Andrew had block leave all last week, and we took advantage of the free time and went on vacation to Atlanta! We left Monday morning and arrived in Atlanta at our air B&B later that afternoon. Atlanta is partially Andrews hometown. He grew up in Decatur, GA until he was around twelve years of age, before moving to Arkansas. His grandparents home was in Decatur and we took a trip down memory lane. We toured the grounds where their house used to be (it is now a designated park area). Andrew enjoyed showing and telling the kids about where he grew up, and they loved hearing it. 🙂 We visited a few of his favorites too, like Athens pizza and the Varsity. It was Pure Nostalgia for Andrew! 🙂

Pictures from the Varsity! Andrew’s all time favorite! No Joke, he is in food heaven which is why he has that smile on his face!

If you have never been to the Varsity it is hard to explain. It’s more in need of an actual experience to understand. The best I can describe it is as a 50s style restaurant in an underground station. Everyone goes down into the station to order food where they holler something like “what ya have” at everyone ordering. You get your deliciously greasy food and frosted orange drink and take it upstairs where they have a monster seating area. Fun was had by all! 🙂

We took the kids to Legoland! The kids had a fantastic time, and loved every brick of it! They are all old enough that they could participate in all the rides and activities, so it made it extra fun. It was Emma and Samuel’s first time ever to go on a carnival type ride or see a movie in 4d. They had the biggest smiles ever, and of course we had to do it again!

David loved the virtual reality ride, that only he was big enough to ride. I wasn’t sure whether he would actually like it or not, but he surprised me!

We visited zoo Atlanta! It was a nice zoo and well laid out. You could walk and see pretty much everything in two to three hours. So it was a smaller zoo than say Memphis, but we rather enjoyed not staying out in the heat all day! Plus, they had some neat areas for the kids. The kids loved the carousel and the zoo train!

We also had some time for sleep and snuggles on our vacation. 🙂

July 1st was Andrew’s Birthday. Anyone who knows Andrew very well knows that he is an avid Braves fan. We went to the Atlanta Braves baseball game at Truist park for Andrew’s birthday! We spent a large part of the afternoon touring the grounds, exploring the nearby shops, and watching the kids play in the splash pad. We then went inside the park, found our seats, and went exploring the inside of the park. The game started and we had a great time watching the game and eating ball park food. Samuel especially was getting tired by this point, and when he gets tired he can get cantankerous! However, we made it to the eighth inning. 🙂 As part of Andrew’s birthday gift, I ordered him a special gifting from the Atlanta Braves. They brought his gift to his seat and presented it to him! It was fun!

The Atlanta Georgia Aquarium is the largest aquarium in the United States and the third largest in the world! I have to say that I was blown away by it! It was spectacular!! Pictures simply do NOT do it justice! The sea creatures were amazing, and they had everything. David’s favorite was the whale shark. His expression when he saw it was priceless! I can still hear him screaming “whale shark” in my ear! 🙂 The manta rays were pretty incredible too!

While all the things we did were fun and amazing, my favorite activity of all was visiting the Gone With The Wind museum! I didn’t even know there was one! We were going to meet some friends for lunch on our last day, and we had some extra time to kill. I was looking up something to do in the area and it popped up! I said, “That’s it! We are going to the Gone With the Wind museum!” Andrew gave me the same goofy look I give him when he says he wants to go the Varsity! 🙂 I can’t help it! I am a romantic at heart, and I love classic movies to boot!

Brumbly Hall was built in 1851. It looks similar to the house used in filming when Scarlett visited in Atlanta where Melanie had her baby. (Maybe it was? I don’t know why, but I’m confused on this point. I assumed it was while there, but now I’m not so sure.) However it is historic and was used as a hospital during the civil war. It is now housed with all kinds of Gone with the Wind memorabilia. I loved seeing all the old books, articles, and art! My favorite was the beautiful costume dresses wore by Vivien Leigh!!

As much as I loved visiting the Gone With The Wind museum, my favorite part of vacation was spending time with my family! I loved watching the kids faces light up, and their smiles. I loved that Andrew was with us and we were able to be together!

We arrived home from our vacation in time to celebrate the fourth of July! We had a relaxing, recuperative day! Which is funny that one needs to recover from vacation! Hahaha! Maybe it’s because I’m getting old! 🙂 We went to church, fixed a simple lunch, and took quiet/nap time. Andrew BBQed ribs, and we shot off and watched fireworks. It took a lot of begging from the kids and some encouragement from me to get Andrew to agree to buy any fireworks. It’s just not his thing. I think he is afraid of one of the kids getting hurt. I reassured him that he only needed to buy the small, safe fireworks, and that we would be super careful! Ha! I grew up shooting fireworks, but he didn’t. So that has a lot to do with it. The kids were excited for us to shoot some of our own fireworks this year! However our neighbors…let me just say out of all the places we have lived (and there have been amazing fireworks at all of them), this neighborhood outdid them all! We had the most amazing firework show right from the front window of our house!! Seriously, I am amazed at the amount of fireworks we watched last night! Thank you to all our neighbors!! I love not having to spend big money on fireworks! 🙂

Love,

PK