Day 2–Fernbank

On our first day in Atlanta we slept late, and then got a map from the front desk.  After looking at the advertised attractions we chose to go to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History.  It was also a Children’s museum and we figured the girls would enjoy it. 

We were right.  What a fun place!  There were all sorts of interactive displays and kid areas that the girls just loved!

There were little aquariums with turtles, fish, snakes, alligators, etc.

In one of the kids areas this little “pond” was running through the walkway.  It must have been some kind of light sensor because when you walked across it actually rippled and changed, and there were holographic fish swimming in it!  Boo started across and then backed up in a hurry! 

After a little convincing she braved the river. :)

Half of the room was like a really big tree house. It was so neat! My camera started freaking out and I didn’t get any good pictures of it.  T eventually got it working again and we got these next pictures, but I think I might have to get a new camera since it happened two other times on the trip. 

Here’s Boo in one of the burrows where they had explanations of what kinds of animals use them.

This area made you feel like you were underwater in a submarine and you could look out the “windows” and see all manner of sea creatures swimming around.  Then you had to identify them on the charts.  It was really neat!

Then we moved on to the dinosaur area.

They had some pretty impressive displays.

The inner courtyard area was all brick and three stories tall to accommodate this guy.  I backed up as far as I could and still couldn’t get his head and tail in the picture!  T and the girls are by his back left foot so you can see how huge it was!

We had such a fun time just looking at the displays and goofing around.  It was just what we needed after our exhausting day of travel.

The last area we went to was all about animal preservation and they showed how they make animal crossings under highways and such.  They had little turtle shells for the kids to pretend to cross under the highway.  Bug loved it!

We realized we were running out of time to nap and be at the baseball game on time so we had to leave.  The girls would have stayed for hours more since there was so much to do.

We got Chik-Fil-A on the way back to the hotel.  Yum! The girls and I took a two hour nap while T went to a few stores.  Then it was on to watch some baseball.  Pictures from that tomorrow…

Day 1–Airplanes

We started our trip on Thursday, the 26th.  It was cold and rainy so we were excited to be heading to the warm South!

We are not morning people so we opted for a later flight that would get us into Atlanta at 11:30pm.  We reasoned that with the time difference that would only be 8:30 for the girls and they wouldn’t be too tired.

We didn’t account for delays.

The girls did wonderful on the plane!  They read books, colored, did puzzles, and stickers.

They were thrilled because since S doesn’t chew gum I told them they could suck their thumbs on the plane to pop their ears.

T and I did not fare as well.  On the 2.5 hour flight to Phoenix the Captain was able to turn off the seat belt sign for about ten minutes, and much of that time the flight attendants were even sitting down.  I don’t know if it was the rainy weather below us or what but it was one of the bumpiest flights I've ever been on. 

The girls didn’t know any different so it didn’t bother them, other than once when I had to take K to the bathroom and she was getting thrown into the walls.  Not fun.  I’m not a big fan of flying anyway, so I was pretty miserable.  T and I were both sick for hours after we got off.

Fortunately and unfortunately when we got to Phoenix we heard that our plane was delayed almost two hours.  That combined with our already over two hour layover gave us plenty of time to get back on our feet! 

I had been planning for S to nap on our second flight but since we were delayed so long I knew I had to try for an airport nap. They both laid down for over an hour but neither ever went to sleep.  The wait actually wasn’t that bad, but by the time we got on the next plane S was exhausted.  It was a little over 3 hours for that flight.  We read some books and then I turned on Curious George for them.  I had the movie sitting on the seat between them but a little ways into it I figured looking down might make them sick.  I put it up on the tray and realized S was still looking down.  She’d fallen asleep.

I tried to help her into a more comfortable position while K finished the movie.  A little while later I realized I wasn’t expecting her to fall asleep so she wasn’t wearing a pull up.  I tried to tuck one around her but couldn’t get it on well without waking her up.  I managed to tuck it close enough that when she did pee it only soaked the pull up and her dress.  Which was enough to wake her up and make her cry pitifully while I tried to get her changed in the dark of the airplane.  By that time the movie was finished and I told both girls they needed to go to sleep.  Eventually they did and slept hard for the last hour of the flight including the landing.

Boo didn’t even wake up when we unbuckled her.  T scooped her up and carried her through the Atlanta airport, which was HUGE, we didn’t know it was an international airport. 

