Cave Play

We planned an outing for later this week but the weather report made it clear--we needed to go today! (Wed, 26-Dec). So off we went!

DeSoto Caverns is a large cave that they've turned into an activity park. I realized this trip just how much I'm interested in history. I love to hear the stories about a place! While this was a fun excursion, the delivery was, I'm afraid, somewhat lacking on that front. There were some interesting tidbits, such as the cave was considered a sacred area of healing by Native Americans hundreds of years ago. Some of the stories though felt a bit... dubious. Still, it was a very enjoyable day!

The cave tour kicked off with a great water fountain and laser lights show! There's a stage and rows of seating in this large cavern.

They're all decorated for their "Christmas in the Cave" event which appeared to be quite the production. That would be more people than we wanted to deal with however. Day after Christmas was *perfect*!

A stalactite and stalagmite about to touch. In, oh, a thousand plus years or so.

Some seasonal cave waterfalls made no-longer-just-seasonal. While better for tourism, it also helps keep the place from flooding during heavy rains.

Following this energetic cutie!

The ceiling of the main cavern was spikey!

The cave itself is mostly the initial large cavern some 300 feet long and 120 feet high. There's a trail going back (where the waterfall is) that winds another few hundred feet or so. Then there's a small crawling-only trail that goes on for 12 miles and comes out in Talladega National Forest. Thankfully, that wasn't part of the tour!

Outside the cave was there was more fun to be had. Each kid got five activities to choose.

Benjo & I played mini-golf. It was a small course, but this hole is the coolest! Not just one jump over the water, but two! My kid self would have been over the moon about this! ...and maybe my kid self is still mostly who I am. #icanneitherconfirmnordeny #holeintwo

This girl wanted to play on the course. Or was it a playground. Why do you gotta choose?!

The cool thing about going on a sparse-traffic day? Not only no lines, but they didn't really give any time limits either. These girls loved these scooters and played on them for a good long time!

I think this was Ben's favorite ride. His face says plenty!

Amy & Noel went for a spin. Eliza wanted to too, but she wasn't quite tall enough yet.

Does her hair remind you of anyone? Perhaps someone from The Incredibles?

This girl's favorite moments were in the beach-ball play area! There were a couple strong fans in the floor that blue the balls up into the air. I took... a lot of pictures.

So I'm sharing a few of them.

Because hello! SO cute! She was shrieking in delight. No really... shrieking. It was loud.

Benjo couldn't stand seeing us have all the fun, so he decided to switch one of his choices for the beach ball room. Not a bad choice for him!

To my surprise, no one wanted to do the maze with me, so I took this girlie while the others panned for gold and gems.

It was a pretty good maze. Sizeable and with enough complexity to be fun, as long as I didn't peek too much from the towers. I let this girl choose most of our turns. She's a good leader!

Overall, the experience is, I feel, a bit overpriced, but I'm glad we dd it--definitely worth it once at least. Especially on a day that wasn't too busy!

One last neat little story. As we were nearing the end of our day there, Bonnie realized that Noel was missing an earring. It wasn't a large one--a little black rose. Her best guess was that it fell out during that gyroscope ride. We didn't have much hope but decided to at least go look. When we got there, someone was just walking into the ride. I said "Excuse me, she lost an earring and we think it might of been on this ride. Do you mind if we look for it real qu--there it is." I saw it on the wood platform just behind the ride. It didn't have the back with it, so Noel showed me her other ear to see what the back looked like. I turned and said "the back is just one of those little silver--there it is." Pointing again right to it, on a board of the wood platform just in front of the ride.

This... this is not normal. I can't find the milk when it's on the table right in front of me. No, really; that happens more often than I care to admit!

As we walked away, Noel said "Wow Dad, you have a good eye!" I told her "I don't think that was normal, sweetie. I can't normally do that. I recommend in your prayers tonight saying some extra thank-you's to Heavenly Father."

I believe this. I believe He cares about us, his children. I believe He cares about the things we care about, even something as eternally insignificant as an inexpensive earring.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!

I'm not going to write much about today. We had a lovely day, filled with presents, play, and yummy food. Here are some of my favorite faces of the day!

