Atlanta

Back when Philip and I were planning our trip to NYC and Boston, the kids expressed an interest in seeing a big city themselves. Since their interest kept getting expressed, I figured I needed to figure out a way to make this happened. I remembered that good friend of mine from college now lives with her family just north of Atlanta. Atlanta is a doable distance and with a place to stay, we had a trip to plan. The kids wanted to see big buildings and ride the subway! I am super glad that these were their only desires as things in Atlanta are super expensive. We were able to do it all in two great days.

After a short drive to the subway station, we boarded for a 20 minute ride into the city! 

We started our visit at Centennial Olympic Park.  The kids were still enthralled with the Olympics so it was fun to how Atlanta did things.

Philip discovered this restaurant while looking through the visitor guide book.  It was a must see in his book!  Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles. 

It was definitely a great choice.  I would highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in Atlanta!

Can you tell that my crew is getting a little tired.  Life in the big city is hard work.  We paused for this photo as we were on our way to the Martin Luther King museum and historical center.  I think somehow we ended up getting off on the wrong stop because we ended up walking a long way through some sketchy neighborhoods.

It was obvious that we needed to have a bit of refreshment before beginning our tour of the MLK museum and homestead.  It's about a twice a year occasion for our kids to have caffeine so they were pretty excited about the chance to have a soda.

After another very long walk, through more sketchy places we finally found the subway station we needed.  Needless to say, there were some of us who were pretty tired even after having a Coke.

Then there were some who weren't quite as tired.  I think it was at this moment that if fully dawned on my that Ryan and his father are like two peas in a pod!

swimming

While I was lost in the blogging abyss, I neglected to document a monumental milestone. It all happened at the swimming pool. This summer was my summer in which I had arrived as a pool mom. I invested in one of those floaty things that goes over their arms and around their chest and buckles in the back. I obviously forgotten what they are called however, I would encourage everyone to buy one! Nathan could swim all over the place with this handy device and I could watch from the pool side. It was lovely. Until, we happened to be swimming the same time a swim lesson was going on and he noticed that there were little people only slightly bigger than him that were swimming without floats. He wanted to take off his float and start swimming himself. Three visits later we have this little fish on our hands.

Although my days pool side are over since he refuses to wear his floats anymore, I am certainly proud of my little guy for teaching himself how to swim.

the abyss

I have realized that once again, I have entered into the blogging abyss. I'm not sure where I've been but obviously not here. We did take a really cool and brief trip to visit the big city of Atlanta! Here are a few snapshots from our time together. s

The big goal was to ride the subway and see skyscrapers! We did both for two days!