Since it's fall break, Matt and I decided to try to plan something fun for the kids to do. We planned to drive to Birmingham Tuesday night and spend the night and get up the next day and go to the Birmingham Zoo. The plan was perfect in theory....
We left town when Matt got off work and headed south. I knew we were in for a long ride when Mattie kept asking about the distance and how long it would take us to get there. And, the kids had already finished looking at the books and playing with the toys I brought after the first 5 minutes of the drive. We get to Birmingham, finally, and we stop to eat at Johnny Rocket's. Nathan was his normal, awful, terrible 2 self. Then we checked into our hotel and the first thing Mattie wanted to do was swim in the indoor/outdoor pool. Matt was not interested in swimming at all. So Mattie and I head down to the pool and hot tub. With it being an indoor/outdoor pool the outdoor water comes into the indoor part, therefore, the water was freezing. So Mattie and I opted for the hot tub, and it was enough to satisity the princess. We relaxed in the hot tub for all of about 10 minutes and she was ready to get out. We headed back to our "condo" as Mattie kept calling it, which it was just a short walk down the hall to our room. Mattie and I got changed and she reminded me that the lady at the front desk said they had free popcorn and cokes in the lobby until 10:00, so Mattie, Nathan and I headed to the lobby. The hotel lobby staff had just made fresh baked cookies, this is what family fun is all about!
So, we get tucked in and off to sleep we go. The next morning we wake up to HEAVY rainfall. The poor kids just looked out the window hoping and praying for it to stop.
Trying to entertain 2 kids in a hotel room is not for the weak. The phonebook was a big hit....I just hope the next person that stays there does not need to look anything up. Finally, we had had enough in the room, so, we get in the car and head to the mall. We were able to pass the time away until the rain stopped and we headed to the zoo.....
**note to self, do not let husband be in charge of the camera, or you will get a gorrila butt shot.
He redeemed himself with this photo.....(my favorite on of the whole trip)
**took back the redemption.....
beautiful animals, but all Mattie would say is, "it stinks out here, can we ride the train now?"
Anyhoo...that was the zoo. Who knows what next fall break has in store.
One last thought that sums up the whole trip:
$103 for hotel stay
$50 for zoo tickets and train ride
and a ton of $ on all kinds of other stuff.....
and this is the thanks we get......PRICELESS
until she got tired of walking.....
but "Big Al" made it all better.....
Mattie said she couldn't believe there were 104 people there.....
Mattie slept through the second quarter, when she woke up she asked me, "how did I sleep with all this noise?"
Mattie got some "A" earrings as her souvenir. The next morning was Sunday and she wore her houndstooth outfit with accompanying "Alabama" accessories. She really wanted me to get a picture of her new earrings. The first try, she looked at the picture and was disappointed you couldn't really see them, so we made a second attempt. By the third attempt she was determined I was going to get a good shot of the earrings. See how the photo shoot went:
