Our Trip to Birmingham

Starting out the photo montage. Deep fried Oreos.
Also at MELT.  We met Greg's friend from High School friend who just got married in one of the coolest ways.

Candy as a condiment option.

 They suggested our next stop.  Here's Mimi with a mini Vulcan statue--he'll show again later...

Playing at the Railroad park in Downtown.

 

16th street Baptist Church

 Can you see the Gibby's at the bottom of the stairs? 

Mimi and Yoda at Kelly Ingram Park where they pretended to be imprisoned for opposing Bull Connor.

The VHHS wrestling room.
Completed during Greg's Senior year to aid in learning how to "put him in a pretzel."

 (I circled Greg and his coaches in this photo, the same coaches from one photo up)
 

 

Greg's picture on the wall! 

(I wish we had pushed harder too see of the Math Team stuff around the school, but the school day was about to end and there was going to be a flood of high-schoolers, so we took off)

My dinner with Andre. Old wrestlers and their coach.  Later that same day. 

(Somewhere among all these days we also had dinner with another of Greg's wrestling friends, I'm bummed we didn't take more photos!)

 

We saw the May Family and left a gummy fish on the light switch. She bought the gummys specially for Greg!
She also gave Mimi a 'fairy house', so sweet. 

 

Tongue Tacos from a Truck. Awesome food and awesome name.

Steel City Pops and Teresa Kelly, Hi Teresa!



Saw's BBQ in Homewood

 

A boat launch on the Cahaba river similar to where Greg did his Eagle project. 

Robbie Norris and Greg hanging out in Vestavia.  They just did an amazing redo of their house.  Down to the studs, all that was left was wood floor!  (I was drooling)

Parker had biscuits and gravy every morning.  Continuing his fearlessness in food choices. 

 

The first house in Vestavia.

 

The second house in Vestavia.  Greg is inspecting his use of the nail gun after 22 years.

The Goat reading the animals stories in the fountain at "five points."

Yoda is silly around fountains all the time.

The Temple of Vesta on her hills.

The Zoo.

We get spoiled with our Zoo in Columbus, but their aviary was so amazing! 

 

A hippo!!!  Can you see it? 

 We don't have those in Ohio!  

 It was interesting to see all the old-school public works projects that are still around and looking great! 

 

Backyard burger. Erstwhile home to Cameron Mathews.
Greg laughed out loud when he saw this place, he was so excited, so I had to turn the car around and eat there.  It was super yummy, and they had sweet potato fries, enough said.  

  

 Someone put Easter Candy in the Hotel room.

  David Chung's resting place.

The map of Birmingham at the base of Vulcan Park.

Posing like the Statue
(I had to lay on the ground to get this photo and still couldn't get the top of the statue in the frame)

 

  Liberty Park south of Birmingham has a replica Statue of Liberty.

Posing like the Statue. 

(again it was hard to get the top of the statue!)  

 

The wall of Eagle Scouts from Birmingham, AL.
(This was a total bonus. We went here on a whim, thinking it was just the statue of liberty replica.  But NO!  It has a list of all the Eagle scouts from Alabama, so yeah!  Greg's name is on the wall!)  

This one is for you, Dad! 

 

 The plan was to hit Mammoth Cave on the drive home.  We kept seeing signs that said "road ends in water"  What?  Well, here's where the road ends. 

We were ferried across the river.

Into Mammoth cave.

Parker wanted to go to the River Styx.

Missed seeing Abraham Lincolns birthplace. By like 10 minutes.
We weren't alone, there were a few other families that missed it too.  We posed for this photo and the other families thought it was awesome :) 

Also, on the way home we drove through Nashville.  We chickened out and didn't take a photo of Greg's parent's old house, but we wanted to see the little temple. 

Back to Ohio!

One more from Springfield, IL

One thing I'd love to be is a foodie, but it seems like too much work, and I'm lazy and busy.  So I just take the advice of those who like to do foodie stuff. 

If you're like me, you'll love Roadfood.com

They go all over finding local cuisine and writing about it.  Now when we travel, we lookup places that are on our way or at our destination.

OK, so Springfield, IL has a local dish that I think may be my favorite breakfast EVER!!!

It's the horseshoe.  It's toast, hash-browns, bacon or sausage, egg and a white or cheese sauce.  Even Parker wanted to try it.  We both loved it!!  (this is the small version, the real horseshoe is way bigger!) 