We landed at 12:45 and the flight attendants said, “The plane train stops running in 15 minutes and if you miss it you have a LONG way to walk.”  So we all ran off of the plane and made it with literally 90 seconds to spare on the second to the last train.  We were on it for at least five minutes and that thing was really fast so I’m sure it would have been quite the walk.  Especially since T and S were like this…

We finally made it to baggage claim and got all our bags and both carseats (I was very happy everything made it!) and then we had to drag it all and both girls through the airport to take a monorail to the car rental place. 

Once we finally got in the car K fell asleep but S, who’d been woken at baggage claim, stayed awake.  We drove the 30 minutes to our hotel, checked in and walked into the room just as the clock read 2:45am. 

It was a LOOOONG day.  I was totally wondering if the trip was worth it.  We were all exhausted.  BUT the next day was one of the best days of our trip and totally made up for it.  More about that tomorrow…

Editing

Wow, I have been editing pictures every spare chance I get and I still have more to go!  I have over 750 pictures between my mom and I, and I still need to get Aunt Karen’s!  So be prepared for lots of picture posts; it’s going to take me a while to get it all documented!

Here’s one of my favorites from Disney. 

Hopefully I’ll be ready to start posting tomorrow or Thursday.

Home Sweet Home

We’re back!  Our first family vacation was a success!  We had a wonderful trip!  It was really great, and it was so much fun to spend a full 10 days together! 

We had a busy ten days and pretty much went non-stop so it is really nice to be home and able to take a breath. :)  It was also wonderful to come home to find that my tulips have just started blooming!  Yay!  This is one of my favorite times of year for my garden and I was afraid they would be all done before we got back. 

I will get all my pictures together so I can start posting about everything we did.  It was quite a trip! 

Travel Kits

I think it has been established that I am a Type A, perfectionist, super-planning, list making type of girl.  I really love to make a plan and have everything ready to go. 

For this reason I have been packing and planning for our Florida trip for months…literally.  I used Pinterest and Blogs to get all sorts of ideas and tips about making traveling with little ones easy, smooth, and fun.  I’ll have to let you know how that worked out. :) 

One of the best ideas I found was travel kits.  I looked up all sorts of blogs and discovered the Dollar Store to be the place where people found the most stuff.  Between them and Target I hit the jackpot!

I put these together right after we had just seen Anneka and Ella, who will soon be making the long trip back to Russia in just two days, so I decided to make a kit for them as well.  It was fun picking out all sorts of things that would be exciting for little girls. :)

We put on a movie one night and I spent almost two hours putting together my little kits.  First I dumped everything out on the floor…

And gathered my supplies…

For Anneka and Ella I just put everything in a bag to let Jami and Leif distribute at their convenience, but for my girls I decided to number everything.  The Dollar Store had a great selection of workbooks, stickers, and puzzles.

I got my girls’ stuff all labeled and organized and then I had these two cute (Dollar Store) bags to hold everything.

Hopefully those two bags will keep four little girls entertained so their parents can have pleasant flights. :)

I am using Microsoft Live Writer to set this to post, so if everything has gone according to schedule, as you are reading this we should be in the air and almost back home from our trip!!!  I’m sure I’ll have a gazillion pictures so I’ll get them organized and up as soon as possible, and I’ll let you know how the travel kits worked out too. :)  Until then…

Dear Bug,

I can’t believe you are five years old today!  I know I say that every year, but it’s true.  You are growing and changing so fast that it amazes me!  So often these days I look at you and wonder where my baby has gone.  You seem so grown up lately.  You are turning into such a little lady, and you get more beautiful by the day. 

You are so precious to us.  You make us laugh every day and you add so much joy to our lives.  I am thankful for your spirit.  You love to laugh, and to make others laugh.  You love to tell jokes and be silly, and you are very witty.

We are so thankful to have you in our lives.  What a blessing you are to us and to your sisters.  You are such a good helper and do a lot for Mommy.  I know you are going to be such a big help when your baby sister is born and I’m looking forward to seeing you with her.  You always make sure that we pray for her every day. :)

I love your sensitive spirit.  You are very empathetic and feel for people when they are hurting.  I also love how thoughtful you can be.  You think of others and what you can do to make things better for them.  You love to bring things to Mommy and help me around the house.

I love that you and Boo are really playing together now.  You love to have pretend picnics and birthday parties.  I can let you go outside and you guys have a great time together.  Of course you have your sisterly squabbles as well, but the smiles and giggles make up for it. :)

You are such a blessing and we thank God for you every day.  We love to watch you grow and change and are looking forward to the next year.  Happy 5th birthday Buggy!  We love you more than you could ever know!

Love, Mommy

Jesus Loves Me

A bible tells me so.