I knew if I said that I had a goal, something would happen and I would miss a day or two...or more. But, this was for a really, really good reason. We got a little mini-vacation as a family this week. We spent Monday through Wednesday in Atlanta while Eric was there for a conference for work. The girls and I entertained ourselves while he was gone by visiting the Chattahoochee Nature Center and ZooAtlanta. Of course, I forgot the camera one day, so I missed some great photo opportunities at the Nature Center.
I was a little disappointed with the Nature Center. Part of that could be that I was expecting a $3 per person entrance fee for the three of us (total of $9) only to discover that although Gianna was free admission, Emily was a $5 entry and I was an $8 entry. Sure, that wouldn't be so bad, except only 1/4 of the park was really accessible for us due to the necessity of a stroller for little legs to take breaks. And, the cashier only divulged that information AFTER payment. Thanks...but that wasn't very helpful.
On the other hand, I went to ZooAtlanta thinking it would be a disappointment and thinking that at least it was free (if you are a GA resident, check with your local library to get a free pass for a family of four). It was really fun to show the girls these animals. Being in Atlanta, you can imagine the kind of heat we would have been in, but the zoo is incredibly beautiful and shady. We were slathered with sunscreen of course, but I think this is also the coolest and shadiest zoo I've been to (I have previously been to the Kansas City Zoo, Salt Lake Zoo, and the St. Louis Zoo with the St. Louis Zoo being my favorite up to this point). AND, in case you don't know, ZooAtlanta has a really cool history!! I'll let you local Georgians find out by watching the video from the library. Anyone else, you can ask. =)
Aside from the day trips, we also had fun as a family when Eric got out of his meetings. Monday night we had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, which is a salad bar-buffet type place. Generally, I don't like buffets, but since the main interest is salad and the other options are all soups or noodles or breads, it was totally great! The girls each were given balloon animals and they were given multiple compliments by "older" folks. It's always a great thing as a parent to have compliments given to your children for good behavior and habits. Tuesday night we enjoyed a frigid dip in the pool. Seriously, it had been overcast, cool and windy all day and yethttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif the girls were determined to go swimming and had been looking forward to it, so we let them be popsicles....only to discover that they are part polar bear and didn't mind the cold water!!
After that, we also got to have a really unique and special opportunity to attend the Atlanta Temple Open House. All I can say is, I hope my friends and family here will take the opportunity to go and see and feel. It's only a short period of time that "just anyone" can go through the temple and they show you all the different rooms. Soon it will be dedicated and then it will be required to live a higher law to enter in, which is totally worth it because you can't be happier than living a clean, chaste and honest life! There are more feelings and experiences that we had, but they are too dear to share just with the public. I'm just grateful for the experience and that I can record it for my children so that, although they may not remember it themselves, they can remember it from my writing about what happened, and what they said and felt.
And, after all of that, we got to come home and spend the next whole day with Eric being home. It isn't often that you get a vacation AND the time to recoup from the vacation, yet we were blessed with both!
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