Alabama the Beautiful, Part 2

After our wonderful morning at the Temple, we found a Krispy Kreme on our way back to the hotel. And we had to stop cuz the "HOT NOW" sign was on. Mmmm....a little slice of heaven.



We picked up our crew from the hotel and headed to the zoo.



It was a pretty nice little zoo. Here are some of our favorite things we saw there.

*The Elephants--They were so cool to watch and we spent a good amount of time watching them. Some of them got pretty close. The kids really liked watching one pick up a huge log with its trunk and then drop it back on the ground. Pretty cool stuff.



*The Monkeys--There was a "Monkey House" with all kinds of cute little monkeys to see. We really liked watching these black and white ones (I can't remember what kind they were) pick bugs off of eat other. Now that's love. It was pretty entertaining to watch.



*The Gorilla--When we walked up to him, people were sitting there just watching and waiting for him to come out. Sarah was pretty bummed because we couldn't see him. But then all of a sudden he came out and sat for a few minutes. I told Sarah he came out just for her.



*The Anteater--I don't think I have seen an anteater before. He was very odd looking, but cool to see.



*The Baby Orangutan--He came out just as we were walking up and we all fell in love with him! He was sooooo cute!



*The Rhino Cart--The kids learned about how they transport rhinos.



What a cute bunch!



*The Rhinos were so huge and pretty awesome.



We really enjoyed watching them......



.....especially when it looked like these two were going to fight. They started huffin' and puffin' and makin' all kinds of noise at each other. They didn't actually fight, but they obviously were not friends.



We must have come during naptime for all of the big cats because all of the lions and tigers were sleeping.



Except for this cute one!



This picture cracks me up. Sarah has that look like, "I standing in front of a bobcat that looks like he wants to eat me for lunch. No big deal."



She really wanted to ride the camel, but quickly changed her mind when she walked up to him and smelled him. Peeeewwwwwww! He was stinky!



*The Giraffes--The girls were able to get up close and personal with the giraffes because we were there at feeding time. Sarah loved feeding them....Katie...not so much. We love giraffes!



The had a dinosaur exhibit going on while we were there.



John David loved the dinosaurs.



And of course our little animal lover enjoyed the petting zoo.



Here's our cute family!



And John David "rock climbing".



It was a super fun day with Grandma.



And our Wiggins clan.



Me and my cute niece Kyleigh. Love that sweet girl!



After the zoo, we went to dinner and then back to the hotel to catch some z's. Everyone was worn out from walking all over the zoo. The next morning we woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had found us in Birmingham. Hooray!



The kids were excited!



And we all ate Easter candy and leftover Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast. After the "breakfast of champions", we said our goodbyes and hit the road.



We are so grateful to our sweet family who drove such a long way to make some precious memories with us! We love you all and can't wait til next time!

Birmingham Alabama Temple

A few years ago I was in my home ward and the man speaking was talking about how when each of his daughters turned twelve, he and his wife took them out of school for the day to make a trip with them to the temple to do baptisms. He also said they took trips as often as they could as a family so the girls would have every opportunity possible to do baptisms. He wanted to impress upon them what a special privilege and sacred duty it is to be able to attend the temple and perform service there. I loved that idea and decided right then that I wanted to do that with our kids too. So as Katie's 12th birthday was approaching, I started planning. When I realized that she would be on Spring Break the week of her birthday, the wheels starting turning. I thought it would be so awesome if she could go to the temple for the first time with her cousin Kyleigh, who had just turned 12 four months earlier. So I called my sister and we started planning a trip to meet in the middle....and lucky for us there was a temple there. We called to make sure they could squeeze us in with a youth group and they told us to come on Saturday.



So we woke up early on Saturday morning and brought Kyleigh and Katie to the temple.



It was a beautiful day.



A perfect way to start out a Saturday morning.





Especially with these two cute 12 year olds.



It's crazy how fast twelve years can pass. I can remember the day they were each born like it was yesterday.



Grandma tagged along too, to enjoy this special day with these two beautiful girls.



I am so pleased with the beautiful girl my sweet Katie is becoming.



The girls were able to get in with a youth group, and do some baptisms. We also met some amazing people at the temple, and help out with some very special work they were needing assistance with. It was such a blessing to witness the beautiful work done that day. We even ran into a lady who knew where Lake Charles was, and even knows people in our ward. Turns out, we had even met them a few years back in Houston. Such a small world.



A few more pictures after we came out of the temple.



It was so fun to spend a few hours in the temple with these beautiful people.



And this handsome guy.



Best way to start a day...without a doubt!

Alabama, the Beautiful Part 1

Friday morning we got up and headed over to the beautiful Birmingham Botanical Gardens.



There were so many beautiful flowers!







And beautiful trees too!







And plenty of photo ops!









All the cousins that made the trip.





Silly faces! They're so good at those!



All the cousins with Grandma.



My sweet handsome boy!



The kids found this cute little goldfish pond.



John David wanted to jump in and catch a fish.



Katie wanted to take a picture of me and Aaron.



Then I took some of my three babies.

Oh how I love these sweet babies!



And they do love each other too!



My handsome boys!



The kids loved playing in this cool fountain.



One of the hardest things about living so far away from family is my kids not growing up with their cousins.



I was so excited that my sister and mom were willing to come meet us halfway so we could spend some time together.



And the kids were pretty excited to be together too.



After the botanical gardens, with the help of our gps, we found a Chuck E Cheese and went there for lunch.  I was so sad when I realized I had left my camera on manual because I thought I had some cute pictures of when Marleigh and Sarah were bribed by Aaron to go do the cupid shuffle with Chuck E. It was awesome! But you just have to take my word for it since all of my pictures look like this.



While we were at Chuck E Cheese, Melissa told us that they had seen a Bass Pro Shop just before they took the exit for our hotel. So after Aaron telling everyone how awesome the one was that we had stopped at on the way there, they all wanted to go check it out. So guess where we ended up next? Yep.....another Bass Pro Shop. And the kids loved it! We all raided the Fudge Shop, which I think turned out to be the girls' favorite part of Bass Pro.



But they pretty much liked it all.









We had planned to find a park and do an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids, but after dinner we had ran out of daylight. So we ended up having one in the hotel that night. The big girls wanted to hide the eggs. Apparently they are so over hunting them.



The boys were so excited.



We gave them a head start because we thought they needed one, but they were cleaning up.



So we had to let the girls start before the two minutes we had originally allotted the boys.



Love these cute, silly boys!



And these sweet, sassy girls!



Definitely a memorable egg hunt!