The boys and thier wonderful Nana!!
Jamming on the train to the music!Brad went to the Mississippi State game on Saturday with one of his friends. That left me and the boys with a free day all to ourselves! Saturday evening, I took Tucker and Connor to my mom's house in Gadsden. We went to Fantasy Falls at Noccolula Falls. We had a great time!! My mom was in a wonderful mood and was in full Nana mode with the boys. There was not much to Fantasy Falls itself, but we had fun anyway. They had a train ride, inflatables that Tucker loved, and little games for them to play. There was a pumpkin carving table and some other little booths. Tucker was very excited about riding the train, so we had to do that first. The train started through the park, we had not gone far when it stopped inside a wooden tunnel, and the lights went out . I thought, "Oh no, Connor is going to start screaming now." I thought of the train at the zoo with the scary things that came at you and hung down from the ceiling. However, instead of a bogey man popping out at us, there were synchronized lights, like you would have on a Christmas tree, that were programmed to light up with the beat of music. The first song was the theme song from the Adam's Family. Mom and I both started laughing at that, because as a child, that was one of my favorite shows to watch in the afternoon after school. We didn't have Noggin back then. The second song was the theme to Ghost Buster's and Tucker and Connor both started rocking out to that one. Connor was in mom's lap and Tucker was beside her. Both of them were dancing in the seats! Mom got a kick out of it all. I kept looking behind the train, since we were in the last car, to make sure that Freddy Kruger was not coming after us. Thankfully, good ole Gadsden did not disappoint me by scaring my kids into never wanting to ride a train again. The songs kept coming, the lights kept blinking, and the boys kept smiling. After the tunnel, the train went on through the park itself. As a kid growing up in Gadsden, the Falls were one of my favorite places to go. My Granny lived close to them, in fact, you could actually hike up the bed of Black Creek to get to the falls, from her house. I have a lot of fond memories there of my Granny and my mom. I love the old log cabins that they have from back in the time of the first settlers. I used to like to walk into the church/school building and sit on a bench imagining what it must have been like back then. Of course, I pictured Little House on the Prairie, which was one of my favorite book series as a girl as well.
Riding on the train, in the dark with my boys and my mom while we looked upon familiar sights of my childhood made me feel a kind of sentimental happiness I can't really describe. I can't believe that I have never taken my children or Brad to Noccolula Falls before Saturday night, and have made a promise to myself that we will go again in the daytime this fall so that they can see all the park has to offer. I know now, that I took a lot of things from my home town for granted. Living in a bigger city, with less time to make the kind of memories that I was able to make in my childhood has made me appreciate the small town that I grew up in. I am jealous of all of my friends that are able to live and work in Gadsden. Their children get to go to schools that don't have 2000 kids in them, and they recognize most of the people they see at the grocery store. You don't get those experiences in a bigger city. Somehow the simple things in life turn hectic and unachievable, so you just skip them and move on to something bigger and better.
Maybe one day we can move our family back to Gadsden, but for now we are here and I am happy for the most part. I love our neighborhood, my friends, our home, and Tucker's school (even if it is big). God has blessed us with so much, and we can't even begin to understand why. We know that we don't deserve a bit of what he has given us. I only hope that in some way, I make him smile every day, because all of my smiles are because of Him.
Riding on the train, in the dark with my boys and my mom while we looked upon familiar sights of my childhood made me feel a kind of sentimental happiness I can't really describe. I can't believe that I have never taken my children or Brad to Noccolula Falls before Saturday night, and have made a promise to myself that we will go again in the daytime this fall so that they can see all the park has to offer. I know now, that I took a lot of things from my home town for granted. Living in a bigger city, with less time to make the kind of memories that I was able to make in my childhood has made me appreciate the small town that I grew up in. I am jealous of all of my friends that are able to live and work in Gadsden. Their children get to go to schools that don't have 2000 kids in them, and they recognize most of the people they see at the grocery store. You don't get those experiences in a bigger city. Somehow the simple things in life turn hectic and unachievable, so you just skip them and move on to something bigger and better.
Maybe one day we can move our family back to Gadsden, but for now we are here and I am happy for the most part. I love our neighborhood, my friends, our home, and Tucker's school (even if it is big). God has blessed us with so much, and we can't even begin to understand why. We know that we don't deserve a bit of what he has given us. I only hope that in some way, I make him smile every day, because all of my smiles are because of Him.
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