An Afternoon in Montgomery!

This weekend we drove about 2.5 hours up to Montgomery. We had to be there for Sawyer's gymnastics meet. So we decided to spend some time there exploring. We visited the Rosa Parks Children's Museum. Then we walked around. We saw the capitol building and the first White House of the Confederacy. It was a fun family afternoon! Here are some pictures of our day!

Our first stop was the Rosa Parks Museum and Library. Unfortunately the main museum was closed. But we did get to visit the children's museum where we boarded the Cleveland Bus and learned some of the history leading up to the day Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus. It was like a ride...we sat on the bus and it "traveled back in time." It was pretty neat and the boys enjoyed it!

Next we started walking around and exploring on our own.

We came to this fountain! It was right across the street from the bus stop where Rosa Parks loaded the bus.

My engineer husband was in awe of the cobblestone street. And if you look in the distance you can see the capitol building!

The bus stop where Rosa Parks got on the bus that day.

We kept walking towards the capitol building. On the way we spotted the RSA Tower! We stopped for a quick picture.

And then we were at the capitol building! It's always so majestic looking! We took a few pictures. Sawyer wanted to mimic the pose Hayden had when he came to Montgomery on a field trip!

After walking around the capitol building we saw a white house. We learned it was the first White House of the Confederacy. We got to go inside and look around...it was really cool!

Then we headed back to the car and drove to our hotel so we could check in. Then we headed to get some dinner. We found a Jim 'n' Nix BBQ place. It was soooo yummy! I got the pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, and collard greens. I didn't feel guilty about eating it since I had run 10 miles that morning AND walked about 2 miles in Montgomery that afternoon!

Then it was back to the hotel for some relaxation before going to bed. We had a busy morning the next day...Sawyer had his third gymnastics meet!

And it WAS Valentine's Day! I'm so thankful for this man...he's my best friend and the love of my life! We didn't get to do any of the traditional Valentine's Day festivities but we greatly enjoyed spending the day with our precious boys and feeling so blessed and thankful for our little family!

It was a great day!!!

QOTD: Do you like to explore new cities?

Family Fun at Fort Gaines!

My boys are fascinated by old forts! We've been to several of the forts here on the Gulf Coast. Fort Gaines was still on our list to visit! Saturday was a gorgeous day here on the Gulf Coast so we got in the truck and traveled about an hour to Dauphin Island to see Fort Gaines. What better way to spend the day then to be outside AND learn about some of our area's history?

The entrance to the fort! The boys love all the canons!

We entered the fort and then into the gift shop. It cost us (family of 4) $20 to enter the fort. Then we entered the courtyard. The boys oohed and aahed when we first saw the fort!

We immediately looked at our map and started following the self-guided tour. We went up tons of stairs and down tons of stairs. There were a ton of "secret spots" that were a little scary to enter. They were stairs that you would go down and they would lead you to a room or to the courtyard. The stairs were steep and small. But we conquered them all despite our my fears!

My boys going down the stairs!

Some of the stairs leaded to rooms like these. And Sawyer wanted pictures in almost all the windows lol!

Like most of the forts here on the Gulf Coast this one was built close to the Gulf of Mexico. The views of the canons, the fort, and the Gulf are amazing!

We even got to see several dolphins playing in the water!

We explored tons of rooms like this one.

We got to see the bakery, the blacksmith shop, the quartermasters offices, and the kitchen. We even saw the 10 seat latrine. It was fun explaining that to the boys! And they got a kick out of hearing how when it was high tide the water would come in and flush out the "potties!"

A really cool part of this fort were the volunteers they had! They had people dressed up in the clothes from the Civil War area. This lady told us all about the medicines they had and the herbs they used as medicine. She was super nice!

We also got to visit the kitchen area and taste bread and cookies that were made with the ingredients they used back then. This one lady told us all about washing the laundry. And she even let Hayden wash some!

This sweet little girl told the boys all about the games the children played back then...after all their chores were done of course. Sawyer had fun talking to her!

We had a great time visiting Fort Gaines! I think this one was one of my favorites!

QOTD: Do you ever visit Forts? Which ones are your favorite?

Family Fun at Fort Barrancas!

I finally got to spend some much needed time with my family this weekend! I've been gone the past two weekends for races so it was wonderful to have time with my men!

One of our favorite family outings is going to explore all the forts around us. You may remember a few weeks ago we stayed at the beach and explored Fort Morgan. Since then, Hayden (my oldest son) has been asking to go see some of the other forts near us. So we thought this weekend would be the perfect time for that. We loaded up on Saturday morning and set out on our hour drive to Pensacola.

We were aiming to see Fort Barrancas. It is located on Pensacola Naval Air Station. Although I've visited Fort Morgan many times, I had never been to Fort Barrancas. So I was looking forward to it too! Of course you have to check in to get on base.

Then we were on our way to find the fort! We came to the Advanced Redoubt first. This was built in the 1800's to protect the Pensacola Navy Yard from a land based assault. Unfortunately the actual inside of the fort was locked...we found out later that it is only open once a week for a one hour tour...Saturdays at 11AM. We were too late because it was around 1:00 when we got there. We did get to take a few pictures of the outside. We also walked the perimeter of the fort and the boys enjoyed that. They couldn't understand how we were walking on the roof of the fort in some places!

