Alabama Safari Park

Now this was a really fun day, and I am so glad Magan mentioned it to me.  We had seen pictures from several people that went, and I was still a little hesitant until Kendall Vinsant told me "Yes, Go".  So off we went with a couple of cousins in tow down to Montgomery.  The price tag was a little pricey, but you definitely get the experience you can't get anywhere else like this.  We bought two buckets of feed and extra buckets for all the kids to share and have fun feeding.  We were a little overwhelmed at the beginning as many of the animals stay right at the beginning of the trail as they know you haven't gotten to the zebras yet, and the nasty looking cow things are still cute.  They are cute until they get in your bucket and leave a trail of saliva all the way from your window seal down to the car door handle...inside the car!  Yuck.  

Beyond that point, things were a lot better and more spread out.  We saw plenty of llamas, and gazelles, cow/bull-like things, camels and zebras.  They only let the Lions out on Tuesdays, so we were OK with this being a Friday.  My driver position was fun listening to 1 part Magan screaming, 1 part kids laughing, and 1 part trying to stay cool with random animals giving me strange looks way inside my bubble for random Earthly beings.  The zebra actually took the bowl of food away from Davis at one time, and he reached way out of the window, grabbed it, and pulled it away from the zebra.  

After one tour of the Safari Park, we stopped at the petting zoo and then a really cool experience to feed the giraffes.  What was unique in all of this was NO zookeepers, just here you go, feed and pet this giraffe.     Also at the petting zoo, Sam will remember the goat walking all over a pig, and the pig grunting until it finally tried to bite that goat for walking all over him.  After our visit to the petting zoo, we bought one more bucket of food and headed back into the safari park one more time.  The kids rearranged seats to get some different experiences.  And this time was much faster as I whipped out van past all those people that didn't know about those nasty looking cow things...they were still learning.  

So what was the favorite?  Ruby loved the camels, and just giggled as they ate right out of her hand.  Mom, Belle and Stella loved the zebras, Mom probably loved them a lot more that was zebraly possible.  Sam thought it was pretty cool to pet Buffalo.  Davis and Eli had a blast trying to pet everything, but the most fun thing to watch them try and pet was the ostrich and emus....haha...I think they both finally pet one...but those things just have some crazy eyes.  And for me...I still think feeding a giraffe is pretty cool, and while I did not get a chance to do that as I am the dad, and just get to hand lettuce to children so they get the fun experience, those guys are probably the coolest thing to see up close like this.  

After a quick lunch visit to Arby's where we ordered as the lady said "A big bunch of sliders", we later stopped at Peach Park.  As we pulled in, Magan got the kids in a picture with the peach, but we started hearing some thunder.  Now we knew that Ruby has recently been scared of storms, but were not thinking about it at the time.  Then as all were in line for ice cream, I looked down and saw Ruby with what I would easily translate as "puke-face" and I grabbed her quickly and took off towards the bathroom.  Now, anyone familiar with these blogs know that puke is a pretty normal occurence on trips for us, and just randomly shows up...in church, on the road, at a theme park.  But in a COVID-19 society, the looks you get are a little beyond the typically looks you get so I was trying to run her as quickly as I could to avoid "a situation", and when we turned the corner to the outdoor section that leads to the bathroom, I heard the gurgling, so my hand naturally went to catch the projectile mess that came out.  Luckily we had some pretty good solid material, and nothing began dripping thru my fingers like the previous church, road, theme park situations.  We took a break at this outdoor area where I could thro the first section of puke then I grabbed her and took her into the bathroom.  There she told me she was all better...and looking at her pukeface, I said not yet, you are not.  And right again, because here came round 2.  But after that, she was fine, she did not want any ice cream, but her mom got her the sucker she is holding in the picture below.  So a great day with the animals, followed by an adventurous time at  Peach Park (Oh, I forgot to mention my hitting the largest holes in the parking lot on our way in...haha).  What a fun day!

New Baby Ratcliff

Eloise Maureen Ratcliff arrived weighing in at 7 lbs and 9 oz on 5/20/20, and I was fortunate enough that Magan saved these pictures with the actual data so I could actually write the name.  So I will share with Marcus and Emily that I will probably not remember their names or faces till they are about 2 years old anyway.  Another new member of our family born during the quarantine...so we just grab pictures off of facebook, and later we will photoshop us holding her.  Magan was able to go up and take baby pictures.  We are just hoping she doesn't grow a beard like her dad.  

Happy Anniversary

Wow, there are times that seem to just not seem real anymore...Magan and I starting dating when I was 19 years old, and now we have been married for that same number.  Belle made us a wedding lego gathering that I unfortunately did not get a picture of, but I did capture the wedding rings she made us and the bride/groom picture.  Magan also got me some of my favorite chocolate dipped caramel pretzels.  

As the restaurants had just that week opened up, we decided to venture out for a date night.  We went to Outback Steakhouse, and since we had nothing making us rush, we then went to Bellini's for dessert where we had the most bestest bread pudding...ummm...and their chocolate cake.  Little bit of a splurge, but did I mention she has put up with me for 19 years.  Happy Anniversary Magan!  Hope we can read these blogs and I am still writing them in another 19 years.  

