The Georgia Aquarium

This was our spring break so I decided we needed to do something fun so, we went to the Georgia Aquarium and met up with the Athertons.  Here are some pictures from our trip of the animals we saw.

Baluga Whale

     

Jelly Fish

     

Sharks

    

Whale Shark

And a multitude of others.....

Reminds me of Pirates of the Carribean

Cute Otters

Piranha

These were Garden something or others. I can't remember the name, they make me think of snakes...uugghh.

Stingrays ~ Nolan using the "two finger" rule to touch.

 
  

And of course...our kids. Nolan and Emma Craig. Emily Atherton.

We headed home with all the kids riding in the Athertons car (they have a DVD player) and met up at a Cracker Barrel for dinner. We packed the kids in our car and had Emily spend the night. She was with Emma for moral support the next morning as Emma got her ears pierced. But that, is the next blog entry.

Hello...DHR???

I'm sure this is what my kids were thinking Saturday! Todd got them outside to tackle the rest of the leaves from the back yard. I came out near the end and used my wonderful new backpack blower to round up the last of the leaves so that they could bag them. Todd opened up a new box of 50 55 gallon bags and we had one left when all was said and done. I took a picture of the stack of bags for posterity. There were about 12 that belonged to our neighbors but the rest was ours. The bags really looked impressive when they were all on top of each other, I spread them out so that it would be easier for the garbage men (don't know the politically correct way to say that).

On friday Nolan had a party at Game Zone, the local laser tag place. Emma and I went shopping and Todd picked Nolan up. Saturday...they bagged. Emma then had a party saturday afternoon. The theme was a "backwards" theme. Emma had a great time and then we went shopping again after the party. On Sunday after church, Todd took the kids to his dad's farm in Calera. Nolan loves to get on the riding lawn mower. He's going to have a rude awakening when he starts mowing this summer for me, my mower is horrible and hard to push! I think Emma was also going to try out the riding mower. They often get $$ for helping out G-pa Dan so they love to go to the farm. 

Anyway, we had great weather and a very productive weekend!

Winter Storm of '09

The weatherman is calling for snow, in Alabama ... that can mean many things. Perhaps a light "dusting" where you look like you have dandruff. Maybe enough snow will fall to cover the grass blanketing your yard in a sea of white. On the other hand, it could mean that you get 17 inches of snow with 5' drifts! You never can be sure exactly which one will hit, this is why everyone runs out to buy milk and break when snowflakes are mentioned. Well, this last storm was actually what was expected... 2-4 inches and gone by early the next morning.

It just happened to start falling late Sunday morning. A few flurries fell as I made my way to work early, 6:00 a.m. The snow steadily fell throughout the day and was really falling by 10:00. I only had 100 kids throughout the morning and a handful of workers. 

Knowing I wouldn't make it home in time to see the "pretty" snow in my own yard (the kids were out playing in it) I took pictures at work to memorialize the day.

The building as I drove up to work.                   

One of the courtyards.

 

The tree outside my office door.

The drive down Briarwood Way.