Exploring Moss Rock

After school exploring with our BFF's on our favorite 'around the corner' mountain. Being alive is my favorite thing ever. 

Trail Blazers Knox and London

Best Buds

Toeing the water to cool off a bit!

"Skipping rocks." Also known as pummeling them straight at me! :)

Cave exploration. 

(Spiders EVERYWHERE. Good grief with the onslaught of spiders this year.)

Kurt showing off his guns. He was in a tough mood this day. More proof of muscles coming! :)

Two tough guys! Lucky us! 

Everybody's tough!!

Sitting way up high on the edge of a rock issuing a warning to the adorable little high schooler who was rock climbing with not one single piece of gear. No rope. No harness. Just throwing caution to the wind and climbing a 40 foot tall rock completely unprotected. I'm beside London whispering for her to never fall in love with a boy like that. ;)

I am totally surrounded by beauty. My little side kick is just THE most beautiful. The city I live in is spectacular. My friends make everything brighter and more glorious. So thankful for this exact time of life. 

A Bit of Me Time

Well, I've written the intro to this post about 9 different ways and it just never sounds right. So, I'm just going to post pictures and let that be all the words that need to be said! Whenever I have someone keeping London for me, I try to work on the house. I knew my regular 'me time' would be temporarily put on hold, so I spent my last free day living it large instead of worrying about my silly yard!

A good friend knows I love being outdoors so we went and did the new Red Mountain ropes course.... which was HARD, YALL. Holy cow. My arms were jelly by the time we got done! It says it's for ages 11 and up but this course was not kidding around! It was straight up challenging! We spent a good deal of time pulling up sweet pre-teen girls that were stuck on the course and needed a hand to get to the end! We had so much fun though! I would've never done this on my own, so I was so grateful to have the opportunity to check it out! 

smiling here but completely stuck and freaking out a tad about what i was going to do next :/ 

Later that night, I met up with my BFF Hannah Banana. We were going to just grab a bite somewhere casual, but ended up in this fancy schmancy sushi restaurant... dressed in t-shirts and shorts! :) No one seemed to care and we sure didn't! This was by FAR the best sushi I've had in 10 years. Incredibly delicious! We ordered mojitos because they are known for them and good GRIEF were they good! To top it off, I was with the coolest girl I know! Best night ever!

Raw tuna, pears, and goat cheese. Slap your momma good.  (Not really, momma. I love you! :) )

Raw kobe beef cooked on a hot rock. Ummmm. So fancy! 

{video}

Hannah wanted to check out the 'Before I Die' wall so we headed downtown to let her add her submission! 

We jumped a few blocks over to check out another new art exhibit. It's called Light Rails and is the first of a number of art light installments going up in the city. It's built under a rail road bridge and is used by cars and pedestrians. It's a light show that changes colors in different patterns but is so awesome looking! We ended up spending a long time under it just watching and being silly! Hannah's the type of person that can make sitting under a bridge the best time ever. That's why I love her so!

Here's a view of it from a distance. It's super happy looking!

Here's a view of the colors changing...

We're GOOBERS. 

A video of us acting like mature 30 year olds. 

So fun! I loved exploring and acting like a kid with Hannah! This was such a great day! It was like a mini 24 hour vacation and I loved every second of it! WAY TO BE AWESOME, BIRMINGHAM!!!

(Lifted from Hannah's Blog)

I’d like to add some beauty to life…

I don’t exactly want to make people know more…

though I know that is the noblest ambition.

But, I’d love to make them have a pleasanter time because of me…

to have some little joy or happy thought

that would never had existed if I hadn’t been born.

-Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables)

Before I Die

A month or so ago, I posted about how much we loved going to a baseball game at the new Baron's stadium. I had been reading along on the internet about this art installment that they made just across the street from the stadium. One Saturday while London was with her dad, I decided to drive uptown and check it out. It is a building wall painted in chalkboard paint and titled 'Before I Die'. It has hundreds of blank lines and chalk laid out on the wall. General passerbyers have the freedom to walk up and write in whatever they want to do before they die. It took a while to read through them all, but I was so moved by observing this freedom of expression. I was most taken by how positive, faith based, and hopeful people's entries were. There we're a number that were silly and a few that were incredibly sad. They wash the board once a week, I believe, and it's another fresh start for people to anonymously write what's in their heart. It was an emotional, interesting experience and I'm glad I went to check it out. I added my entry and loved standing back and reading my words, my wish, amidst my peers. We all have a dream. I so hope every single wish becomes a reality for the beloved people in my place. 

"....be all i was created for!"

"..... tell people how awesome Alabama is!" (we should meet!)

"..... be thought of as a good man, father & husband (and run a sub 5 marathon)."

"..... see my research impact people."

"..... help you realize how important you are!"

"..... Tango in Buenos Aires."

"..... enjoy the small things in life!"

"..... reunite with my children."

"..... be a rockstar."

"..... be on Broadway."

"..... fill every page in my passport." 

"..... finally be at peace with God."

"..... date my maintenance man."

"..... show B-ham the love of Jesus."

"..... grow a long beard like Gandolf."

Rhea Kids First Day of School

School is officially back in session! Lauren sent me these cute kids from all the kids first day of school! Caden immediately got sick and missed pretty much the whole first week. :( He was sick again this week so he's missed something like 5 days of school in his first 5 weeks! Poor kid! Stick all these kids back together and it's like a GERM PARTY. They all start dropping like flies! He sure looked handsome on his first day though!