Atlanta!

For my birthday this year, Matt got me a ticket to Atlanta to see my best friend Steph.  I had a blast!  Although I must admit that I was very anxious about leaving my kiddos for four and a half days, I knew they would be just fine with my husband, but still was so nervous about being apart from them!

I took a redeye out of Seattle and got in on the morning of the 23rd (of March), took a nap after getting home and then set out to do some exploring!  I absolutely fell in love with Atlanta, such a beautiful place!  I had flown into the airport there once while in the Army, but never got to spend any time in Atlanta (I left straight for South Carolina for Basic Training).  Everything was in full bloom there and was absolutely breathtaking!  If it wasn't for the sweltering hot humid summers, I could definitely see myself living there!

The day I got there was pretty much a "relax" day.  I was tired from flying the night/morning before so we took it easy with pedicures, lunch, a nice walk and a movie!

The next day I was there we hopped on the local train (the MARTA) and headed south to the aquarium for the morning.  We had such a good time there, I couldn't believe all of the exotic fish we saw!  It was by far the largest aquarium I'd ever been in.  Right about this time, I was REALLY wishing I had brought my nice new DSLR with me.  All I had was my crappy Nikon point-and-shoot and it really wasn't doing the trick!  After the aquarium we walked up and down PeachTree Ave and had some really good food, and great drinks!

That night we went to a local restaurant across from Steph's house that hosted a nightly trivia game.  Needless to say we were interested in playing, so we signed up and played for three hours!  It finally paid off and we won the game out of a restaurant full of people playing.  Basically, with our prize ($50), we got all of our drinks and entrees for $3!

On Friday we drove south to Stone Mountain Park.  It was a beautiful day to be outside, and I'm so happy we went when we did!  We toured all of the antebellum homes in the park and drove completely around it.  It was a beautiful day with MANY opportunities to take great pictures.....but no great camera to take them with.  BAH!

Saturday it was raining so we decided to stay close to Steph's house.  We drove around the neighborhood to check out some more antebellum homes and toured Mittie Roosevelt's (Teddy Roosevelt's mother) old house!  It was definitely an educational day for us :)  That night it rained harder than I'd ever seen it rain before.  The lightening and thunder about scared the pants off of me!  Tornado warnings took into affect and it started to get a little creepy outside!

Sunday I hopped on a plane home to see my beloved husband and children.  I had a great vacation and am very blessed to have such an opportunity, but I was definitely happy to get home to my family!

Here are a couple of pictures from my trip.  I wish I had some fascinating ones to show you, but that's my fault for taking my crappy camera :(

Waiting for the MARTA

One of the sting rays that I got to touch :)

The King and Queen Towers in Sandy Springs.

Dickie House (Stone Mountain Park)

These beautiful purple trees were everywhere!

Bulloch Hall (The home Mittie grew up in)