Hot Air Balloon Festival in Decatur, Alabama

This was a first time experience for Jennifer.  We got up  early and went to the hot air balloon festival with Joshua's parents in early June.  The Pepsi balloon was the first one to take off (the launch starter).  It was exciting to see the balloons being unloaded and aired up for launch.  Below are some of the fun pictures we were able to take.  Words cannot describe the awesomeness of seeing this for the first time!!  The only thing cooler would've been a ride in one!

People were allowed to walk amongst the balloons and their teams getting them ready to launch and see up close through the whole process. 

Using a gas powered fan to fill the balloon with air to get it to sit up with the basket on the ground.

Houston we have lift off!

Really excited to share this experience together!

 

 Here are just a  few cool views of the different stages of unloading, filling with air, and then launching.

 The sun finally came up and warmed things up for us!

This was Jennifer's favorite balloon!

A unique view that Joshua was able to capture!

6th Anniversary surprise trip

In May Joshua and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary.  This was a surprise destination trip for Jennifer.  Joshua planned the whole weekend and told me what types of clothing I needed to pack.  I knew that we weren't going too far from Huntsville.  I had no idea that we were going to go to Montgomery, Alabama for the weekend.  We stayed at Red Bluff Bed and Breakfast.  The people were so nice and we had really great food.  While we were there 2 other couples newly married that arrived.  While in Montgomery Joshua had some things planned for us to do.

 First stop...the zoo for a picnic lunch!

Little duckies were everywhere!  This monkey got a
little surprise!

 These ducks were in every exhibit and walked where they pleased.

These otter are so cute!

Play time!!!!! 

These tigers were so much fun to watch!  Ducklings kept swimming under the fence and then back to the other side just tease them.

The aviary was really neat!

Then we went to the B&B to check in.  Joshua had a special surprise of roses waiting in our room for me!

This was on the porch.  We were sitting on the swing.

The next day we went into town and ate lunch at Chris'.  This is the famous place that Hank Williams Jr. really like to eat at!  We tried the chili dogs.  They were really yummy!

This is a fountain in the middle of a roundabout near the capitol building.

  

We had some fun at the fine arts museum!

That night we ate at an Italian restaurant.  The food was super yummy!  Our waiter and one of the guys that worked in the kitchen gave us a desert plate for free for our anniversary!  They were super nice guys and it was yummy!

After our very filling Italian dinner we walked over to the river front.  We took a horse and buggy ride around city center, then walked along the river front.  There were a lot of people around.  We were told that there were several proms that weekend.

This mosaic was made out of tiles.  So cool up close!

We are still two kids in love.  Enjoying life together and looking forward to many years more!

We would highly recommend going to Montgomery as a nice place to get away for the weekend.  There are so many more things that we would have loved to do.  It is a very historical place.  If you like history then this would definitely be a great place for you to go! 

Jennifer's 28th Birthday trip!

This post has been long in coming as is the rest that follow in the coming weeks!  Thought that ya'll might like to see what Jennifer decided to do back in April for her birthday.  We opened presents on her birthday after she got home from work and then we went to our fellowship and she worked with the kids, who sang Happy Birthday to her.  On the weekend we went up to Nashville with Russ and Phyllis and went to Jennifer's favorite zoo!  After our afternoon at the zoo we went to Red Lobster for her birthday dinner!  It was scrumptious!!!  :)

Below are some pictures of our favorite exhibits!  Jennifer's favorite is the Meerkats, you can tell by all of the pictures! ;)

Gotta love 'em elephants!

Hey!  Whatya lookin' at?

You may take my picture.

Is that supper I smell?

What is that?

Great times!

Top 10 things you didn't know you could do concerning transportation

We thought that we would take a break from giving updates on things with our students and give a fun list of things that we have discovered this school year concerning transportation.  Some of these things were funny when they happened and others scared us.  We hope you enjoy.  Sorry we don't have pictures to illustrate each thing.  We have a few to help you in imagining and picturing what we're talking about.

The top ten things you didn't know you could do concerning transportation:

10.  A ride on a bus could be therapeutic from a chiropractic point of view.

9.  Riding on a bus can make you shrink or at least wish you could.

8.  When riding a bus, like the yellow one below, be bounced by hitting a pot hole so much that you literally leave your seat and hit your head on the ceiling.

7.  While sitting on the back bench be thrown out of your seat from just hitting a pot hole.

6.  Being thrown out of your seat because it is not attached to the floor.

5.  When you are on a trolley bus and you come off the line, every guy gets to the opportunity to get off the bus and help push it to get it back on the line and going again.  This is most common when there is an accident in the lane where the trolley has to go.

4.  Controlled sliding on ice in traffic on a bus.

3.  High speed swerve on a bus because someone pulled out in front of you while there is ice on the road.  This thankfully did not include flipping although the bus was leaning a good bit and we were sore from being thrown around.

2.  Off-roading in a bus!  (That is when we usually get thrown from our seats or bounce up to the ceiling.)  The buses usually have really bad shocks too!

Finally,

 #1.  There is always room for one more!  

Look at the pictures below.  Riding public transportation isn't a good idea if you are claustrophobic. :)  

You can easily fit another 50-60 people on here.

This vehicle is called a micro.  It is a minivan that is suppose to fit 12-15 people.  However, there are usually 20-25 people easily on one of these.

We hope that you have enjoyed our top ten.  This just gives a little insight to the way we have to get around here.  We ride a bus everyday this year since we commute to work.  That is where most of these have come from.  We have gone off-roading several times.  Our first bus ride back for second semester we went off-roading for our first time and thought that the bus was going to fall apart on us. Some days there are no dull moments. 

This one seemed full to us, but not to them!