In between graduation and SERE, we took a few days and went to Atlanta. Why Atlanta? We don't know. Even after we had been driving for an hour we still weren't sure if we were going to Atlanta or Orlando. Because we're young and crazy like that. At the on ramp we decided it would be good to see our college buddies, Sevy & Dani Price so we went north. (Did we go north, honey?) Braden's favorite thing I've ever said is, "I have a good sense of direction, I just don't know which direction I'm sensing". I can drive anywhere and not get lost, I just can't tell you how to get there.
But I digress...
It was fun to see the Price's and their cute little girl.
We went to the Six Flags water park. Anabelle loved it. After we talked her into loving it.
Once she got over her initial sissiness, it turned into the "BEST DAY EVERRRRRR!!!
This was her best friend. For the two o'clock hour.
Lila led Maisey around for quite a while. They were both happy with this arrangement. It was cute to watch. Until we turned our heads for 2 seconds and Lila was gone. She had climbed up the playground and the only way to get down was to go down the slide, which she previously did not want to do. But what goes up must come down...
...and must expel the gallon of water inhaled on the way down. She must have liked it because she did it again.
But soon it became nap time for Thing 2 and Thing 3, and things started to fall apart. Braden and I shared a few "Why did we pay to come here with these tiny (TIRED) people?" glances. But just for that reason we felt the need to squeeze every ounce of possible enjoyment out of the day. Forcing fun? Maybe. But in the end it worked. I wondered to myself if one should have to work so hard to have fun on vacation. At any rate, we decided to have a family float on the Lazy River to re-group. It worked. And look what happened. Lila went to sleep. And after 30 minutes of this, so did Braden's arm.
I think he made about 9 laps around trying to let Lila sleep. But Maisey would not go to sleep. She fought it all day long and instead of drifting off to sleep like a little baby who swam all day should, she became crazier and crazier.
Until we decided it was time to go. And then of course she fell asleep.
That night we tucked our kids in bed (after 2 hours of trying) and went downtown to The Vortex. It is a restaurant from the show "Man vs. Food" that Braden likes to watch where this dude travels around the country and eats grotesque amounts of food in a single sitting, as a challenge to see if he can finish. So naturally, Braden wants in on this. He didn't order the burger from the show (it was $30.00!), but he did get the Double Coronary, pictured below.
This is two fried eggs, six slices of American cheese, eight pieces of bacon, half pound of burger, served between two grilled cheese sandwiches instead of a bun. He ate it all. And he was a happy man.
On our way out of town we decided to hit the splash pad at Centennial Olympic Park.
Anabelle was so excited. Until we got there and she realized it wasn't a pool. She wasn't going to be able to use her new Hello Kitty goggles that she had been wearing all around town like sunglasses. Despair set in. And then fatigue hit the little people. And Lila wasn't a fan of being hit in the face with high pressure water (why!?). So our children all began to cry like a bunch of .....well, girls. Should not be a shocker, but disappointing nonetheless. But we had paid to park and then walk them down there and we weren't going to just leave after 5 minutes. So I strapped them into the stroller, dumped a pile of snacks out on the tray, and Braden and I went to play in the water without them. After all, it was hot. It's Atlanta in June for Pete's sake. We stood close enough to them that we felt they were safe, but far enough away that we could only see them cry and not have to hear them. Girls, we're on vacation. There's no crying on vacation. But after a minute we felt bad standing there looking at them. Three hot girls crying pitifully. So we gave up and decided it was time to go home. But not before Braden walked 10 blocks to a gas station after our car wouldn't start because it was parched.
En route home, we stopped at Burger King to get some dinner. The girls played on the playground and laughed more in that half hour than they did that whole trip. I looked at Braden and Braden looked at me and we felt the waste of the money and effort we'd just spent slapping us in the face, just a little bit. Not that we regret the trip. It was a good trip. We had plenty of fun. BUT, we learned a few things...
1) Maisey is not a traveler. She basically took all the rules of traveling and pooped on them. She won't sleep unless she is in her own crib. It took her three days of doing this before she finally knocked out for a good nap. It makes me SUPER excited to be road tripping across the country with her in a few weeks.
2) Little people are simple people. If we had stayed home and played Candy land with them and bought them a tootsie roll, they would have been ecstatic. We came to the realization that our kids are too little to do such adventures with. So I don't want to hear any bellyaching the next time we announce we are going on vacation and we pull into Burger King.
3) Our kids do not eat fast food. They want nothing to do with it. Which is good! Except for when we're not at home and I can't exactly pull cous-cous out of my purse.
4) Pedestrians in Atlanta fear no vehicle. I saw crazier people there than in NY, DC, or LA. For real, what is with those people.
Highlights of the trip include:
-Going to Ross with only 2 kids while Maisey slept at the Price's. It was amazing how much easier only 2 kids is. Or maybe it's not having a mobile baby around. Either way, it was a fun outing (no offense 15 year old Maisey). Braden found some jeans he loves which he looks supremely hot in.
-After watching an old crippled homeless man scoot across a 6 lane highway, Anabelle assures us that she would never do that unless she was holding our hand. Lila, in her deep voice with her eyes rolled to the side of her head says, "We would nevo, evo, evo DO DAT!!" You had to be there. We told her to say it at least 15 more times on the trip.
-Playing explorer with Anabelle at the water park and seeing her find the courage to go down slides and do things that made her nervous.
-Eating the most delicious burgers of our lives at the Vortex.
All in all, a good trip. Always a good thing to spend time with my favorites.
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