Stocking Smiles

Post-stocking, pre-presents, breakfast time... but you can't pull her away from a new book for long! Even for food!

So happy about his present from Noel

No really, SO happy about his present from Noel!

Cuteness!

A very excited Noel. #welovebooks

Arguably his favorite present of the day.

He loved it so much!

Rip away!

Hands and Feet!

Our Christmas Feast!

It was D. Lish! And it will continue being delicious for days to come! YES!

All in Preparation for Christmas

This has been a weekend of catch up and prep. Cleaning up the home after so many outings, last minute Christmas shopping, and planning our Christmas Feast. Eliza requested last week that we have a Christmas Feast, I think after watching A Christmas Carol. She helped Mom prepare the menu and cook the food. Despite the idea coming from A Christmas Carol, we are thankfully not eating a goose!

This girl has someone wrapped around her finger. I haven't figured out who it is yet, but I'll let you know when I do.

On Sunday we had a Family Home Evening with our own Nativity cast. Can you guess who was who? Answers in the caption.

Noel was our Angel and Amy our Wise Men. Benjo was a Shepherd, Eliza was Mary, and Rebekah was Joseph. Yours truly was both donkey and camel! Rebekah was adorable as she walked beside me holding Eliza's, er, Mary's hand.

Sunday night (the 23rd), we let the kids sleep in the family room under the Christmas Tree glow. Rebekah plopped down next to Benjo. They love each other those two, often giving each other random hugs and mooches (aka smooches).

For Christmas Eve we've taken up a tradition from my Sister Robin's family -- swimming! A perfect way to wear out the kids so they sleep well that night! I had to call around quite a bit before we found an indoor pool that was open. Thank you Greystone YMCA! 

I love Bonnie's faces when she engages with the kids. She's all in with their enthusiasm!

Another great Bonnie face!

The lifeguard had the kids take swim tests. It was a good assessment for the kids, I think, to get a sense of their swimming abilities. Noel had to stay behind the 5-ft depth and Eliza behind the 4-ft depth unless they wore life jackets.

The afternoon was consumed with final cleaning up for Christmas as well as cooking in preparation for our Christmas Feast. 

Another Christmas Eve Tradition: one present opening on Christmas eve.

And that traditional present is Christmas Jammies!

Pre-Santa

Post Santa -- note the suddenly missing cookies.

More Bluebell, More Baseball, More Christmas, More Civil Rights, and Donuts!

Today (Tue 20-Dec) was busy!

First stop, the Bluebell factory in Sylacauga. Without even knowing it, we got our Alabama Airbnb within 30 minutes of another Bluebell factory! So of course... we went!

At the doors! A couple of the blue-bell hats made it all the way here from our Brenham visit!

Can you guess my favorite of these slogans? It almost persuades me to apply!

We met Paige, the director of production for this plant, and Wanda who worked both the parlor and the gift shop! They were both super-nice and helpful!

It was really cool to talk to Paige. We peppered her with questions and she told us info like how far out they schedule production (about 3-4 weeks--she had just finished the 14-Jan week schedule), all about how they determine which flavors to make each day, about their distribution channels (they use no third parties--their own employees deliver and stock their ice cream in every store where Bluebell is sold! The only exception is where restaurants such as Outback Steakhouse serve Bluebell Homemade Vanilla.), how their regions are set up, and more. She's worked for bluebell for 20+ years and her husband has worked here even longer! When they opened up the Sylacauga plant, her and her husband moved out here from Texas to get it off the ground. They've been here ever since!

My favorite moment though... oh this is good! So good, I've gotta get some back story. Many of you know that I'm a Ben & Jerry's fan. I love ice cream in general, but Ben & Jerry's is my favorite! Bonnie loves Bluebell, which is great! But I've tried to explain many, many times, that Ben & Jerry's is a premium ice cream. It's in a higher tier. It's a denser, creamier, richer ice cream fundamentally. Bonnie has guffawed at that more times than I've said it. :-)

So sweet was the moment when Bonnie mentioned, without my comment, that I'm a Ben & Jerry's fan, and Paige replied, and I quote: "Well, we're not a premium ice cream like Ben & Jerry's." I couldn't handle it! I gave Paige a big hug! My grin stretched from Brenham Texas to Waterbury Vermont! And OH how I laughed!

