Montgomery 002: Old Alabama Town

Last week I decided to take the kids to check out Old Alabama Town. Actually, I really was just taking them to the playground there because it cost money to go on the whole tour. The tour sounds cool (I really can't remember if I've ever been), but I really am looking for mainly free stuff with this whole challenge thing and didn't want to spend the money. If you want to go check it out and go on the tour, if you haven't already, I think it's like $8 for an adult and the children 5 and under are free.

Anyways, the playground was really cool and the kids enjoyed it. After they worked up a good sweat playing out in the scorching heat (yeah, we kind of did this on the fly and I wasn't really paying attention to the time so we were out there at the hottest and sunniest time of the day; not a good idea because everything on the playground was so hot), then we walked across the street to the Tucker Pecan Company and got ice cream cones. Pink for Riley, green for Jack. They don't care what the flavor is, just the color.

The Montgomery Challenge: Mission 001

The first place we went is the most obvious place to take kids for a free and fun outing if you live in Montgomery. The museum of fine arts, of course. They have such a fun kids area. I grew up going there regularly. Since I was little, though, it has expanded by at least half it's original size. The kids actually enjoyed jumping off the steps in the little amphitheater more than anything.

Never fail, the race car track is always the favorite "exhibit," and we end up staying over in that section for half an hour usually. I really don't see how watching a little stock car going around and around in the same path can be entertaining for that long.

I was watching two other kids besides mine that day, and we were at a house that was close enough to the museum to walk there, so we enjoyed the scenery along the way. The museum is a great place to go on a rainy day or really any day, and if you haven't been there (which I'm sure if you're reading this and live in Montgomery you probably have) you should totally go. It's fun, educational, and let's the kids exercise their creativity.

Name that tune!

"Row the goss from chinny in a wok......."

This is what Jack was singing in the backseat yesterday afternoon. I knew what it was because he had sung other more intelligible parts of the song before he sang this part. I thought it was hilarious though. I was singing the song along with him and then we got to this part. I was like, "The tune's the same, but he is not singing the same thing I am." So, I stopped and asked him to sing it again. And this is what he said over and over, "row the goss from chinny in a wok." Do you know what song it is? Think about it.......









Here's a hint: It's an old school Bible song.















"Roll the gospel chariot along,
roll the gospel chariot along,
roll the gospel chariot along.
And we won't tag along behind."

Psyche, not really

Okay, so I'm going to make my blog private. Well, I already did but I'm undoing it and then will redo it in like a week or so. Basically, I thought that if it was private then my email address would pop up and it would say to email me your address and then I could make it where you could read my blog. Apparently, Blogger has changed some things, so that instead of giving people who aren't invited a way to contact me so they could be invited, they are just told they aren't invited. So, I am writing a post to let anyone who reads this blog know that I'm about to make it private and to send me their email address. My email is rileyroo@rocketmail.com.

Email me with your email address. Thanks!

Congrats Grad!!

Not your typical graduation of the season, but I wanted to give a shout out to my sister Lauren who completed 12 weeks, I think, of Officer Training School. Her graduation was over a month ago, but I still wanted to post about it. I can't really give any true description of how OTS was for Lauren, because I wasn't there, but I do know it was very very tough and not everyone made it through to graduation. At one time Lauren described it as prison...........not fun. But, it trained her and put her in the position that she is in now: Second Lieutenant Naylor.

Her rank is in the top 15% of the Air Force, which I think is pretty cool. The coolest part to me though is that she now lives in Panama City! We've already visited once and plan on visiting frequently. Our last visit will be it's own post entirely, coming soon. Anyways, good job Lauren, and we are proud of you! ...........And you need to update your blog by the way............... It's almost been a whole year.

Lauren and Mamarine on graduation day:


Waiting for the shuttle to take us to the ceremony. It was freezing outside, mainly because of the wind. (That's Jack under the frog blanket):


"Will this be over soon?" (just kidding):


Family and friends:


Second Lieutenant Naylor:


Mom, Dad, and Lauren:


Graduation Parade:


Family and friends freezing while watching parade:


First salute:


Getting pinned:

Twilight was so good I'm still talking about it

I was gonna sit down and write an interesting post, but I don't really feel like it any more. I also remembered that I was going to write a little (ha!) review about the Twilight series after I finished reading all of it, but I never did. I can't sum it up in words. That's how good it was. If you talk to me about these books I will be like "Yeah, I loved the part when Edward....oh, but then there was how Bella....wait, do you remember how she......" and so on and so forth, continually interrupting myself and tripping over my words trying to explain all the best parts and how good it is and how well written it is.

Anyways........it was great, and I can't wait for the next movie to come out. By the way, has anyone read the first part of "Midnight Sun." For the one person who might not know, this is the book that Meyer (the author) started writing as a part of the whole Twilight thing. It's the first book, rewritten from Edward's perspective. Well, she postponed it indefinitely because a copy of it leaked out. She says that after one whole year goes by and she hasn't heard anybody say anything about it, then she'll pick it back up again and finish it and publish it. I guess she figures that everyone will have forgotten about it by then? Not likely.

She did end up putting what she had written on her website, and I succumbed to the temptation and read it, and it's so good. So much more stuff happened in the beginning of Twilight on Edward's side as opposed to Bella's. It's so interesting and actually gives you even more information about the characters and vampires and such.

Well, I really could go on and on about this, but I will stop now because I have to make Riley's invitations for her 2nd birthday party. Will share later.

Crickets in the Head

Jack wanted me to take his temperature the other day because he wanted to have a fever so he could take some grape tylenol. I checked his head with our temporal lobe thermometer, which makes little chirping noises. At the doctor's office they say, "Let's listen to those crickets in your head." So, I always say, "Let's check your crickets."

His temperature was normal, so I said he was fine. Later, in a final attempt to get some tylenol, he came back up to me and said, "Mom, I think the crickets are biting my head."