SAU Homecoming

 

 John and I finally got to go to Magnolia to see a Southern Arkansas University football game. The Muleriders have been on the road for most of their early games. It takes us 7 hours to get to Magnolia and the Riders away ballgames, this year, have been further away than 7 hours.

We lucked up and were there for Homecoming....so the town was buzzing. We got to see Josh Friday night after he attended their Hall of Fame banquet. He came to the hotel and went with us to the restaurant while we had supper. After supper John went with Josh to a team meeting.

Saturday morning we met Josh and went to the Supply Store and bought some SAU shirts and then went into town and ate at "The Mule".

The homecoming game was a great game. SAU won "big".

It is so strange to be somewhere that everybody knows your son but does not have a clue who you are......luckily, they are winning and Josh's defense is doing great!!!

Josh's only request (several years ago....I will write about it sometime)....get a tough hide!

My only request....so far.......NO CUSSING or SCRATCHING (if you know what I mean)

It felt to good to put my arms around him and soak up my boy!

Congratulations SAU Muleriders on a successful season....keep winning
6-2
They have lost 2 games by a total of 11 points
 

 

 



First Day of School

Oh yes, Oak Mountain Elementary School knows what it is doing........make a picture, the very first day of school, of the children.......that are having their very first day of school....and even the people who have 2 photographers in their family can't resist!

Honestly, this is a great picture of Lawson during a time when he is going through the"fake smile" phase.

I hope you have a great year "Law Man"



Tuesdays with MeMe

Sixteen Candles..........

 

PLUS.........several more!

 

 

My birthday fell on the Tuesday that I get the kids from school. So, John and Kim (Brady was in Missouri working) and planned to take me out to eat to celebrate.

 

When I picked the kids up, from school,  they all started asking me to pick where I wanted to eat. I picked Jim n Nicks. I love their Taco Tuesday......the catfish taco is wonderful......and fish tacos happen to be what I am stuck on right now!! Oh, and their kitchen sink nachos....ummmmm

 

The kids made me chocolate chip brownies for my cake! UMMMM again!

 

John Brady decided he needed some peace and quiet to play his game so he jumped up and sat down at the bar.....so funny!



Lake Martin

 

 

Dave had friends come in from out of state to spend a few days at his family's Lake Martin cabin. Lawson was in school, so Ellen (Grandmother Long) came up Friday afternoon and picked up  Lawson so he could spend the night and go to Auburn's game the next day. I went to Birmingham and spent the night with Courtney and Lily. Courtney had to work and Lily's sleeping is so erratic that Court did not want to put everybody through that so they stayed home.

 

Lawson needed to come back to Birmingham because his choir was singing at church Sunday morning. So, Ellen invited me to join Courtney at their home, on Lake Martin, for a cookout after Auburn's game. It was a beautiful afternoon on the lake.

 

 

On a funny note.........After the game, Lawson kept asking us how many times we saw him on TV 

 

 

Lawson did a great job singing with his choir at church. We were very proud of him

 

 

A Lot of posts

 

 

I finally have our Montana trip on my blog. Be prepared......many, MANY pictures. There just isn't any way to tell the story without the pictures. I know you will get bored so.....just skip over them....I promise I won't care......I wanted them on here for John and I to remember.

 

