Adventuring in Atlanta

This winter, we had been dying to go skiing with the boys.  However, with Ian's injury it was not meant to be this year.  We were determined to take the boys on adventure and have a little fun anyway, so we plotted a different adventure on our long MLK weekend.  We headed down to Atlanta.  None of us had ever spent much time there, so we were all exploring someplace new.

We left as soon as Ian got home from work on Friday night.  We stopped for a celebratory dinner at Steak and Shake which we always enjoy, and it was a great start to a great vacation.  It was a long drive, and the boys were fast asleep when we pulled in to the hotel at around 1am.  My eyes were getting ready to shut myself.  So, we all fell in to bed and dreamt of the excitement of the days to come.

(Steak and Shake selfie)

We woke up a little on the early side because we had early morning tickets to Stone Mountain.  Stone Mountain is a great attraction just outside of Atlanta where they have hikes, ropes courses, and sky rides in the summer.  However, in the winter they break out the snow machines and create a wintery wonderland.  So, this year, we oddly enough headed South to see the snow.  We arrived and got our wrist bands.  Evan was actually tall enough this time to qualify for the bigger tubing rides, but Benny didn't quite make it.

(family picture at the snow park)

Since we only had two hours for the tubing and all day for the snow park, we headed there first.  Ben was tall enough to ride on the family tubes so we started there.  We waited in a line and then all piled in to a huge tube.  Then, they pushed us over a ledge and down a huge hill we flew.  Ian and I had a ball.  The kids were a bit nervous but seemed to have fun.  Evan wasn't quite sure about doing it again, but since the grown ups wanted to go again, he was outnumbered.  After one more ride on the family tubes, Ben and Daddy went down to the snow play area and Evan and I decided to try the individual tubes.  He was just tall enough to do them on his own.  He wasn't quite sure, but he said he would try it.  Unfortunately, we got in the line that took what seemed like forever.  However, Evan really showed what a big boy he was getting to be by going down the big hill in the tube all by himself, having fun, and waiting for me at the bottom.

(a view of the family tubes before they fly down the slope)

(Evan sleeps in his tube while he waits in line.)

(a view of the tubing park)

After we went tubing, we headed down to meet Benny and Daddy and play in the snow park.  They just had a big field of snow where we could build whatever snow sculpture we wanted.  They also had a couple of small sledding and tubing hills for the little guys.  Benny loved sledding down the hill for little ones and managed to pick up more speed and distance than anyone else on the hill that day (according to the worker at the top of the hill).  While we didn't make any snowmen, Evan worked hard to make a snow hill, and Daddy helped everyone make some igloo blocks out of a really cool mold.  We finished off the morning with some popcorn and hot chocolate.  It was so much fun being able to play in the snow when it was really a pretty balmy 50 degrees out there.

(Benny poses with his super-fast sled.)

(Evan on his snow mountain)

(My boys pose in front of snow mountain)

(The boys try out the small tubing hill.)

(Benny's snowy igloo)

(happy snowmen)

After our play at the snow park, we headed back near the hotel and had a lovely leisurely lunch at On the Border where we polished off more queso then should be humanly possible and were even able to watch a little of the Duke basketball game that just happened to be on television there.  Once we had relaxed and had a chance to change clothes we headed back out to our second adventure of the day.  We headed a few miles down the road to the Legoland Discovery Center.  What could be better than a whole play place devoted solely to Legos?  They even had a few rides mixed in as well.  Once we were admitted, we road a ride where we zapped ghosts and goblins with laser guns, wandered through a miniature Atlanta made completely out of Legos, built Lego cars and raced them down tracks, rode a swing ride, and even played in a huge play gym.  Once the kiddos were completely exhausted we finished off the day at a great pizza place and happily collapsed in our hotel room.

(The boys view lego Atlanta.)

(my boys and a lego policeman)

(building their lego creations)

(holding hands with the wizard-they posed this picture.)

(By the end of the night I was holding my pour tired boy.)

(Lego Stone Mountain)

The next day, we had more adventures in store.  Atlanta is home to the world's largest aquarium, so that was our first stop for the day.  We ended up spending most of the day wandering its halls and it was awesome.  There were huge tanks filled with so much water that huge whales and rays swam by.  There were sea and river creatures of all kinds, and we even got to pet some sea anemones.  There were white alligators, sea dragons, penguins, beluga whales, sharks, jelly fish and more.  One of my favorite parts was the dolphin show.  I had never seen one before and while it was a little dramatic and theatrical, I loved seeing how the trainers worked with the dolphins and what they could do.

(fish attack)

(petting the anemones)

(a sea dragon)

(one of the big aquariums complete with a whale shark)

(boys and jellies)

(another big tropical tank)

We finished out our second day adventuring in Atlanta with a trip to the home of Martin Luther King Jr.  It was a very appropriate trip because it was MLK weekend after all.  We toured the memorial museum, paid our respects at his grave, saw the church where he preached, and stood in front of his home.  Then, of course, we finished it off at the nearby playground.  It was a great, and meaningful way to finish out a fabulous weekend adventure.

(the church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached.)

(his gravesite)

(standing in front of MLK's home)

The next day we woke up and started our journey back home.  I love these family getaways, and even though it wasn't quite the adventure that Ian and I were planning on this winter, we had an awesome time.