All of Hadley's school friends had spring break "plans" (you know those three year olds are so busy these days), so I thought it would be fun to take a little trip, too! David can't take a whole lot of time off work these days, but he was able to snag Monday off, so we took a quick trip to ATLANTA for the weekend!! It's about a 2 hour drive from us and there are a ton of kid-friendly activities to do.
We made it through the evening without anyone getting sick (yay!) and I meant to get up early and start packing, but I didn't actually get out of bed until 8 am! (When the kids sleep in, you take the opportunity to sleep, too!)
We had *planned* to leave right after breakfast, but the packing still needed to be done, people needed to get dressed etc. so that didn't happen. David and I made a game time decision to leave by 10, so we could get down there, grab a bite of lunch, and go to the aquarium.
In order to leave on time, I forgo-ed my shower (because that's what us mom's do, right?) and just packed like a crazy person. I'm proud to say that over the years, hubs and I have gotten so quick at "getting ready" for trips, that we were out the door by 9:30!! Whoop whoop! Which actually worked out great. I'm not sure if you've heard, but a portion of Interstate 85 collapsed because of a huge fire about a week ago. We made GREAT time....until we hit Atlanta. Atlanta is already known for it's lackluster performance in rush-hour traffic and now that one of the main thorough fares is gone, there are few options to maneuvering the city and we got stuck big time. By the time we reached our destination, the kids were hangry and ready to eat.
(Also, I love Atlanta, so I joke from the heart on this ;) )
We planned to do one excursion a day and because our hotel room wouldn't be ready for a few more hours, we headed straight to our first stop: The Georgia Aquarium! David and I came to Atlanta for our first anniversary, so we already knew how massive this place was, but Hadley and Griffin were in awe. It's 2 stories of fish, sea creatures, animals you can touch (starfish, stingrays, and sharks, oh my!), beluga whales, huge whale sharks...you name it, it's there. They have a cafeteria so we grabbed some food before we started the long trek through the aquarium.
This photo quality is terrible, but I LOVE his face! This is what happened when the sea otter swam RIGHT by him!
We didn't bring the stroller in because that place is busy, but in hindsight, we both decided we should have because the kids got tired of walking around. We both ended up holding someone as we went through.
One of the coolest parts is the dolphin show. They have 4 beautiful bottle-nose dolphins and during the 30 minute program, they show off all their tricks. Essentially, the trainers show how they work with the dolphins, how smart the dolphins are, and teach us facts about dolphins. Hadley kept asking to see the dolphins jump again!
Riding in style!
The kids were starting to have meltdowns after the show and it had been a long day for them, so we left the aquarium and headed to the hotel. If you ask Hadley what her favorite part of the trip was, she will most likely tell you it was the mini-fridge in our hotel room. (Hahaha!) She "unloaded" our snack bag into the mini fridge and any time we were out and got food, she'd exclaim, "I have an idea! We can take this and put it in our mini fridge!"
Hadley and her mini fridge ;)
There was a restaurant right down the street from our hotel, so we walked to dinner (at 5 pm, holla!) and walked back afterwards. It was about 6 pm when we got back to the room, so we bathed the kids, put them in jammies, and propped them up to watch a movie. Hadley wanted to paint her fingernails and toenails, so the girls did that.
We ended up in a room with a king-size bed and a pull out couch. We brought the pack n' play, but didn't end up using it. Each of us took a baby and slept in separate beds. It worked great and gave me all the feels about vacations in the future. I so love spending time with my little family!
You can read up on the other days of Spring Break 2017 here:
I loved this post! My parents are going to meet us in ATL in June to watch our girls while we are in Savannah for a wedding, and they're in the process of picking a hotel that's walking distance to as many things as possible, including the aquarium! That's #1 on their list of places to take the girls. So glad you guys had a fun getaway!
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