Family vacation to Atlanta

Last week we took a family vacation to Atlanta for a few days. We planned our trip for the Fall since Barrett couldn't take any vacation time this summer. Caleb's preschool attendance policy is pretty strict, and he can only miss five vacation days for the entire year. So, we decided to push our trip to the end of the week so he would only miss two days of school. We left on Wednesday afternoon and drove the rest of the day to get to Atlanta. We stayed in a condo right in downtown, so we were close to almost everything we did. Thursday we walked to the Georgia Aquarium and spent most of the day there. We had a great time. The kids especially enjoyed the beluga whales and the shark whales. They have a gigantic viewing window of one of their biggest tanks of all sorts of marine life. We sat for a long time just looking at all the fish and stingrays and sharks. We also saw their 4-D movie, but the kids weren't too thrilled with that experience.

Touching an anemone:

Whale Shark: watching the 4-D movie:On Friday, it rained all day long, so we tried to do indoor activities. We went to the Coke Museum in the morning, and got to see how coke is made as well as try lots of different kinds of coke from all around the world. The kids were a little leary of it at first, but then they had fun trying some of the interesting flavors. In the afternoon, we walked around some of the malls in the area to have something to do. That evening, we had family movie night back at the condo and watched 101 Dalmations.

Sitting by the coke factory:

Choosing flavors of coke to try:

Not too sure about this flavor!: So many choices...

Family movie night:

On Saturday, we went to Stone Mountain Park. Stone Mountain is the largest mountain of exposed granite in the world. It is like a huge rock. There is a village you can walk through that includes a Blacksmith's forge and a glass blowing area. They have different shows and festivals going on as well. We went to a Science show for kids where they did some simple experiments and chose children from the audience to help. They learned about dry ice, carbon dioxide, and bubbles. Caleb really wanted to be chosen as a volunteer, and even jumped on his chair with his hand raised, but unfortunately, he wasn't picked. Caleb is really into science experiments, so he loved it. We also rode on the train that circled the mountain, and then rode the sky ride up the top of the mountain. We got to walk around at the top of the mountain for a while and saw the fence that surrounded the uppermost areas of the mountain. You could see how steeply the mountain declined beyond the fence; we didn't venture that far! It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. For dinner that night, we went to my old friend's house, Stephanie Cooke. She and I were best friends in high school. We hadn't seen each other in several years, so it was good to catch up and she had a chance to meet the kids.

Eating lunch at a restaurant that had a cool train suspended from the ceiling:

Playing in the bubbles: A carving of Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis on the side of Stone Mountain: On the train:
On top of Stone Mountain: Our ride to the top of the mountain:Caleb the mountain climber:

Our trip was one of the best we've ever taken as a family. The kids did great in the car there and back, and Isabelle especially did exceptionally well. She is really growing up and it's getting easier to travel with her. She did without nap time the whole trip, and she did great. The kids were really worn out by the end of the day and pretty much went to sleep right away at night. We just all had a wonderful time and it was so nice to make some fun memories.