The Loveliest Village on the Plains

When we left Aunt Shannon's, we were heading to Mobile, Alabama to meet Dalen's parents. So, we decided to eat lunch in Auburn at Hamilton's, which is right on the way. The quick trip to Auburn was lovely-it is such a special place!

Sadly, we can't talk about Auburn, without giving due attention to those lovely Live Oaks:
I didn't take any pictures of the Oaks. They looked worse than I imagined and it was truly heartbreaking to see in person. Some of you may not know, but we lived in Auburn when I was 3 and 4. One of my earliest memories is walking under those trees with the sunlight streaming through. Now I couldn't tell you why we were walking there or what time of year it was, but that image I have in my head of being under their canopy is one that I will never forget. In fact, as an itty bitty I pictured those Oaks when reading Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. That's powerful stuff. A memory that I was hoping to imprint in Westin, but alas, a piece of riffraff with a bunch of poison killed that dream. I have read many articles about the Oaks; however, this one captures the history and sentiments better than any article that I have read-it is a long read, but totally worth it! My hope for that little corner is that a kickass memorial goes up-one that will keep Tradition alive and gracefully reside at that corner as those Oaks have for decades. Silly ole 'Al from Dadeville' will learn the hard way that you might try to hold a Tiger down, but that amazing Auburn Spirit is pretty tough to contain. War Eagle!

Aunt Shannon's!

Aunt Shannon was kind enough to let us stay with her for a couple of days in Atlanta. She recently moved into the cutest house (which, of course, I forgot to get a picture of-but if  you friend (?) her on Facebook, I'm sure that you have seen it already). We went to her favorite neighborhood dinner places, and met one of my old friends from high school, Kenny Alford. Yay!

Westin quickly fell in love with Aunt Shannon's iPhone. He listened to the same story about a pug, lily and a little baby, lola for the bulk of dinner.

The next day we went to the Georgia Aquarium. It took both Dalen and I some time to get used to the crowds, which we thought was because the entire town of Vermillion could probably visit the Aquarium on the same day and it not be as crowded. Shannon assured us that it was a little crowded for her taste as well. The crowds didn't bother Westin; he was mesmerized!!!

Trying to touch the fish.

G-Pops and D's house

A new generation learns about the Human Slide.

I love being at home! Don't get me wrong, when I left Birmingham, the Magic City, I kinda loathed it, couldn't wait to leave it, thought anywhere was better than the Tragic City. Of course, I never anticipated that once I really left, I would live in many far flung places-none of them resembling Birmingham. Coming back I appreciate it much more, and I will never take for granted the precious time that we have to see family on these trips.

It was a lovely weekend at G-pops and D's. We went to the Farmer's Market at Pepper Place. The produce that you can get at a Southern Farmers Market is simply unmatched. We didn't fight with Westin to eat his veggies on this trip! D and I did some shopping, Dada and G-pops did some shopping. And Westin? Well, he helped around the house:

I have a feeling that G-pops knew what a big hit this simple little bucket was.

And Westin got to hang out with his G-pops:

Westin goes to Highland Lake

At this point of the trip, Westin has learned a couple new words: 'peach' (new favorite fruit), 'uh oh', and 'bread', which kinda sounds like 'brawd'. Did I mention, 'uh oh'? We had gone to the zoo and visited with family, what could be next? Noni's wonderful friend, Rowena invited us to her lake house for a day. For those of you not familiar with Alabama--it has many beautiful lakes. Rowena's house is on Highland Lake, which is about an hour out of Birmingham (northeast).

Westin and Noni walked through the country garden.

West got to swim with Mama. (We also learned of Dada's aversion to swimming in lakes. Rivers: fine; Oceans: kewl; Lakes: spooky. Curious, very curious.))

Best of all, West got to drive the boat!

Luckiest little boy of ALL TIME! :)

We would really like to thank Rowena for such a wonderful day, filled with so much fun!

Family Time

 

I don't know if I say this enough--but the hardest part of living where we do is being so far away from family. We were lucky enough that Westin's cousins and Aunts were able to come visit us while we were at Noni's. It was so good to see everybody! Westin LOVES playing with Madison and Jade, his two cousins. They are so sweet and always bring him some new toy-that used to be one of their favorites. One day these two lovely ladies might come visit us in South Dakota-wouldn't that be fun!

Blowing bubbles-Westin learns from his cousins why this magical!

Westin goes to the Birmingham Zoo!

 So on the first day at Noni's, we knew that we had to get our little Monkey out and moving-so we decided to go to the zoo. When we bought our Year Pass to the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, we knew we could get into the Birmingham Zoo for free. In my opinion, this was good, because there wasn't much to see at the Birmingham Zoo-at least when I was little. My how times have changed!! They have done an absolutely amazing job with the renovations.
We found some of our zoo favorites:

And we found new favorites:

Bongo drums in the safari section

Play that funky music white boy

Exiting the 'mine' in the kangeroo interactive section.

Incidentally, these yellow hats were far more entertaining than the mini-kangaroos in the pin just across the way.

We took Westin into the parakeet habitat, thinking he would be over the moon. He LOVES birds! But in this instance, he kept giving us the 'my parents are crazy' look. Poor little one, he really has NO idea!

Holiday Road

 Hi everyone! I know it has been a while. At the end of July, we embarked on an epic road trip.....

Mostly accurate Route. OK, so the jaunt into Kansas wasn't that extreme, but the detour to cross I-29 into Missouri took much much longer than anticipated. There are entire stretches of interstate that are completely under water-and our family truckster is not a Duck.

We didn't get back until the second week of August. It was a great time, and a success-despite the massive detours caused by the closure of parts of I-29 due to Missouri River flooding. I mean, whenever you spend 2.5 wks on the road and you don't have to tie a dead relative to the roof of a car-that's success, people (see National Lampoon's Family Vacation). Over the next 9 blog posts**, we will recount our journey. To put it all in perspective, we were happy to be leaving Vermillion for a bit. We had been in a serious funk since the 4th of July-the heat, humidity and heat-seeking bugs were just bumming us out. We needed a break. 

Going through my pictures, I realized that I didn't take nearly enough of Westin with family--which was the point of the trip!! West is an amazing traveler, granted we Dalen did download some Curious George and Seasame Street to the ole iPad-very helpful, although Dalen kinda wished that we didn't use it. I am thankful for the advances in modern technology. Dalen drove most of the trip, because I am no longer used to driving and kind of totally freak out when I drive next to giant trucks! Not helpful.

To get ready for the trip, Westin got a haircut...by a professional this time..

Before...

Stylin'!! Ginny is great and is so good with Westin!

First stop: Springfield, MO en route to Noni's house in Birmingham, AL.

Despite 2 extra hours to get across the Missouri River, Dalen is still all smiles. Afterall, we are on VACATION!! :)

**For those of you wondering where these 9 blog posts are--I'm writing them right now and they will be published bit by bit over the next couple of days. Seriously, I'm not leaving my computer until they are done. Promise! Also, to help y'all keep track of where we are, I added the location feature, so you can find us on the map! :)