Enjoying Some M.E. time: Our Road Trip

After a weekend stay with Matt's parents, we headed up to Atlanta, more specifically Dacula (Dracula, without the 'r'). Destination: McCaigers' house.

I've been to LeeAnn's house a number of times over the years, but Matt had not been up there in the past 10 years, since they moved into their house. He also had not met their youngest rug rat and he hadn't seen Brent in a long time. Along with visiting them we also visited with Matt's brother and sister-in-law and with more friends in that area. Throw in a little sightseeing and LOTS of driving and there you have it. Leg 2 of our spectacular '09 road trip. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

There are so many things to do in the Atlanta area, and we chose to visit the Georgia Aquarium. Wow! It was beautiful. I had just visited the Miami Seaquarium the week before our trip and found that almost EVERYTHING there was the same. So I guess if I had to compare the two I would liken them to this...

the Miami Seaquarium- a redneck yacht

the Georgia Aquarium- a real yacht

So anyway, we went to the aquarium and Matt and I were amazed. I took alot of pictures of the fish and the kids but these are my favorites.

This is one of the two whale sharks they have at the aquarium. They were huge and beautiful. All I could think about as we walked through the tank in the big glass tube was that if I was a diver and I came upon one of these behemoths, I would probably have a heart attack and die. Maybe this is why I'm not a diver.

One of the nasty looking sharks in the same tank with the whale sharks. I swear he kept giving me the stink eye. If you look closely, you can see Hunter's reflection in the bottom left corner.

The fam damily

I couldn't stop watching Mack and Hunter. They are BFF's in the making, just like their mommas. :)

The childrens watching the fish-Carter would have stood there and watched them for hours. Unfortunately, Ethan and Parker wouldn't stand for that. Literally.

Cartie.

Remember how I won't swim with creatures that have sharp teeth (no matter how big or small those teeth may be)? It all started with these guys in Peru. Pihranas. But that's a story for another time.

The boys are enjoying our little parking garage tailgate party (i.e.-the aquarium refreshments are a little on the steep side so we brought our own snacks to eat in the car)

Good times good times.

From there we left and went to the Mayfield Dairy Farms, which according to LeeAnn was close to their house. This phrase "close to their house" means something completely different to me in my South Florida world. God bless the Georgians with all the driving they have to do. So we got there and toured the Dairy facility and we even got to wear these pretty yellow hats.

Just in case you don't know the McCaigs, specifically Parker, he enjoys crossing one of his eyes. He doesn't look like this normally. I just happen to have a bunch of pictures of him like this.

Awww! You want to see a picture of me in the pretty yellow hat? TOO BAD! I was the official trip photographer and I stayed quiet about not having my picture taken...but if you're on Facebook LeeAnn posted one of me with it on.

Afterwards we experienced the best ice cream in the south. So yummy!! I had the blueberry cream pie flavor. My taste buds were singing, the clouds parted and a special light shone down on my $1.50 cup of creamy goodness. (Dadgum if the Super Target down here carries every other flavor of Mayfield's BUT that one. Yes, I have already checked!) Sitting on the cute little porch on a rocking chair seemed to make it taste just a little bit sweeter.

Of course we couldn't leave without taking a group picture with the giant cow...

and one of Matt sucking the giant cow teet.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post we also saw some other friends while we were there. We traveled over to the southwest side to see Kim and her kids. Kim and her husband Steve used to live in South Florida and her daughter Chloe and Mack used to be playmates. Then they moved to the Atlanta area and they have been there since then. I loved how the girls just picked up where they left off. Kim also has two boys, Ian and Jacob. Ian and Ethan are the same age. They enjoyed getting bossed around by the two girls. And Jacob did too. Her father, Bill, was also visiting with Kim, and it was great to get to see him as well.

Mr. Bill became the jungle gym after awhile.

Who knew that the girls were not the only High School Musical fans in the group? Jacob was seen busting a move during their Wildcats basketball game. He was getting his head in the game. So cute!

The Wildcat cheerleaders wear tiaras.

The Wildcat players, with jersey numbers and all.

From the Chin house we went to eat with Todd and Janie. And then we made the almost two hour trek back to the other side of ATL. Can you see how we drove 3,000 miles during this road trip?

After a fun trip to the lake...