Trip to Atlanta

*Prepare for a marathon post of lots and lots of pictures! I started this post weeks ago. It took me a whole day just to get all of the pictures uploaded, and I'm just now getting around to writing all of my comments and finishing it up*

Ever since Jared and I have been married, we have always gone on vacation to the beach each summer. This year, with having a new baby and then her going into the hospital two weeks later, we've accrued some medical bills and stuff that need to be paid off, so we decided to forego the beach trip this year :-( However, Jared has paid vacation days that he either has to use or he loses them, so we decided to go on a little mini-vacation to Atlanta!

We left on September 2nd after Jared got off work. My mom went with us because one of her brothers lives in Atlanta, and we thought she'd have a good time being with the grandkids and getting to see her brother. The girls did really well on the way there. We only had to make two stops- once at the beginning of our trip to get something to eat and then once to get gas. We arrived in Atlanta at about 10:30pm eastern time.

When we arrived, Taylor immediately jumped into the "Heavenly Bed" (term coined by the Westin hotel) and then tried to make a few phone calls ;-) Staying in a hotel is pretty hard when you have little kids because they don't sleep well because they're too distracted when they're in the same room as you. Taylor was back and forth between our bed and mom's bed, and then we eventually had to stick her in her pack-n-play, but it still took her forever to actually settle down and fall asleep. At least the hotel had free cribs that you could have put in the room, so there was a crib for Bella to sleep in.

The next morning- getting ready to go to the aquarium!

We had tons of fun at the aquarium. The Georgia Aquarium is the world's largest!

showing off for the people

lunch break

Taylor wanted to catch the fish.

There was a big whale slide. I didn't think Taylor would actually go down by herself, but she did it... and then wanted to do it again and again and again.

On the top left is a lion fish. People have dumped their exotic fish into the Georgia coast, and now these lion fish can be found there, and their dorsal fins are like hypodermic needles and are venomous! There was a giant turtle that I kept trying to get a picture of, but the fish on the bottom right kept getting in my way and flashing his teeth at me.

We met up with my aunt and uncle for dinner at this Mexican restaurant. It was really great to get to spend some time with them. Unfortunately, Bella was fussy the whole time. We tried to tell them that normally she is a really happy baby, but it was late, and she we'd had a really long day.

The next morning- catching a short nap before going to lunch.

Bella looks so big sitting up against daddy.

Brazilian steakhouse- if you haven't been to one of these places, they are amazing! Kind of like a buffet except there is a salad bar and then they walk around with tons and tons of meat. You have a little coin- the green side means "YES! bring me food!" and obviously red means "I'm done" or "I'm taking a break so I can try to make some room for more!" :-)

After lunch, we went to the zoo.

There was another little girl there that Taylor kept wanting to walk around and share her excitement with. Isn't it cute how kids can see other little kids and immediately think they have made a new friend?

At the red panda display, we had to look down to see the red panda, and there was a little clear wall, but Taylor wanted me to lift her up so she could look down over it. I lifted her up and then she proceeded (accidentally, I'm sure) to drop her juice cup down into the cage (not a cage but not sure what else to call it). We had to find some workers and let them know. It was quite embarrassing.. haha Jared told them we didn't care about the cup. We just thought they might like to know that it was in there. After we walked off, Jared said, "Actually, you probably would want the cup." Ha! He knows me well. I do my best to keep up with those sippy cups so we don't have to keep buying more... I just didn't feel like waiting around to get it back ;-)

That night, we met up with our friends Bobby and Kristy. They were in Atlanta to celebrate Bobby's birthday, and we all went to a Braves game. I used to go with my family a lot when I was younger. My dad was a big Braves fan, but it's been years since I've been to a game or even watched them on TV really.

It was perfect weather.

The view from our hotel room- we could see Centennial Olympic park and Phillips Arena. If you look to the right side of the top pictures at the orange thing, they were setting up ESPN GameDay for the Alabama vs Virginia Tech game. We didn't realize the game was going to be there when we first planned this trip.

It was kind of fun to be part of the game day environment even though we didn't go to the game. I haven't been to a Bama game in 3 years! :-(

I had been wanting to take Taylor to the park to let her play in the fountains, but we never had time. Right before we checked out of the hotel, we decided to go to the park and let her play for a little bit.

Go ahead. It's okay.

Not so sure about this.

Aaahh! I'm gonna get wet!

She got over it quickly!

A nice lady came up and offered to take a picture of all of us together.

Taylor wasn't happy when we had to leave.

Our hotel was the really tall round one. We were on the 27th floor (which apparently was one of the "lower" floors)! Apparently the hotel had been hit by a tornado that went through downtown Atlanta a couple of years ago.

I saw this ice cream store on the way to Atlanta, and on our way home, we stopped in Fort Payne to get gas. Lo and behold, the gas station was right next to the ice cream store. It was fate!

We had a great time, but Jared and I decided that we needed a vacation from our vacation.. haha Vacations aren't quite as relaxing when you have little kids; it's actually a lot of work, but it'll be some great memories!