Long Distance Friends

This weekend we had the privilege of having Ryan's best friend, Stephen, and his wife, Kristal, come from Alabama to visit us. They are on their way to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas and went out of their way to come and see us for a day. They got in late Friday evening and stayed all day Saturday and left at 6am on Sunday, so it was a short visit, but a fun one.
On Saturday, we dropped the kids off at my parents house, and took them out on the town. We first took them to Bass Pro Shop. (We really couldn't think of anywhere else to go, so we settled on this.) We actually had a good time looking around. They have redone the place, so there is more to see now. We had a great time seeing all the live (and stuffed) animals. Here are some pictures of us at Bass Pro.

They have a live gator there now, although it
didn't look like alive to me, but it was cool to see.

Two different shots of Ryan and Stephen in front

of the alligator (I know they look the same, I didn't

mean to upload both of them).

Me and Ryan on what seems to be

a child's 4-wheeler. Pretty sure

we exceeded the weight limit.

A razor back or wild boar, either way, would

not want to see this thing running after me in the

woods. Scary!

The turtles were pretty neat to watch (as neat

as turtle watching can be). There were quite a

few and this little guy in the bottom picture was

trying his hardest to get on the log with all the other

turtles, he was having quite the time getting up there

but finally made it. You could tell he was tired, because

as soon as he made it up there, he just laid his head on the

shell of the turtle next to him.

LOOK OUT! Stephen and Kristal

don't know there is a bear behind them!

Don't worry, Stephen will fight him off...

Me and the wolf posing together. I have to say,

it was pretty creepy to get this close to scary

animals. Its as if they could come to life at any

time.

Don't ask, because I don't know....

I think I was trying to be loving towards the

wolf, but just ended up looking stupid.

(By the way, we all felt his tounge and it felt so

weird.)

After fighting off the big bear, he had an encounter

with a Ram...tough day for Stephen.

After we got done posing with all the animals at Bass Pro (which I'll have to say was the highlight of the trip there), we took them to Cheddars. I'm going to go out on a limb and say its our favorite restaurant here in Springfield. We took them there and stuffed ourselves, but had a great time. Next, we were off to bowling. We played 3 games. I won the first game, Stephen won the second game and Ryan won the last game. We had a great time trash talking each other and hanging out!

Random shots of us at the bowling alley.

We ended the night (after we got the kids in bed) with some card games. Which, by the way, it was girls vs. boys and the girls won (just had to throw that out there!).

We had a great time and wish they could have stayed longer, but am thankful they got to come and visit us. Stephen and Kristal, you are welcome to come and visit anytime. The only thing we ask of you, is that you stay a little longer!