Bonnie said "well, I still think Bluebell tastes better." Which I'm totally good with! I love that she loves Bluebell! I was never trying to claim Bluebell was bad or even less desirable than Ben & Jerry's, only that Ben & Jerry's makes a higher quality--a premium--ice cream! Oh I loved that moment! *sigh* 😂😆😇😂😋

Cheese!

Happy faces in the parlor. We were almost the only ones there for the hour or so we stayed.

Double scoop for $1.00. Um, yes please. I'll take... well, I had three. And then I finished off some kids' too. All part of a balanced breakfast!

They didn't have the full-size statue like the headquarters in Brenham, but the statue was not to be missed all the same!

Next we headed out to Rickwood. Now, if you're like me, that means... absolutely nothing to you. Well, at least it didn't to me until today! Turns out, Rickwood is the oldest standing ballpark in the entire United States! There's a lot of amazing history here!

Interesting Historical Marker -- Note some of the names of who played here!

Tribute to Jackie Robinson

Rickwood field was home to the minor league team, the Birmingham Barons. While still a Double-A league White Sox affiliate, they now play in a larger stadium except for the Rickwood Classic, a once-per-season game when they come back to play at Rickwood field.

The stadium holds about 10,000 fans and hosts around 150-200 games per year! Most of these are high school, college, and amateur league games.

The dugouts are quite low and the field is raised, creating a situation where players in the dugout can't actually see the field.

The pitchers mound is very tall--higher than regulation. Pitchers love it, but batters tend not to so much. Amy's ready to go!

Alvin, the groundskeeper and our tour guide, was a good, kind man. I didn't want to get my feet muddy and Rebekah was feeling stuck, so he went out and held her hand to walk her back to the grass.

Out behind that right field wall there used to be another section of bleachers with a very specific purpose. There were two teams of Birmingham Barons back in the day--the Birmingham Whites and the Birmingham Blacks. When the white team took the field, whites were given the main stadium seating and blacks were segregated to the section in right field. When the black team took the field, blacks were given the main stadium seating and whites were segregated to the right field section.

I admit that this actually surprised me a bit. After what we've learned about civil rights, racism, and segregation in the south, I wouldn't have guessed that a seemingly equal exchange would have occurred.

This book, "Every Other Sunday," talks about this piece of history and is now on my to-read list!

The field is now maintained by an organization called "The Friends of Rickwood." More information, including merchandise or donations, can be found on their website rickwood.com.

We left the field to head into downtown Birmingham and attend a Christmas cartoon triple feature at the gorgeous Alabama Theater! The Alabama Theater was built in 1927 primarily for movies, but it has all the regal feel of a fine theater of the era, complete with mezzanine and balcony seating!

View from the front

I really liked these lights along the sides, directly under the mezzanine seating.

Then this beauty rose out of the floor to play some Christmas sing-along songs!

This organ that they affectionately call Big Bertha connects to 32 ranks, a total of 2,336 pipes! And while that's cool and all, we were mostly excited about how ornately red and fantastic the thing looks! Not to mention how it rises onto the stage! 

I couldn't get the kids to sit still for anything. Excited much? So this is the best pic I could get before the show.

Well, except for this beauty!

Leaving the theater, we drove by Kelly Ingram park, host of many civil rights statues and memorials. As it was nigh on dusk, Bonnie jumped out to take pictures. Shortly after she jumped out of the car, I began to feel some concern. I quickly became aware that this was not the best part of town. It was an uncomfortable moment for me. Thankfully, she was confronted only once, and that simply by a request for money.

It's been said the memorials are very provoking and Bonnie agreed. Many protesters were children. If parents protested, or if it could be determined whose children were protesting, the parents would lose their jobs, be black-listed so they could not obtain other work, and worse. As a result, much of the retaliation to the protests fell upon youth and children.

Finally, it was time to head home... but not without one final stop along the way!

During our time in Texas, we repeatedly mentioned going and getting some donuts from Shipley's where Bonnie used to go as a child. We never made it happen. However, Birmingham has a Shipley's! So we made it happen!

And that was both a sugary beginning and a sugary ending to a very full and fascinating day!