Hubs was just coming off a simply insane couple of months of a working crazy long hours. He managed to get three days off at the beginning of spring break.
"We should take a road trip to Atlanta." The words popped out almost without me thinking about them.
His eyebrows shot up and he said, "Really?"
I'm sort of a stay-at-home sort of girl so his surprise was warranted.
"No, never mind."
He grinned. "We're going."
Oh boy.
I spent a couple of days planning a simple two day trip. With lots of blood, sweat and tears and the help of dear friends, we set out for two solid days of family fun and togetherness.
One good way to spend a lot of family time? Road trip! We all needed this. We got up too early, handled the not fun logistics of taking off for a couple of days and then headed out.
The first stop was the Georgia Aquarium. I was so excited about this. I was also super excited that a vacation day also counted as a field trip, which is counted as a school day! But I was just seriously excited about the aquarium, and probably more excited than even the kids were.
No, they were pretty excited.
Bubbling with excitement. But they let Mom get her picture.
First stop: the dolphins!
The first thing we did was the dolphin show. The middle kid sat in the front in hopes of getting wet. The rest of us opted to sit a few rows back. The show was cute (and sort of cheesy) but I loved the dolphins and decided to put swimming with dolphins on my so far non-existant bucket list. I guess I need to start a bucket list so I can put swimming with dolphins on it.
The kids are still singing the songs from the show. That makes me laugh.
I literally bounced up and down with excitement at the next part of the aquarium.
The kids loved the people mover and quickly turned it into a toy.
The giant aquarium was just spectacular. I literally could have stayed there all day. There just aren't words to describe how beautiful it was, and I couldn't help but be excited about the prospect of the new earth. I kept thinking about how exciting it's going to be to live in a world where creation is perfect. There is just something about watching all of those animals that made my heart sing in praise.
It was so fun to get up close and personal with these animals.
Is it too much to ask for a house that has a ceiling as an aquarium? I mean, it's so calming and soothing.
The girl kid kept quoting Finding Nemo: "I am a pi-ra-nha..."
which made me laugh, except that fish really just wanted to eat us for dinner.
I can see it in his eyes.
The jelly fish are my favorite.
I think I have lots of favorites.
I could watch these things all day.
What was that movie where Will Smith had a jellyfish tank in his living room?
Never mind. That might be a bad movie.
But I want a jelly fish tank in my living room.
This tank was so beautiful. I could have stayed here all day.
Can I just live in the aquarium?
We both loved it.
We really loved this guy.
And I really love this guy.
Leaving the aquarium.
One of us was not happy with something. I forget what.
We thought about going to the Coke museum, but it was too expensive for how late in the day it was, and I was already twitching about the money we were spending, so we opted for a free walk through Centennial Park in search of coffee.
It was a really great walk. We walked by the CNN center and just enjoyed looking around. It felt good to be in a different city.
When we were on the way back to the parking deck it occurred to me that in my excitement of getting to the aquarium, I had not looked at which level it was where we parked.
I asked hubs if he knew and the girl kid shouted, "496!"
We were both really surprised, but when we got back to the van, yep. She was right. Crazy. I guess an obsession with numbers is genetic, although my obsession failed me this time. Luckily she was there as a back up!
It was time for us to find our hotel. Luckily this trip was made super easy by Siri. She told us where to go, and never not once led us the wrong way. We actually saw a man looking at a real paper map, and I verbally thanked God for Siri and the fact that I hopefully won't ever have to look at a paper map again. I also proved how I get lost even with Siri. I would have to give the phone to the hubs at times when I still couldn't figure out which way to tell him to go.
He assured me I had other strengths. Thankfully.
I had booked the hotel rather blindly, but I have to say it was absolutely wonderful.
We were on the 16th floor.
Turner Field!
We just chilled.
There was so much to see. The middle kid and I lay on the bed and looked out the window for the longest time. We were mesmerized.
I loved loved loved the bathroom. Our house isn't modern at all, but if I were to start over, I might do bright colors like this. They made me so happy.
Shortly after getting to our room, we realized bad weather was heading our way.
One of us was really worried.
While she worried, the baby kid and I played cards.
And I just couldn't stop taking pictures of the room.
I want a red couch.
It was so cool to watch the storm roll in.
Here's where it occurred to me that other than being in a condo at the beach, our kids have never been in a hotel. The baby kid wanted to read the Book of Mormon, the middle kid thought a shuttle referred to the space shuttle and they couldn't not wrap their brains around me putting ice into a "garbage can."
My sweet little sheltered kids.
Since bad weather threatened, we decided to order in Chinese food and eat and watch the rain.
That was perfect.
Nighttime brought the most beautiful views.
The super wonderful red couch made a bed for the baby kid. He was so excited. Can't you tell?
He really was.
As luck would have it, one of our favorite movies was on. The kids snuggled in their bed and we all watched the second Lord of the Rings movie. I soon noticed that we could see the Atlanta airport from our window too. You could see the airplanes coming in and taking off in the distance. It was so beautiful and relaxing to just watch planes land, so I spent the commercials doing that. (those planes come in so close together. I never realized that. and there were planes coming in one after the other for hours on end. so crazy.) I also realized how amazing and relaxing it was not to have anything to do. No cooking, no cleaning, nothing for school or anything. Just resting. Watching a movie and planes land. That was good. Really, really good.
The next day, we were on to phase two of the road trip extravaganza.
Okay, family joke ahead. As we left the hotel, the baby kid suddenly bellowed: "It's the Taj Mahal!!!!!" We all burst into laughter and the girl kid said, "NO! That's in INDIA!"
So for the rest of the trip every time we saw this building, one of us would yell, "It's the Taj Mahal!"
Onward away from the Taj Mahal...
Excitement abounds.
The middle kid was nearly beside himself.
We loved this mini-city. We saw this building yesterday!
We were heading there later!
Turner field!
There we are at the aquarium! (not really but sort of)
Friends and I were just talking about Stone Mountain. I need to take the family. I haven't been there in more than 10 years, and I love that place.
Look kids, Tah Mahal!
We all laughed out loud when we saw that. Whew.
The hubs got us caffeinated, which was much appreciated.
While everyone was occupied, I snuck out to peruse the "fancy" mall.
I honestly could not remember the last time I was in a mall, and I was decidedly unimpressed.
This was pretty, though.
After Legoland, we hit my request for lunch. My friend Jackie introduced me to this treasure a few years ago, and I couldn't wait to get back.
Everyone loved it.
I made my QB1 pose by this guy. He was unimpressed by this request, but obliged me.
He added later that he's embracing his roll as running back more than quarterback, so there you go. Running back. Okay.
Or last stop was one I was also very excited about.
I mean, you know, they are:
(and they are so sweet to think I'm as funny as I think I am)
Part of the reason I was so excited about this stop was that the girl kid got a chance to see her "favorite" animal in person. She was so happy.
There are three pandas at this zoo, and we stood and watched them for the longest time.
And took tons of pictures.
It was so cool to see so many animals up close.
I think he wanted me for lunch.
I love this picture so much. Aside from the obvious tourists that we are, they are just done. Ready to go home. I knew I had gotten out of them everything I could. It was time to go.
And I was sad. It was just a perfect trip, and I didn't want it to end.
We made it home in good time, and as a consolation for the return home, the hubs got me my favorite take out. I repaid the kindness by going to sleep at 9 that night. We were all exhausted. But it was a happy exhaustion. I'm so glad I snuck out of my comfort zone and planned a road trip. It was so worth it.
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