Stone Mountain

Our nephew who lives in California was going to be in Atlanta for a week before coming here for a weekend visit. So that the boys could have more boy time, we went early to pick him up and bring him back to Alabama for a few days before his mom and dad and little brother and sister came. We hadn't been to Atlanta, other than airport runs, in over a year so we decided to spend the day.

The day started with all of us (the 6 of us, my sis in law, our nephew Ryan and Jessica and Jacob (younger cousins) eating lunch at Chick Fil A. As if the excitement of having a person her size eating with her wasn't enough, the giant cow made an appearance. She made a bee line for him and hugged him like crazy yelling "Grande Vaca". Quite funny. I pulled her off of him so she could eat lunch and we thought that was the end of it. When we went out to the playground there he came again. This time, after having chocolate milk and a few fries for lunch, Alex was revved up and ready to go. She grabbed his hands to dance, she pulled herself up on him and then grabbed his leg and wouldn't let go. That was all before she discovered his tail. That provided much more entertainment/torture for the Chick-Fil-A worker. He/she was a good sport, but we do wonder what all those around us thought. The only bummer was I didn't have my camera or better yet a video camera. It was hilarious.

From there we went to Stone Mountain. We toured one of the small museums where one side is a scientific description as to how it was formed (up Luke's alley) and a video of the Civil War Battle of Georgia (up Drake's alley). The girls all humored the boys and Becca and I entertained Alex in the foyer during the end of the movie. While I went to the bathroom though, Alex got away from Bec and got behind the counter to torment the park worker with one of her "HOLA"s in his face. I am thinking we should put a warning sign on her.

We did hike up the back side of the mountain (over a mile hike) up to the top. It is so beautiful and the kids did great. Alex even made it most of the way. At the very top, it gets very steep and Layne had to carry her at that point. Once at the top we enjoyed the cool breeze and the view and relished our accomplishment. Of course getting down wasn't nearly as tasking and once we were in the car, we decided we were done for the day.

It was great and we were all ready to get home. Alex started asking for her casa (house) about 4ish and got a little ansy towards the end of the 3 hour drive. All in all she did very well and we figured it was a good precursor to a real overnight road trip at some point.