Fall break!

The county school here in GA is closer to a year round school schedule (at least that's what they say).  So we started the beginning of Aug but now we enjoy a week off for fall break!  No complaints here! ;o) With Grandma & Grandpa here, we decided this was a great time to take a mini vacation.  So we spent a few days down in Atlanta seeing some of the highlights.

Wednesday we started at CNN, taking the studio tour.  It was very interesting to see the "behind the scenes" of the everyday news.  Kate did was an anchor with the help of Daddy reading the teleprompter to her.  Blake did the weather for us:

and they both experimented with the green sheet:

The face is compliments of a comment Daddy made...it doesn't take much these days!

Grandpa getting a picture...loved this one!

Next we headed to the GA Aquarium.  The kids found these dolphins out front, so we had to stop for pics!

I'm glad we did because my phone battery died and I didn't get any pic inside the aquarium, bummer!  I'm sure I'll get some from Grandma's camera.  We got to see the Dolphin Tales show...that was pretty cool.  I think Dolphins are my favorite next to active otters!  ;o)  The aquarium was closing early for an event so we missed some things, but the kids were okay with that since our next stop was THE COCA~ COLA MUSEUM!  

Cracks me up, but they both remember that more than the aquarium...I think it's all about the amount of pop they consume at the end of the tour!  I will admit though, it is a very interesting place and they seem to keep it that way.  We were there last year at Thanksgiving and there were new exhibits on display.  My favorite this time around were all the different torches from the Olympics!  Never realized they used a different style each year...pretty cool.

We finished off the night with a yummy dinner at Legal Seafoods and a dip in the pool at the hotel!

Our first/only stop on Thursday was the Atlanta Zoo!  What a blast.  This was our first time there and I was impressed with how well they maintained such an old zoo (est 1889!) and they pack a lot of things into a small park.  This is Willie B the gorilla...they had a very large gorilla exhibit, my favorite one.

The kids were able to enjoy unlimited rides on the train, carousel, and rock climbing wall.  I lost count how many times Blake rode the train!  Crazy boy.  

Someone had the great idea of telling the kids no dessert unless they reached the top!  They both made it...guess who first?!?  She loves her some dessert.  ;o)

On our way out the kids found another dolphin!

I love trying new places, so we found a high ranked pizza place on urbanspoon: Antico Pizza!  It was quite the experience and very yummy besides...we'll go back without the kids someday!  ;o)  After pizza we had to find a dessert place due to our promise...what did we ever do without smart phones!  Found a Kilwins at Atlantic Station, another first for us.  Not disappointed at all...of course how could you not go wrong with ice cream, fudge, caramel apples, shaved ice.....The choice was hard! 

Again the end of our day found us in the pool at the hotel!

Day three found us at Fernbank Museum of Natural History.  It was the first day of the Genghis Khan exhibit, very interesting!  They had a neat hands on area and the NatureQuest interactive play area was great for the kids!  I'm sure they could have stayed another hour or two there!

Behind the kids is the world's only fully mounted Argentinosaurus, the largest dinosaur ever classified!  

What is a road trip without a meal at Cracker Barrel?!?  We stopped and filled our tummies one last time before arriving home.  It is good to sleep in my own bed without snoring kids in the bed next to us!