family vacation part two: anna, ben and sally

after we left stephanie and family in missouri, we headed toward anna, ben and sally in alabama! i had never been to alabama (neither had dale or aleah) so we were looking forward to seeing the south. the plane rides went well, especially so considering it was a long one with two layovers. amazingly, our little one slept most of the time (and my arm was asleep for a good while too :)

we flew into florida (also a first for us), then drove to anna and ben's home in enterprise. we were greeted by anna, ben, sally (who's staying with them currently), and two sweet and energetic dogs, lucy and bear. expectedly, the dogs were totally interested in the little person at great face-licking height. since our own dog is a bit smaller, a lot older, and not much interested in following aleah around, it was a bit of a learning curve as aleah learned push her way through.

we arrived late in the day, so after some dinner at a local mexican restaurant, we headed to our hotel room for the night.

the next morning was very cool (and very cold!) we were invited as family to a static display of the air force "huey" helicopter and a t-6 texan. so where are my pictures? well, i took my camera (with clean card and new battery) out to the tarmac with me, leaving the bag in the car for ease. but somehow, my card had become damaged and couldn't register any images. disappointment. it was so cold and windy and our timing so short that we just had to move on. at least anna got some cute pics on her camera :)

ben gave us a tour around the army air museum at ft rucker...this day was originally anticipated as ben's graduation day, so we also attended the graduation of his former classmates. here are a few fun shots from our time there:

that night anna made us some delicious home-made macaroni and cheese, or "macky cheese". it was a big hit, maybe the best i've had.

the next day the boys went golfing in the morning. sally was off to work for a few hours so anna took us to a gorgeous park with a playground and a walking trail around the lake and trees. aleah was glad to get out and get some play time in. it was pretty bright and windy!

we stopped by sally's work and did a little shopping. i got two cute tops and a sweatshirt for dale. oh yeah, we also got a few bottles of perfume and cologne thanks to sally's great sales technique :)

after golf and work, we all met back together in dothan. i had seen a photo on anna's blog with a doorway i thought was very interesting. when we got to that specific location, it was in full sun and we needed to wait until the lighting changed. so we started walking around the little town, almost abandoned in the area we were.

"pound it"...and daddy wearing the new sweatshirt. looks good :)

i took a series of pictures on this bench. if i posted them all, you'd see ben going in for the kiss and aleah just watching, so cute! it was great to seen anna and ben so happy together and having so much fun!

pretty girl! i love the braid.

aleah still checking out anna and ben!

aleah checking out anna and ben again. haha!

there was some pretty lighting near the abandoned railroad tracks so we took a few here.

loved this one of anna. love the smile.

the girls are so photogenic!

as i mentioned, we just kind of walked around for awhile finding some interesting shoot locations.

ben was hilarious. when he talks to us about the flying and the helicopters, he is all business. when he plays, he is super funny!

this next series was cool. i loved the white brick wall.

beautiful anna. you can see her scar from thyroid surgery. she is still in the healing stage and doing so well. if positive thought has an impact on recovery, i am sure she has helped herself out immensely. she is so strong and confident in herself.

we did get back around to the blue doorway. it was partially shaded and i still do love it so much.

i totally love this one of both girls.

sally got behind the camera to get some of dale and me and then aleah snuck in the frame. i love it too!

these three are very entertaining. first sally...

...then anna. lots of laughing. we had fun!

the sun was going down, we were all getting pretty hungry. just a few more...

afterwards we all went for a yummy dinner at outback steakhouse. the next day was sunday and we had a leisurely day relaxing and playing with aleah at the park. the weather was gorgeous and perfect for a picnic (once we found the right location in the gazebo and away from the ants.)

later that evening we had to pack ourselves into the car and head back to florida for the night before our early morning flight home. this flight had one layover with a change of planes. memphis has a fun playground inside the terminal, which was great fun.

i was hoping aleah would go in the little airplane but no. this was as close as we got :)

checking for our plane...a good little traveler she was.

bye for now everyone. love you!