 Parker and the horseshoe and a photo bomber. 

 Obligatory animal shaped pancake. 

Mimi is so into omelets when they are convenient and full of mushrooms. 

CHEESE!

Over Spring Break we visited Birmingham, AL.  I've always wanted to see Greg where he was a kid, this year we made it happen!

I have lots of photos to post, but today I'm just putting up Greg and Yoda's little side project:  taking photos of Yoda eating grilled cheese as often as possible.  Somehow it was only 4 times the whole trip. 

Louisville, KY... some in this city claim it is the birthplace of the cheese burger.  Greg heard on a Freakonomics podcast about a woman who ate 2 cheeseburgers a week for a year to find her favorite, so we went to her #1.  It was good, but Yoda had grilled cheese, of course, so this is what sparked their little project.  

 Jason's Deli, a nice chain with lots of things to choose from. Yoda choose grilled cheese of course. 

 

 At Greg's former Bishop's house, they were nice enough to make cranky Yoda a grilled cheese sandwich even though they were making yummy tacos for everyone else.  Super nice people! 

The most amazing was at this great gentrification place called MELT.  So dreamy -- I had the Mac & Cheese in a Grilled Cheese sandwich, it makes me want to go back!  Even the ketchup and mustard were amazing! 

More of the Gibbys in B-Ham to come! 

Something's different

 

  Mimi BEFORE...

 

and Mimi AFTER her eye doctor appointment! 

The most surprising part to me is that these glasses are NOT for distance!?  

The doctor says that will definitely come with time.  

These cute glasses are for reading, to help her eyes focus better and get less fatigued.  They are bifocals (plain glass on the top and readers on the bottom)
Fingers crossed that this helps! 

Meeting Amy Butler

One fun benefit of living in Ohio is that we are close to where Amy Butler works.  Here's more about her.  Basically she's an awesome person who happens to design some pretty amazing fabric.   And she's was super nice in person!

Springfield Trip

Last weekend we left Greg at home to get things done and we headed to Springfield, IL.  It was very cool and worth the trip!

 Abraham Lincoln's home

 Silly children

 Around the corner was a Frank Lloyd Wright home, we didn't go inside, but just hung out around the grounds. 

 

 Lincoln's tomb

 Old State House

 Tickets to tour the house

Family Room

At the moment our Family room is all about Hockey.
More details to come as the room gets put back together...

 The crowd arrived by laundry basket, also known as the "bus"

Mimi Turns 10!

(we are now caught up on the blog!)

We kept the birthdays very simple this year.  

I had to keep reminding the kiddos that we had our parties down in Orlando, FL. 

Mimi, "Now I'm two hands!"

She thought a star cake would be too hard, but there's not much I can't find on Pinterest.

 Mimi's big interests lately are ducks, or any animal, the color green, the stars in the sky. 

 Robotic fish from her aunts. 

Cookies and a cute baby

Halloween 2015

I mentioned I'm behind on my posts! 

 Yoda was Clark Kent turning into Superman.

 Mimi was Lucy from Peanuts.

Parker was "#" with a hipster hat on.

Mid-Winter Gibby Happenings...

 Yoda started basketball, he does fine for a Kindergartner,
but here he is with his hands in his pockets and a big yawn...

 Mimi put Cupcakes on her Christmas list, how cute is that?
We took care of that on a long cold winter day.  

 Finally some snow!  Not as much as the east coast, though we'll take it.
I just noticed that the camera totally caught Yoda in mid-jump!
 

 Lots of Playdough that Yoda got for Christmas.
 

 Valentine's Day fun. 

And of course more fevers then I want to think about. 

Saturday Funnys

Mimi, "What's boogie boarding?"
Greg, "Well it's..."
Yoda * interrupting * "I know what it is, it's when you're on a surf board but you get up and dance"

*************************

Mimi, "Have you ever been numb?"
Me, "yes"
Mimi, "And when you're not numb anymore it really hurts"
Me, confused, "it hurts?"
Mimi, "yeah, like when it's waking up from falling asleep"
Me (oh, she means when your hand falls asleep), "some people call that 'pins and needles'"
Mimi, "It doesn't hurt as much as a real needle, because I've had a real needle poked in me" --referring to when she had to get stitches in this post.