Atlanta Family Road Trip!

The Brasfields hit the road for one last road trip to end the summer. This time we headed to Atlanta! This trip was planned way back in February when Russ discovered that the Yankees were playing the Braves in Atlanta. We called up our long-lost friends, The Vickerys, and made plans to come and visit! Yay! I mean, it only took us 3 years to get down there since they left Memphis!

Once the baseball tickets were bought, we planned a few more fun things to round out the trip. We left on Friday morning early and drove straight into to downtown to visit the Georgia Aquarium. Bethany recommended that we go during the week if possible since the weekends can get crazy crowded. I was pretty much dreading the 6 hour drive since our last several road trips with the kids have not been fun. But I thought we'd try moving Tyler to the 3rd row and then I could sit in his spot in the backseat next to Caroline. It actually worked out really great! Both kids had their own space, I had more room and was able to tend to them more easily with snacks, picking up things they had dropped, etc. This change (and the iPad for Tyler) made our road trip much more tolerable! Hallelujah! I think this will be our road trip set up for the foreseeable future. Though I'm sure Russ felt like a taxi driver....or maybe he enjoyed the peace!! :)

Selfie with Mommy! Don't mind my hair clips and no makeup... :)

Tyler with his own space in the 3rd row.

We did stop for lunch just outside of Atlanta, but by the time we arrived at the Aquarium, the kids were pretty stir crazy from being cooped up for so long. And they were ready to RUN! And while the crowds were apparently light, it was still reeeally crowded for running around, which made for fun times at the Aquarium for Mom and Dad. All in all, I do think the kids enjoyed it, but I am not sure I would recommend it to others who have little kids. All the fish start to look alike and they got a little bored. Plus, it 'aint cheap!

First stop was to the dolphin show.

We couldn't take pics of the actual show, but could while we were waiting.

Popping in with the penguins.

It was rare that the octopus was out on display, apparently!

After the Aquarium, we got our first real taste of Atlanta traffic as we headed south to Peachtree City where the Vickerys live. Man alive, I am not sure I could deal with that traffic every day! We were soooo excited to see everyone and John was cooking away for us on the grill for dinner. The Vickerys have a beautiful home in a great, established neighborhood when tons of trees and big lots. Russ and I both loved it!

Reunited and it feels so good!

The kids enjoyed getting to know each other again by playing outside and after dinner, going for their first of many golf cart rides in the neighborhood. Peachtree City was planned as a golf cart community and every neighborhood has maintained golf cart paths that lead to a shopping center development with a grocery store of some kind and other little shops. Golf carting is a way of life...so much so that they have designated spots everywhere you go for golf cart parking!

First nighttime golf cart ride!

Saturday we woke up to breakfast...we could get used to this! We had planned a lazy day of hanging around the house, which was awesome. The kids played (Tyler found a new love for Jack's "little legos"...hello, Santa!!) and we decided to golf cart it over to Chickfila for lunch. It rained while we were there so we let the kids play a little longer on the indoor playground while it mostly passed until we headed back home for naps.

Caroline was slightly obsessed with the Vickerys 2 greyhounds!

And she thought the dog crate was fun, too!

The Vickerys are all obsessed with Star Wars! Our kids seemed to like it too.

Trying to get a good pic of all of them was impossible!

Real life when you have the camera!

This little girl kept finding treasures in Claire's room! :)

We all took naps except for John and Claire, who headed to a birthday party, and Russ, who wanted to visit some of "The Walking Dead" TV show sites, since it is filmed in Peachtree City. Don't ask me what these pictures are of because I don't watch the show!

After naps, we got ready and headed into town for the Yankees v. Braves game. Traffic was INSANE and Bethany and John got ripped off by a scammer and had to pay to park twice, but we made it...though we did miss the 1st pitch and Russ was not happy about that. Oh well. The game was a bit of a whirlwind...the kids weren't the best at times so we had to walk around some to keep them entertained. Caroline loved doing the "Tomahawk Chop", which Russ wasn't thrilled about. Ha! And there was a man who fell from the upper level and died during the game! He wasn't sitting close to us and the game kept on going, but it was all over social media. He had a medical emergency and just fell over the railing! So very sad! The Yankees ended up beating the Braves (and winning out the series), so that was a positive. Finding our way home and out of all the post-game traffic was a big fat FAIL though. Seriously, the traffic would make me lose my religion every day if I lived there!!

 Lots of selfies at the ball game!

Letting them stretch their legs while Daddy shopped for a baseball...crazy kids!





Sunday was another rainy day, so we ditched our plans to head to Stone Mountain and went to the Legoland Adventure Center instead. (The Vickerys did not join us since they had other plans that day.)  Legoland was perfect for the age of our kids and they absolutely LOVED IT!  And we loved that everything was so interactive. We did not have to say "don't touch that" 1,000 times because everything was made to be touched! The germs did freak me out a little...especially since Caroline kissed every single lego person in the place multiple times!! Her favorites were the climbing structure and the large lego blocks. Tyler also loved the climbing structure, but enjoyed the master builder experience, the ride and looking at the huge model city of Atlanta. We had a bit of a scare when we were about to leave and couldn't find Caroline...she had wandered back to the front where the first ride was! Ahhhh! But, all in all, I think Legoland was up there as a favorite by the kids for this trip!

The first of many lego animals and people she kissed. Ha!

Building a camera in Master Builder class.

Taking a picture with the camera he built!

Now taking a selfie! :)

Riding with Daddy!

We headed back to the Vickerys house and decided to head to their neighborhood pool for a late afternoon swim, since the rain had stopped. We were the only people there and the pool had an awesome water slide that our whole family loved! As if we didn't love their neighborhood more!! Caroline and Tyler just wanted to ride it again and again! We ordered pizza from a local favorite and enjoyed it, brownies and beer/wine for the adults poolside. It was a super fun way to end the day!

Tyler going down the water slide!

Caroline going down with Bethany!

What a fun crew!

Tyler and his new best friend, Jack!

After another night's sleep, we packed up the car and headed home.  Tyler did get to enjoy one final golf cart ride with Bethany while she drove Jack to school before we left.  Thanks again for the wonderful hospitality Vickery family!! We can't wait to come back again!!