Our Christmas Surprise Trip

Phil and I surprised the kids with a trip to Atlanta, GA for the Christmas break.  We left right after school was out and drove up to Atlanta.  Aunt Pam met us for dinner and the weekend began. 

First Day was Stone Mountain to see "snow."  We arrived in the morning and not much of a crowd.  Our sledding tickets were scheduled for the morning hours so we headed straight to the "slopes."  We talked Ryan into going down the big hill on the family inner tube.  He was not happy and after the ride I knew why.  They wouldn't let him sit on our laps but told Phil and I to keep ahold of his jacket.  We were pushed to the edge....then down the big hill.  Ryan is so light, he actually came off the seat a bit and SCREAMED the entire way down.  Needless to say, he did not go on that ride again!  Reid, Riley and I spent time tubing in individual tubes and then Phil went with the Reid and Riley.

 

After tubing, Aunt Pam met us at the park.  We sat down in a restaurant to warm up and eat.  She and I had to dry the kid's socks and coats underneath the dryers in the bathroom.  Floridians are not prepared to be in the cold and knit gloves and thin socks don't make for good attire in cold weather!

Next up was the sky ride to the top of Stone Mountain.  Again, Ryan freaked out and didn't want to ride the car up to the mountain top at all.  It took us about 15 minutes to convince him it was safe and he would have fun.  It was cool being at the top of the mountain and looking over the edge.

We had lots of fun making a "snowman," throwing snow balls, watching the shows, decorating cookies and riding the train at Stone Mountain.  It was a perfect day.

 

 Day 2 was even better!  We surprised the kiddos with a day at the Aquarium.  Once inside, I think Ryan found a second home.  The place is amazing and there is so much to see.  We just went around to all the exhibits and finally the Whale Shark tank.  We spent most of our time watching the big sharks swim around the tank and took a picture with "Scuba Santa."

The Leafy Sea Dragon was another favorite of Ryan's.  In one of his deep sea books, he always turned to the page with the Leafy Sea Dragon!
The weekend was perfect and we hated to leave the Aquarium but we had a wonderful time!