Bladen & Mommy Date Night

Bladen & I got to have a date night this month.  He has NEVER eaten at Burger King before so he asked if we could go there since they have burgers (which he LOVES).  He ate a double whopper in no time flat.  A DOUBLE WHOPPER.  This kid is seriously going to eat me out of house & home before he even hits the teenage years.

Bladen is such a good kid.  It was nice having some one on one time with him.  After dinner I took him to play a game of laser tag at Launch.  He LOVED it.  It was a great little night together.

Youth Birmingham Temple Trip

Here in Alabama, the nearest temple to us is the Birmingham temple.  It is a VERY small temple, but it's only about 2 hours away which is nice.  (I will admit, I miss being spoiled by having the Oakland temple only 40 minutes away, but 2 hours is better than 5!)

This month our ward had a youth trip to the temple so Cadence & Lorien got to go together to do baptisms & confirmations.  I love how much these two sisters love each other.

And we've got a fun group of 12-18 year olds in our ward here.  Only about 2/3 of them attended the temple trip due to some extracurricular things happening that day, but it was a blast with the kids that were able to make it.  My girls are making some really great friends here.

Water Safety

There's a lot of NEW things here in Alabama that I'm not used to, but I'm loving them.  

Yesterday, Craiger got to attend the 2nd grade water safety class at the YMCA as a field trip.  I got to go too which was fun for me.  For 2 hours, they take all the 2nd graders & teach them water safety at 4 stations.

#1: They actually teach them swimming techniques.  They start by THROWING them in the water.  I was terrified since Craiger is in swim lessons & hasn't quite mastered swimming yet.  He pretty much sunk, but did flap around a little bit.  The lady had to help him get to the side, but he did alright.

#2: They teach them how to save someone else.  They had lifeguards pretending to drown & they taught them how to throw them a rope, buoy, pool noodle, etc. & taught them to pull them to safety.

#3: They taught them how to dive & push themselves UP in the water.  This was hard for Craiger, but by the end, he was actually pushing against the bottom of the pool to get back up.  I was really proud of him.

#4: Capsizing!  This one was REALLY interesting to watch.  They put 2 kids in a boat at a time & capsized it.  For me, this would be terrifying, but Craiger was all about it.  The taught them what to do if they ever fall out of a boat & he did AWESOME.  He grabbed his legs & floated up on his back just like they told him to.  I was SO proud of him.

I was really impressed with this class.  I think every school should do it for every grade.  Yes, kids can swim, but some kids can't & it's still a good reminder on what to do in any situation in water.  It's life skills & it's GREAT.  I'm SO grateful Craiger got to take part in it.

I love this kid.

The Montgomery Zoo

For Labor Day, we decided to take a family trip to the Montgomery Zoo.  We only had 5 of the kiddos because Cadence wanted to go Homecoming dress shopping with her friends (we're finally hitting the "friends are important" phase with her which is great because she has been anti-social for so many years.).  We missed her, but had a blast with the other kiddos.

It was actually cheaper to buy a family year pass than to buy a one day pass for each person so YAY for several more zoo trips in our future.

 There were lots of fun animals to see at the zoo.

Craiger loves Lemurs so he was pretty excited to see tons of them.

Canyon especially loved the alligators.

And Bladen is my snake boy.

Taya has always loved the big cats.  She loved the lions, tiger, panthers, cheetahs, & lynx.

The entire day we had this beautiful peacock following us around.  He literally followed us where ever we went.

With our year pass we got an unlimited train ride pass which we'll use over & over again.  My kids love riding trains.  It was a cute little train ride that got us out of the hot sun for a bit.

But the highlight of the whole trip was the parakeet experience.  This place was my worst nightmare, but the kids LOVED it.  I don't know. . . there's something about loose birds & flapping wings around my head that scares me to death.  I do NOT like being around loose birds.

But, being a good mom, I went in anyway.  I bought some bird feed so the kids could let the birds land on them while I screamed silently in the background.

They were loving it.  Taya & Lorien are just like Snow White.  The birds loved them.

I don't know what it was about Trek, but the birds thought Trek was food.  They kept swarming him & kept pecking at him.  It was HILARIOUS.

At one point he had about 4 birds on his neck & they were pecking at his neck hairs, pulling them out.  Trek started yelling & running & they FOLLOWED him.  He must smell like food or something.  It was SO FUNNY.

It was a great day.  I'm glad we got a year pass so we can come back whenever we want.  The kids loved it & can't wait to go again.