Labor Day Weekend

This Labor Day Kyle took a couple of days off so we could make a trip to north Alabama. Our families both live in the same vicinity since his parents moved from Memphis to Mentone, so it's now possible to see them both in one weekend. One long, action-packed weekend, that is...

On Friday morning, we drove up to Mentone, stopping in Springville to see Colby and Rachel's (Kyle's brother and sister-in-law) new house along the way. It is a beautiful house in a great area with an awesome deck overlooking a big field. Lots of adjectives! I should have taken a picture of the house. Anyway, that was the first time Luke had seen his cousin Brooklyn in a while and he thought she was hilarious! It must be funny to see someone so close to your size running around and playing! She had fun with him, too, and kept calling for "baby Luke" to come to her room. That's Brooklyn's sister, Madelyn, in the picture.

His parents and sister are staying in a cute little old farm house in Mentone and while it only has one bathroom, it really didn't seem that small to me. It has been updated, but since the owners found a Civil War uniform in the attic, I guess it is pretty old. There were also tons of old books dating back as far as 1897 and stacks of pictures from WWII. The most interesting (or disturbing) one needed no description, but was labeled "Brutswald(?) Concentration and Annihilation Camp." I just can't wrap my mind around that.

On a lighter note, after dinner that night, we went up to the Ponderosa Bible Camp to see where they have been spending the summer. It is a really neat place with horses, swimming, an archery and shooting range, cabins for campers, you get the picture. Just a good old-fashioned summer camp. We also visited DeSoto Falls.

The next day Colby, Rachel and the girls came up to have some family pictures taken. What a challenge to get a 2 year-old and two infants to cooperate. I'm not sure we could have found a more patient photographer than Ann Nelson. Click on this link--Ponderosa Bible Camp--and go to the staff page. Just take a look at the Nelson family. They have ELEVEN children. All good-looking kids, too!

This weekend was also the beginning of football season. We took Luke to Albertville on Saturday to visit his great-grandparents, then we met my parents and handed him off for the night so we could watch Bama beat up on Virginia Tech in peace! Another great time hanging out with the Roden family (we missed you Kaydee!) and the Warrens (for a little while).

The next afternoon we were off to my parents' house for the next leg of the journey. (We did a LOT of driving this weekend!) Luke got to see his other Aunt Kim and his cousin Kate. We were happy to see that they love each other, too.

Kyle and my dad had a two-man dove shoot before we were back on the road to Dothan. It was a fun and busy weekend. This is how we all felt when we got back home:

Can't wait to do it again soon!