Trip to Atlanta

Last weekend we took a trip to the Atlanta area to visit my Uncle George and my cousin Jennifer and her family. We stayed at Jennifer's house, which was a dream for the boys because they got to spend time with Jennifer's 4 kids: John Michael, Matthew, Kristen and Benji. Nathan was so excited to see that they had all the same Disney cars that we have at home (and more!) and Tyler had so much fun with the big kids who showed him how to play different games on the Wii. Tim enjoyed having John Michael school him in a game of football on the PS3. I loved spending time with Jennifer, who I hadn't seen since my brother's wedding in 2001. We have so much in common and she showed me some of her tips for keeping a busy household in order. Her husband, John, was working in Kansas, which is where the rest of the family will be moving in just a couple months, so we missed seeing him.

We arrived on Friday evening after traveling for 8 hours. The boys did really well in the car because they got to watch movies on our new dual screen portable DVD player. The last hour of our drive we hit some thunderstorms that eventually tore through NC and developed into devastating tornadoes. Thankfully, we made it to Jennifer's house before the weather got really bad.

On Saturday we met up with Uncle George and headed to the Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta. It was definitely the most impressive aquarium we've visited. The exhibits were enormous and had so many different kinds of sea life. Tyler's favorites were the whale sharks (the largest type fish in the world), the dolphins, and the beluga whales. Nathan's favorites were the "shark fishes" and the beluga whales.

After the aquarium we ate a picnic lunch at Centennial Olympic Park, which was built for the 1996 Olympic Games, and let the kids run around in the big center field. We even got to see the 2 bricks that Uncle George had engraved for the construction of the park.

While Matthew, Kristen and Benji kept Nathan occupied, Tyler was running all over the center field almost non-stop. He still loves to run!

Jennifer had to head back home to pick up John Michael, who was returning from a church youth group trip, so Uncle George gave Tim a quick driving tour of Atlanta. Since it was my 4th visit to Atlanta, I had seen most of the areas before, but it had been about 6 years since my last visit, so it was fun for me to see the city again.

After our tour we headed back to Uncle George's house for a delicious dinner that he made for us. We enjoyed the chance to just sit and relax with him for a while. Uncle George is a talented artist and I loved seeing all his pottery. He even gave Nathan and Tyler each a horse that he made. Uncle George has given us several pieces that we have on display at our house, so the boys were very excited to have their own pottery pieces from him.

After church on Sunday morning and a short visit to the mall, we spent the rest of the day hanging out at Jennifer's house. The boys played with the kids (including Tim, who got pounded in a game of Madden against John Michael), while Jennifer and I just talked and made dinner. I even got to help her make a modified (i.e., simplified) version of lumpia. Tim was pretty impressed that I made a Chamorro dish and has already asked when I'm going to make it again.


I'm so glad we had the opportunity to spend time with both Uncle George and Jennifer's family. We've been wanting to visit Uncle George and Jennifer's family for quite some time, and we knew a road trip like this one would be really difficult with a baby, so we went ahead and did it now. I'm so glad we did! It was a great weekend--I wish we could have stayed longer!