Another fun adventure was our day trip to Huntsville.  Brian did a long bike ride in the area, while we explored the US Space & Rocket Center.  It was VERY FUN!  The kids lasted longer than I thought they would, and they seemed pretty interested in all the fun space things to look at.  Then we took our lunch to a nearby playground at the Monte Sano State Park.

The Rocket Park was very impressive.

Um, can you find my family hidden below the space shuttle and boosters?  This was HUGE!

Have I mentioned its impossible to take posted pictures of my kids?

There was a Kid Zone that Analise and Josiah really enjoyed.

There’s an adult ride called, Space Shot (“Soar 150 feet in the air with 4 G’s of force during liftoff of the Space Shot simulator”).  I rode it, and it was VERY SCARY.  They had a mini (fun) version for the kids, and though Analise wasn’t sure at first, she did try it, much to my amazement.  She loved it, probably riding it 7 times before we left.  Of course, Josiah had to do it, too, with much hesitation.  But he just followed her lead, and he was laughing his little belly laugh the whole time.  It was so cute to watch them!  (I’m hoping to post a video, too, eventually…)

I’m finally getting caught up on photos, particularly this evening I’ve done the photos from Grandma Sandy & Poppa Dale’s visit in early August. Have I mentioned how much fun we had? I’ll let you see for yourself…

Checking out the trains at the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum.

A cool photo, thanks to Photoshop 🙂

One of my new favorite Josiah photos.

More trains… this time at home!  Poppa built some great tracks for the trains.

A fun afternoon rainshower.  I’ll work on finding Josiah some more boyish boots 🙂

The public schools here in Alabama started back in early August, Brian started last Monday, and today was finally Analise’s first day back at school.  She’s in the 4-year-old kindergarten program, Tuesday through Friday.  To be honest, I’ve been pretty ready to send her back to school.  She’s very busy, and we’re having a hard time finding enough creative activities to keep her out of trouble around here.  And she loves the social aspect of school.  And I love having one-on-one time with Josiah.  He plays very well by himself these days, too, so that gives me some much needed time to get things done for myself.  It will be a big change for us to have 4 days instead of the 2 days a week we’ve had the last 2 years, but it will be a good preparation for kindergarten next year.

Kindergarten!  Crazy to think that next year at this time, I’ll have one child in school 5 days a week at kindergarten, and Josiah will be in preschool 2 days a week.  What in the world will I do with 2 days entirely to myself?  I can’t even imagine all the things I might actually get accomplished!  Still, the thought of Analise in kindergarten tugs at my heart.  I can’t believe how fast she’s growing up!

A glimpse from last year’s first day of school…

Brian walks Analise to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays when he’s available.  Believe it or not, she still rides in the backpack, as she has has since she started 2 years ago.  They love their walk over!  Josiah usually hates to see her go on the backpack adventure without him, but this morning, he and I joined them for part of the walk, so there were no tears.  Then we both enjoyed our walk… I, particularly, enjoyed pushing just 1 child in the stroller… 50lbs of weight versus 85+! Josiah and I also went to the mall to get him some new shoes, picked up some yummy Auntie Annie’s pretzel stix, then played with the Thomas train table at the bookstore. It’s so fun to chat with him these days! And it sure is easy taking one child out and about, rather than 2!

(Added by Brian): Here’s her “first day of school” picture from 2006, too!

Thanks to a surprise in Samford’s academic calendar, Brian had today off!  It’s never been a school holiday, but this year his students swore there was no class, and Brian was excited to find they were right.  There is always a big cycling race in Atlanta that he’s never been able to do… so within minutes, he was registered 🙂  His parents stayed with the kids, giving us a kid-free getaway!  Sweet!

On the trip over, we saw lots and lots of Louisiana cars heading to Atlanta, and our hotel had many LA cars in the parking lot.  We stayed in a very nice Doubletree hotel (the bed was absolutely heavenly… like sleeping on a cloud!).   Last night we were busy picking up race numbers, driving the race course, and checking in, so it was a late night.  Brian was up super early, for the 7:15am start.  Thankfully he could ride the short distance to the start, so I stayed in the cozy bed for an extra hour or so, before heading out to the race course.

There were 11 laps, and Brian made it an EXCITING RACE.  He was in a break with 2 other riders, and they had 40 seconds to 1-minute gap.  I was so excited!  This was a HUGE race, with lots of top pros, and the payout was $20,000 over 35 places.  I could hardly sit still in the 12 minutes between each 5-mile lap.  The break did eventually get pulled back to the main field, unfortunately, but Brian did win $100 in a prime while they were out front.  The sprint was downhill and crazy fast, with 100 riders jockeying for position, and spinning as fast as their legs could go… probably hitting 50-55mph into the finish.  Brian ended up 41st.  Still, it was so exciting and fun to see him be such a big part of the race.  Here’s a link to a good picture on Velonews.com, a well-known cycling news site.  (Brian was hoping the caption would have been more telling, with something like, “A look at the day’s most promising break”, as what’s written sure doesn’t capture the excitement!).  Brian’s written a detailed report on his blog.