Next we headed to Fort Barrancas. There is a half mile Trench Trail that connects Advance Redoubt to Fort Barrancas but the boys didn't want to walk (lazy things...I've got to change that). So we loaded back up in the truck and made our way there. The boys loved seeing the big canons!

There was a gorgeous paved road that took you to a lookout of the fort. I thought it was so pretty and immediately thought of how gorgeous it would be to run there! :-)

Our view of Fort Barrancas from the lookout.

Goofy boys on the draw bridge at the entrance to Fort Barrancas.

What was different about Fort Barrancas compared to Fort Morgan is that Fort Barrancas was all closed in. It was just like walking though tunnels. Fort Morgan was open on one side. The boys thought it was super cool and kept talking about secret passageways! I just love their imaginations!

The entrance to the "tunnel." 

Basically each little archway entered you in a room that had two slits in the wall where the gun barrel would fit so they could fire. You can see all the archways in the picture behind the boys.

Andy and I thought it was amazing how much light shown through those slits and lit up the rooms. The temperature was also a lot cooler. 

We then came to another part of the fort that was like a long hallway. There were windows on one side and a wall on the other side. 

We even proceeded to march like soldiers down the hallway at one point! I'm sure that had to have occurred plenty of times when the fort was occupied. 

After exploring the fort we were led outside and entered the tunnel that connects the fort to the water battery (the white section is the water battery). The boys thought it was neat that we were underground while in the tunnel. 

Another view of Fort Barrancas.

After we explored the fort we started walking back to the truck. I had to have this pic of my men! Such a beautiful background!

We had a great day! Hayden begged us to go to another fort that day but we just didn't have enough time to get there before dark. We assured him we would see them all! We have two more in our area that we haven't taken the boys to...Fort Pickens in Pensacola and Fort Gaines in Dauphin Island. I'm so glad the boys enjoy exploring the forts as well as learning a bit of history while they are there!

QOTD: Have you ever been to a fort like this? Which one?

Fall Family Fun Day!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I spent it with my hubby and boys...and we had a blast!!! Be prepared for lots of pictures! :-)

Friday night we went to my friend Stephanie's house for her daughter Sydney's 8th birthday. She had a Halloween themed party and the boys had so much fun!!! They ate pizza, cake, and got to decorate pumpkins!

Check out this awesome cake! And yes it tasted as good as it looked!

And here are my sweet boys painting their pumpkins...which are now proudly displayed on our fireplace mantel! ;-)

Since I wasn't running a long run this weekend due to my week of rest, Saturday I got to sleep in and it was marvelous!!! I woke up refreshed and even cooked breakfast for my boys. Then we decided to go to the Magnolia Corn Maze for some fun! I love this time of year...there are so many fun activities!!!

This year they added a children's maze cut out of wild flowers...the flowers were gorgeous and we had to take a picture in front of them!

Now I don't know about you but I am NOT good with directions! So these mazes are super hard for me! Luckily my wonderful hubby is great with them...usually! ;-) This year's maze was cut into the shape of the state of Alabama and the paths represent the state's major interstates, highways, and roads. We had 8 different cities that we had to check off on our map...Mobile, Birmingham, Montgomery, Florence, Huntsville, Tuscaloosca, Auburn, and Dothan. Once you found the city you punched your map and kept going through the maze.

I had to get a picture of Sawyer wearing his Auburn jersey in Auburn! :-)

And here we are in the city of Auburn! ;-)

I may be biased but I think they are THE cutest boys ever!!!

And the city closest to us...Mobile!

We actually went into the maze 2 times! The first time we only found 7 of the cities. We exited the maze to use the restroom and get some water...and to determine which city we were missing. It was Birmingham! How did we miss Birmingham? So back in we went to get our 8th punch on our map! I was determined to get all 8 because you turned your completed map in for a chance to win a Visa gift card!

After our fun in the maze we went on a hayride!

We then enjoyed some of the other activities...the Hop-a-long Rodeo (which Sawyer attempted and then started crying at the start line), the petting zoo, the corn cannon, and the pig races!

They also had a pumpkin patch! Ok it's not a real pumpkin patch but it's all we get here in the south...just a bunch of pumpkins sitting on the ground that you can choose from. The boys wanted to pick one but it costs extra and that's part of the plan for next weekend. So we just took a few pictures with the pumpkins!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Sawyer! He wanted to hold that huge pumpkin so bad!!! :-)

After we were finished having fun at the corn maze we decided to eat some dinner and then head to the movies. Hayden has been wanting to see the movie "Hotel Transylvania" so we thought it was the perfect night for it.

This movie was sooo cute!!!! Adam Sandler is one of my favorites and he didn't disappoint in this movie. We will definitely be adding this to our movie library when it comes out on Blu-Ray!

Watch the trailer below! It is soooo funny!



Thanks for reading this long post! I just had such a fun weekend that I wanted to share it all with you!!! I'm so blessed to have such great times with my family!

QOTD: Have you ever gone to a corn maze? Did you like it?