You will have to hit older posts....maybe twice!

~~~~~~I think you have to hit older posts 3 times~~~~~~~

 

Montana

DAY ONE

John and I finally were heading out on a trip that we had longed to take for several years. John and I went to Yellowstone 6 years ago when Josh was hired at Idaho State. Josh had to start work immediately so John and I drove his car out to Salt Lake City. Josh met us there and turned in his rental car, we picked up a rental car, and after the trip to Pocatello, Idaho to move Josh in.....oh, you all would have been so proud to call us family and friends if you could have seen "The Beverly Hillbillies" driving cross country......yes, we did have his futon on the top of the car......we headed to Yellowstone.

 

Our 1st Yellowstone trip was only a few days but we were hooked. Let me say here.....I had been to Yellowstone 3 times when I was living at home but.......the "John Earl" version of sightseeing was driving by as you rolled down the window and pointed! John Earl did stop and get out at Old Faithful so that is really my only memory from my 6 - 10 year old memories......so, this was really like seeing it the 1st time and it was John's 1st trip to Yellowstone.

 

After that trip we immediately started talking about what we would do when we went back. We have
Yellowstone web cams in our FAVS on our computer and check it regularly. We read everything that came our way about Yellowstone and often talked out loud about the "someday" trip. Well, after I made the big Grand Canyon Ranch plans (I wrote about on the blog in June) for John's birthday and they fell through because of the fact that I was not able to walk at the time......we sort of started mentioning Yellowstone. You may also remember me deciding that I had made a big mistake when I said......let's skip the Alabama trip to Texas for the first game......I was really sad. So.....Big John said.......Let's see if we can work it out to go to Yellowstone during RUT!

 

Well, it all fell into place like it was meant to be!

 

We planned this trip in a month!

 

So, the next several blog posts will be our journey on a trip that was a "just us" trip. What I mean is that there are many things that John and I love to do but this kind of trip had everything we both love to do.....it was just US!

 

We left from BHM at 2:30 and changed planes in Denver. We reboarded a little late at the Denver airport because of Ann Romney's plane having to make an emergency landing because of some smoke in the cabin (electrical). We left Denver and landed at the Bozeman, Montana Airport

Isn't this little airport beautiful. I have read comments on Tripadvisor about BHM being a small airport.......this airport makes BHM look big! But, oh my, it looks like a Lodge in a ski town.

Heading outside to get our rental car and drive to Big Sky.

We got to our first stop at around 8 that night. We drove about an hour out of Bozeman to spend the night in Big Sky, Montana. We needed a place that would let us stay for just one night and wasn't outrageously expensive since we would arrive late and leave early. The name of it was Buck's T-4.

I read about this place on Tripadvisor. It was fine. It is older but the place has atmosphere. The room was very simple but the beds were extremely comfortable.

They have a complimentary breakfast and it was really good. It was a real breakfast!

this cute little subdivision was right outside our window

The lobby

We did not realize that we weren't actually at the ski village until the next morning. Of course, that really didn't matter. We just needed a place to rest before we started out on our journey and thought we would see Big Sky. We were at the bottom of the mountain so....we headed up the mountain that morning to go see the ski village before we headed to Yellowstone.

 

Next up........Yellowstone!!!!

 



YELLOWSTONE

 

Let's Go

After driving through the Big Sky Ski Village we headed down the road to Yellowstone. We deliberately flew into BZN (we went in from the Salt Lake City Airport our 1st trip) so we could drive to Yellowstone through different countryside. It was a pretty and easy trip. It took us about a hour.

 

We arrived in West Yellowstone and did a little grocery shopping so that we would have drinks (I brought a collapsible cooler in our suitcase) and snacks and could have a picnic for lunch.

The West Entrance

We had only gone a few miles through the gate when we saw this eagle

We stopped to make a picture of the eagle and saw the gorgeous view on the other side of the road

My "Big John"

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

 

 

Norris Geyser Basin

Emerald Spring

Steamboat Geyser

 The Canyon

Isn't that beautiful

This coyote was putting on a show

You get so tired of the Bison.....always in the road

John spotted this Mule Deer. Nobody else was noticing him

out 1st elk

This scene took my breath away. Oh....he was standing on that mountain looking over his domain.
It reminded me of the "Lion King" movie

John and I rode on down the road and we were discussing that we had not seen many animals and it looked like I would not hear an elk bugle that day. John told me that it was always just happening to be in the right place at the right time. He had no sooner said that then we noticed two cars stopped beside the Yellowstone River. We stopped.....the sun had already gone down.....we got out of the car and then....we heard it. An elk across the river was bugling! It sounded so loud....even across the river...it sounded like what the movies make a dinosaur sound like.....it was amazing!!! We got John's binoculars out and tried to see the big elk...we were barely able to see his shadow and he was HUGE!
MADE MY DAY!

 

 Lake Yellowstone Hotel

We stayed one night at The Lake Yellowstone Hotel

It is like going back in time
Everyone gathers in the Lobby/ Lake viewing area, at night, and listens to music being played on the Baby Grand

You just expect President Roosevelt to walk through the lobby any minute

The Lake Yellowstone Hotel was used to film some scenes in "The Shining".....

can you look at this picture of the hallway and picture the twins or the little boy riding on a Big Wheel in  'the Shining"?