We were able to go back to the room to shower and relax before checkout.  Of course, then we had to make our obligatory Trader Joe’s stop, since we were withint 50 miles of my favorite store 🙂  Highlights in my shopping cart…

• Gyoza Chicken Potstickers (great quick dinner tonight, and though they were good, we have been spoiled by tasting Corrie‘s homemade ones!)
• whole wheat and tabbouli salad (greek with bulgar, parsley, tomatoes, onions and cucumbers… a treat for me)
• TJ’s Mocha and Chocolate yogurt (!!!!  Can’t wait to try it!  We CANNOT like this too much, because it’s nearly impossible to bring cold stuff back with us, like if we’re at TJs in Chicago.)
• Vegetable Root Chips – very colorful, and I thought they were tasty.  Sweet potoes, parsnips, batara (?) and something else.
• Vanilla paste – I love this.  One of my favorite baking essentials.  Only at TJs.
• Freeze dried strawberries.  A favorite snack of the kids.

Then we had a nice quiet lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack (we didn’t plan the Joe-theme!).  We were home by 4pm, and it’s amazing how sweet and cute my kids are after less than 24 hours away!  What a treat to have such a nice spontaneous getaway!

Hope you enjoy the new look!  We’re excited to keep tweaking and adding some things.  Keep watching!

Just one quick look at our busy weekend in Chattanooga, from the Tennessee Aquarium on Saturday morning:

From our lunch playtime at Chik-Fil-A…

Analise came out of the play area to munch on her nuggets and gulp down some lemonade (“yemon-ade” Josiah calls it).

“I met a new friend, Mommy!”

“Really?  Did she tell you her name?”

“Yes, her name is is South Carolina.”

Do you think her Daddy needs to back off on showing her maps of his favorite rides from his college days at Clemson?  I have a hunch her friend might have been named Caroline 🙂

The great things I’ve accomplished…  Once again, one of my favorite bloggers, Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer, says it just as my heart feels it.

That’s what this week has felt like to me at least that’s what it’s felt like in my head.  Sorry I’ve not been on here!   Feels like not much to write about, although I have lots that I still INTEND to post about… notably more about my parents’ visit with pictures.

Brian raced this past weekend in Mississippi (more details on his blog), and we had Kim, Lauren and Anna over for lunch and playtime after church on Sunday.  Always fun to hang out with them!  I snuck out Sunday evening to the coffee shop for a meeting… which got canceled at the last minute, but I still stayed and relaxed with my book.

Monday we had a quiet day at home while Brian was busy at school getting ready for classes to start next week.  We enjoyed a new sandbox on our back porch, which I had been looking forward to for a long time.  Yes, the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.  They buried each other, dug, sifted, molded and tossed sand everywhere.  For all the fun they had, I sure got grumpy trying to get them to keep it in the sandbox and not get sand in each other’s eyes.  And then when they were done, I pretty much didn’t want to let them inside.  We ended up having to take baths at 11am, and sand got tracked everywhere.  Was this supposed to be fun??  I’m learning, slowly, that trying to be the over-controlling-clean mom only really hampers the fun for everyone.  I’ve got to find a balance.  One tip, though… baby powder really works well to brush the sand off!!

Monday evening I got to go to a faculty dinner with Brian, which was fun.  The other professors and their spouses in his department are great company, and I always look forward to these events.

Tuesday we had friends over to play, and we made edible peanutty play-doh.  To top it off, I gave the kids each a package of M&Ms, which was more exciting than the play-doh.  I had also invited Brian’s parents over for dinner, and while I was getting the table ready, Josiah fell off the couch and cracked his lip open.  Poor little hard-luck guy.  He bled all over me, but a popsicle finally soothed him.  And of course, Analise had to have one too, even though it was before dinner.  Thankfully, they were Pure Fruit pops 🙂

Today started out with Josiah and I at Children’s Hospital for his yearly tests to follow up on his vesico-urethral reflux issues (VUR).  I was pretty worried about it, because back in April it took 3 tries to get a catheter in for a urine sample, and he had pain for several days.  The test today (a VCUG) involved a catheter, but it went as smoothly as could be expected.  Still painful, tears on both our parts, but he did well.  I’m so proud of my little guy.

Tonight was back to our weekly Wednesday Life Group routine.  Brian’s parents are now taking both kids to church with them for dinner and their Missions Friends and choir programs.  We arranged to have my invaluable babysitter, Abigail, here when they got home at 8 to put them to bed, while we’re at our Life Group for dinner and discussion.  It went smoothly tonight, and Analise was even asleep when we got home, which has NEVER happened on a Wednesday!!

Tomorrow we may get some haircuts (everyone but me needs one!!), and get ready for a weekend of fun and racing in Chattanooga.  The season is winding down…