Alabama

I am lovin it!! Basically I am just lovin the warm weather and sunshine...boy does it boost moral.

I am really tired so I am just going to give you a quick rundown of events plus some pictures. The reason for coming down to AL was to see family. Had a good time visiting them and everyone is doing well.

The first thing we experienced was Alligator Alley. Yep, that is right, 2o0 alligators in one place. It was neat though. All the alligators live in a fenced yet natural swamp environment. Ryan must have really liked it because he told every person who we ran into (the hotel receptionist, people in the elevator, waitress at the restaurant) about holding an alligator.

Ryan and Kali (my cousins little girl) at Alligator Alley

Ry's favorite part, holding a baby alligator

On to playing with a python

I got in on the fun

Feeding of an adult alligator....yikes. Glad there is a fence between him and me.

We went to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo too but it is a small little zoo. Ryan could feed some of the animals but most of the animals were being lazy so I didn't take many photos. I wanted to take Ryan Adventure Mini Golfing but that didn't happen because he didn't want to leave the beach.

Our family that we were visiting live a few miles from the coast but I had to take the opportunity to stay right on the beach. Ryan and I stayed in a hotel on the Gulf of Mexico. We literally walked out our door onto the beach. I don't know who enjoyed themselves more, me or Ry. We hung out on the beach for several hours every day and I still had to drag Ryan back to the room at supper time.

This is what Ryan did with the majority of his time on the beach. He would race waves into shore. He says his favorite part of the beach was when I took him out to deep water and the waves would knock him over. Just about knocked me over a couple time too.

Bad mom, I bribed Ryan into stopping at the Outlet Mall. I told him we could go to Lambert's (the place where they throw really yummy hot rolls across the room and you have to catch them) if we stopped at the mall first. I am so glad we stopped. I found rack after rack of $1.99, $2.99 and $5.99 clothes. Since Alabama's winter temps are long gone all their winter clothes were on major clearance. I bought Ryan a lot of clothing for next winter.

Sad to go back to cold Iowa weather but looking forward to being home again. We miss Ben too.