Babymoon!

Mark and I were able to take a trip the week after Christmas. We had planned this trip for several different reasons.

• It was the last vacation time available before adding to our family
• We usually take a weekend get away trip before busy season starts
  
• We got to visit some good friends that we had not seen in a while
• We used it to spend time coming up with family traditions, a family mission statement, and some parenting principles that we hope to implement

We had a lot of fun and overall traveled 2,090 miles and drove in 7 different states. We really only had two destinations but it took going through some of those other states to get there. (Except for Florida, we were just too close to not visit) We started our journey on Sunday in Texas, and driving through Louisiana, & Mississippi before arriving in Alabama where we stayed near Gulf Shores. We spent Monday visiting the beach (it was chilly), looking at the enormous houses along the beach, going to an outlet mall, and visiting Bellingrath Gardens where they had a 3 million Christmas light display. It was really amazing to see all the different displays they made.










Tuesday we drove from south Alabama up to Hohenwald, TN to visit Keith & Mindy. On Wednesday we slept in, got a tour of Hohenwald, ate lunch at an Amish sandwich shop (yummy), relaxed, and went to church where Keith is the preacher. It was so fun to see their town and community. They are truly loved by their church and have done some great things there! We got up on Thursday and drove to Nashville. We had a tour of Lipscomb (courtesy of Keith), ate brunch at the Pancake Pantry (another yummy), drove around Nashville, and went shopping. And of course we stayed up until midnight-barely. It was so fun to get to see them and spend several days hanging out and seeing their cute little town. They were great have us in their home and we look forward to seeing them again soon.

We left Friday morning and drove through Tennessee, Arkansas, & back into Texas. Even though Mark wasn't feeling well, he drove the whole way back. I had instruction from my doctor to stop frequently and walk around. Mark did a great job of making sure that happened throughout the trip.

We were in the car many hours and enjoyed laughing, talking, and discussing the journey that lies ahead of us. It was a memorable vacation and we look forward to many more in the future.

We took more pictures but I think they were on Mindy's camera so I will have to get more from her. Plus, I am not having much luck uploading these pictures to Blogger. It is being difficult!