Montgomery!

JB had to do five nights in a row at an ER an hour away. He opted to get a hotel to avoid 2 hours of commute time with little sleep. But he had one requirement. I had to leave town. He told me he wouldn't be able to stay at a hotel and not see the kids if we were only an hour away. He wanted us to have some fun while he was gone!

Flying with four kids is a no-can-do for me right now mainly because I am not OUT OF MY MIND. Driving over four hours is also off my list. So I had to think of somewhere I could go with four kiddos by myself that was under four hours in drive time.

How about MONTGOMERY!

I now have three friends who live in the Mongtomery area. Stebbs (whose real name is Sarah but I never call her that), Brittny H., and Claire. I realized that I didn't get a single picture with Brittny H., but it was still wonderful to see her and her hubby and her two now three kiddos. Brittny is a very young breast cancer survivor which was followed up by a very unplanned third pregnancy. She's been through the wringer, but she is doing great!

Here, firstly, are some pictures of my time with Stebbs. I stayed at her house since it was large and she has a 5 and 1 year old and was therefore prepared for anything and everything we might require!

Cuddling with her Graham and my Hannah. Graham is just six weeks older than Hannah. 

William was the first "real" friend my boys had when we moved to Turkey. They have remained fantastic pals! Click here to flashback to our lives when they first intersected in 2010. 

On Saturday, we went to the Montgomery zoo after watching William play soccer. So cool that our membership at the Nashville Zoo gets us 50% off at most other zoos in the country! Score! With that money saved, let's pay some extra money to take a ski lift over the park. The kiddos loved it. Stebbs rode with Isaac and William while I watched Hannah. Then we switched. I took Abigail and Sidge. Sidge wanted my arm around him the entire time and Abigail was pushing me away the entire time.

What would Moms do without PB&J!?

By far the favorite thing they saw at the zoo was NOT an animal. it was these superheroes. Which I think are going up in preparation for Halloween.

They wanted pics with all of them.

Hannah showing Graham how to use the bike that he hasn't quite figured out yet. He is listening intently. 

Such cuties.

Stebbins trying to handle 2 one-year-olds at once.

Abigail has joined the buddy world as well!

I also got to spend some time with my wonderful friend from the Azores, Claire, who is also living in Montgomery (albeit nearly an hour from Stebbs.)

Claire made egg-free pumpkin muffins and Isaac LOVED them! Goodness knows I am going to try them again!

So neat to see that Abigail totally remembered Ms. Claire.

Claire has just started homeschooling her fourth grader -- Jacob -- one of the nicest boys I have ever met. When I first met Claire two years ago she told me, in no uncertain words. "I will NEVER homeschool. Totally not for me." Not sure what happened, but here she is!

Little Bria is now 2! When I met Claire in the Azores, she was just preparing to go back to the States to have her. The girls loved hiding under the table and sharing their pumpkin muffin.

Claire HATES pictures so I am pretty impressed she let me attempt a selfie.