Mother's Day Weekend

Happy Mother's Day to our sweet mom.  I had gotten her some flowers the day before when Tiffany Britt was delivering arrangements to the area.  Thinking that I had the perfect surprise, I asked Tiffany to set them under the porch on a table, where I had an envelope with the money for the flowers.  I was out with the boys doing something, and while I was away, Anabelle found the money and took it to Magan who had no idea what it was.  Then when Tiffany arrived, Ruby was out back playing and she said she felt a bit creepy saying to Ruby "Don't tell your mom I was here"...haha...and then she did not even get paid, so I had to get Magan to pay her for the flowers with paypal.  But it still feels like I did something because Magan did get flowers even tho she had to pay for them.  

I cooked omelettes that morning with croissants, and she had breakfast in bed.  We also went on a family frisbee golf journey which we have found works for the girls thru about 9 holes then they start getting fussy.  After our frisbee golf, we went to our favorite Mother's day restaurant, Captain Ds.  After eating at a nearby park, the Captain Ds started working its magic, and we were unable to stay long.  But hopefully our mom enjoyed the weekened, I know we all did.

More Lilywhite by Anabelle

This was a new clients of Anabelles.  One family wanted a family session with their new twin girls and older daughter.  The family just moved to Chelsea, but found these girls at a cabbage patch over in Cleveland, GA.  Hopefully all signed a model release, or they don't mind that I use their pictures in our blog.  

“Spread Joy” “Being Mom” Challenge Day 3 (Facebook Challenge)

I am pretty sure this is the very last family picture we ever took before my dad passed.  Scott and I got married before we graduated from college. I graduated from Wallace that May and 2 weeks later was our wedding. Our plan was for me to work for a year, hold off on finishing my degree, and let Scott finish up his last year at Mississippi State while I worked to support us (in addition to what we’d both saved)....

 Needless to say my parents weren’t a huge fan of this plan, but we got married and took a chance anyway.  3 years later I graduated from Troy State Dothan. My dad was very sick by this time. He passed the following April.  I will never forget calling my mom as soon as graduation was over. She and dad were unable to travel and watch me graduate. She got teared up on the phone and my dad tried to tell me he was proud of me over the phone. She said she really hated that they couldn’t be there.

 I will never forgot her telling me how happy she was that we got married when we did, so that my dad could be a part of that day with me.  This truly brings me joy to have these pictures with my WHOLE family on such a special day.

Sam turns 15

A quarantine birthday is a little different.  And it was a big one for Sam, so we did our best.  Magan always asks if I know what he wants, and she is always surprised because I can usually come up with a good list.  That is because Sam is much like me, so I just go tell him, I need a list of what you want, or you will end up with stuff you don't.  He prepares a note card with various selections at different price ranges and we go from there. 

 

The top thing on his list was a new mountain bike, and that took me on a journey and youtube video search to find the best Walmart bike...as Walmart is basically the only store like that opened right now.  And I found a Schwinn Boundary that had front and rear disc brakes, Shimano speed shifters, and a Walmart lever price (I know! right! Awesome).  Then I realized that everyone else in this quarantined time had also decided that fitness equipment was what they wanted to buy.  Like toilet paper aisles, the fitness equipment and bicycle areas are almost empty.  Also empty of this bike was Walmart.com.  So I found one that said it was in store at in Inverness, but it was a lie...neither was one in Chelsea, or in Calera, or in Pelham...so one Saturday morning (I think during the AHG campout weekend) I drove to Leeds where I found one finally...but it had a broken cable.  But they actually had another one at the same store in Leeds. 

 

So what is next...he gets to select the meal...and he picks 5 guys.  I like a burger, but I can't pay 5 guy prices for the family, but for my oldest big bud, I let him order whatever he wanted there.  Haha, and this was a triple patty bacon cheeseburger with an actual bucket of fries.  It looked good, and he devoured it.  The reset of us had ChickFilA. 

 

He has still not gotten his permit, as we are hearing dreadful stories of the DMV as it has only just recently opened after the quarantine.  Magan took him to FOES to test out his driving skills and she said he did fine at 10 mph.  She asked if he wanted to take it out on just a small road that goes by the school, and he quickly said "NO, my skills are not to that level yet". 

 

And for the birthday weekend, we decided to test out the new bike at Oak Mountain, and wow, what a day.  It started with us realizing that both boys needed new helmets, we haven't gone in awhile.  So the only ones we could make fit was a really old one for sam that was basically just a Styrofoam lid, and then Davis just wore Anabelles...you can see the purple in the picture below.  Plus he was riding Sam's old bike, and the reason Sam could no longer ride it was because it was too small, but also because it had no back brakes. 

 

But no problem, we were off to the trail around the lake.  And almost at the mid point, Davis was going down a hill and the brakes did not work as fast as he needed and he slammed into a dirt wall.  He was OK, but the left foot pedal was bent to almost a 45 degree angle.  So we tried to repair it, but we could not do anything...so Davis got back on and started a wobbly peddle just to make it back to the road where I could then go get the van.  But back on the trail, our day got worse, as going down another hill, with the wobbly peddle...the brakes completely came off the wheel and he had zero brakes.  Almost hitting Sam because he could not stop...he was finally able to coast off the trail as his life passed before his eyes.  With no hesitation, Sam handed Davis his new bike, he took the one with no brakes and I left ahead of them to go get the van.  So our trail ride was a little shorter...our day wasn't what it was planned to be...but we all were smiling about it later.  Happy birthday Sam.  I never said anything, but could not have been prouder how you handled that situation on this day.  You knew what was needed, and knew that was the best way to get us back to the van.