John Christopher when they were 2ish. Crosby had zero attention span at the time and literally wanted to go from one exhibit to the next, stopping to look at each one for no more than 5 seconds. Thank goodness he has matured quite a bit in that regard! The first stop was the penguin exhibit...
We really enjoyed watching these little birds jump into the water and take off swimming...
They were super fast!
We even got to see 2 males fight over a lady bird! At least that is what the lady with the microphone who was also feeding them said! She was pretty...
Then we headed towards the rays. I got caught up looking at something with Crosby. Then he ran over to Blake. Then I realized she was sitting over there...
Just sitting there loving on her love blanket and sucking that bubba!! Seeing how we were some of the only people there right when it opened, it mattered not! She was all good. ;-) Crosby loved getting to touch the sting rays with Blake...
He and Blake got the reach...
hold your fingers straight...
and let them rub against you technique down!
I finally let Jane Claire out of the stroller to see what all the fuss was about...
"Are you seeing this?!?"
I think Miss Diana enjoyed having a little fella that was so interested in what she had to say...
Meanwhile, Miss Priss just smiled at everything and everyone!
Next think you know, we turned around and Crosby was missing. Then we heard screams coming from a dark corner. He was trapped in a cage and a shark was coming right up behind him...
;-) Then Jane Claire and I had to try out the shark cage with him...
I loved that a REAL shark started swimming right towards the boy that LOVES sharks. He was in awe of them...
We got to listen to diver talk from inside the tank. Jane Claire really enjoyed this part!
She kept flashing the biggest smiles at them. You can't see her face but you can see that cheek raised up from a big ole grin...
Then Crosby crawled into the middle of a tank and pretended to be a shark...
I had to do it too. I think the crabs were genuinely scared...
The boy and his daddy...
He found another shark...
Daddy and his babes...
Missy Prissy and a school of fish...
Such a little cutie patootie...
We took a break from the aquarium and headed to lunch...
The we walked across the pedestrian bridge and spent time at Coolidge Park...
We rode the carousel...
And the boys played a little soccer...
Look how fast he is!! ;-)
Sweet Jane Claire and I found a shady spot. She practiced walking with little luck and I took pictures of her sweet face...
What a precious baby girl!!!
We finished out the day in the other part of the aquarium before walking back to our hotel. It was a LOONG but fun day for everyone. There was no way we were willing to attempt a meal out so Blake picked up Mellow Mushroom and we called it dinner! And that is where we leave off. More things to see and do in Chattanooga tomorrow!
