Alabama?!?

Yup, embarrased to say it, but we vacationed to Alabama this weekend :) Coleson doesn't have the time-off for a real trip and we're saving our vacation money for a big roadtrip in the fall ... so Alabama it was! We've never truly been to Birmingham, and we were looking for somewhere close that was different.

We started the day south of Birmingham with a train ride in Calera. We had a good time, although I think Ryan enjoyed playing with the Thomas train set in the gift shop more than anything else we did! Oh well! In addition to the train ride, we walked around & saw some old trains, ate a picnic lunch, and hung out in the gift shop (playing with Thomas!).

After the train, we drove north and spent the afternoon at Rickwood Caverns State Park. The park was pretty awesome. We had a good time walking around all the cool rocks and then we took a cavern tour. We weren't sure what to expect from the kids in the cave, esp Ryan. But he did great! He had a wonderful time and was very independent. He walked the whole tour and barely even let me hold his hand.

After getting a little lost in Birmingham we had a yummy dinner at Newks and spent Saturday night in a hotel (Thanks Mom for the reward points!). Sunday morning we went to Vulcan Park. While it had pretty cool views of the city, we had hoped for a little more out of the park. And poor Ryan was very disappointed seeing as he thinks parks and playgrounds are the same thing. All he wanted was a swing! So being the awesome parents we are, we suffered through McDonald's for lunch so that Ryan could play in the playplace.

It was a nice quick trip, a great little getaway. And now we can say we've spent time in Birmingham, check that off the list, we're good. :)