September Atlanta Visit

Since we moved to Tennessee, it just happened that we made a trip to Atlanta every Labor Day. This year, we didn't make it that particular weekend, but headed down a couple weekends after for a visit.

Stop #1 - Breakfast at Chick-fil-A.

I honestly think I could eat one of these every morning.

Stop #2 - Mercier's Orchards in Blue Ridge. They had our favorite apple ever in the market - the Golden Supreme. Just like you'd imagine, it's reigns supreme over all golden delicious apples. We stocked up for ourselves, but also got lots of goodies to take to our friends in Atlanta. While we were at Mercier's, I happened to run into my GA teacher from church when I was little. She was on a girls' weekend trip to Blue Ridge, and I had not seen her in years and years since her family had moved to Georgia. I failed to get a picture with her on my camera, but it sure did my heart good to see her and catch up, even for just a little bit.

I really am going to have to make a better effort when it comes to the pictures. Not only did I not snag one with her, but we failed to take a single picture with our friends, Paul and Nikole, on Friday evening once we got to Atlanta. They are good friends of ours we hadn't seen in three years, and we had a great time catching up, seeing their new house, eating dinner at Chili's, and hearing about and seeing pictures from their mission trip they went on over the summer.

Saturday morning, Anthony got a special treat -  Fruit Loops for breakfast.

Of course, we also had breakfast at Chick-fil-A. Yes, that was two days in a row, but you just cannot pass up an opportunity like that when you have the chance. Not only that, we also headed to Chick-fil-A again a couple hours later and met up with a friend for lunch! No, we see nothing wrong with this, and no, we didn't eat supper there in case you're wondering.

After lunch we had a couple of hours free, but it was pouring down rain, and we

didn't want to go back to the hotel. So, we headed to the mall and let Anthony ride the train.

He wanted Mommy to ride with him, and he wanted to be in the caboose.

Next up, a carousel ride in the food court.

Crazy horse photobombing our picture!

Late Saturday afternoon we headed over to Laura and Lee's house. We were so stoked to see them again, and I was especially excited to see Will since he wasn't there on our last visit. (Notice us playing on the car mat together in the background.) Of course, Anthony wanted to play with Phoebe.

Playing piano together.

Saturday evening we made a spontaneous visit to our neighbor's house since she unexpectedly had to work the next day and this was going to be our only chance to see her. We really enjoyed our time together with their family, and Anthony loved seeing Emily and Natalie again. They had snacks together, and I think he ate all of their animal crackers, oranges, and raspberries. We also left with a gift bag of Halloween books and all kinds of fun toys and stuffed animals of theirs that they wanted to give him. So sweet of them!

Chilling at the hotel.

Sunday we took as a family day for the three of us and headed over to Stone Mountain. For those of you in Atlanta, you know how much we love Stone Mountain and all the time we spent there through the years. David asked me to marry him after we'd hiked to the top of Stone Mountain, almost ten years ago to the day, so we thought it would be neat to take Anthony on his first trip there and spend the day together.

He's ready to go!

We got 1/2 off tickets with our Dollywood passes, so we decided to go ahead and

do all the attractions. Anthony's trying out all the obstacles at Camp Highland Outpost.

Careful...

He got his foot stuck!

Daddy will help you get across.

Knowing this little boy, we had to ride the train!

From the train as we came back in to the station.

Time for a snack!

Hanging out on the terrace eating our kettle corn.

This makes me happy.

The train went by while we were sitting there!

Tennessee

He got to see the train up close the next time it came around!

Alright, time to ride up to the top of the mountain!

A little bit scared.

On top of Stone Mountain!

All he wanted to do was splash in the puddles!

I did not want him this close to the fence, but he insisted on looking for our car in the parking lot.

As many times as we have been to Stone Mountain, I have never seen the view as spectacular and clear as it was on this day. We could make out every single building in downtown, Buckhead, and the perimeter, and you could even clearly see Kennesaw Mountain, Sawnee Mountain, and even up in the North Georgia Mountains. It was perfect!

All Anthony cared about was the puddles.

Ha, back to the puddles...

Headed back down.

Anthony picked out a new train as his souvenir.

There was one last thing we wanted to do though, so we headed over
to the Farmyard at the Plantation to let Anthony see the animals.

"Mommy, there's a goat in the feeding trough."

"I'll just pet the sheep instead."

"How about this goat?"

Checking out the pigs.

He wanted to pet them too.

After a fun day at Stone Mountain, we were starving and couldn't resist going to Melton's. This is a pub in Decatur that a friend first introduced me to years ago long before we even moved to Atlanta. During David's first year of grad school, he and I ate here all the time and still did periodically through the years. I couldn't even tell you the last time we had been, so we decided it was a must before heading home.



The best part - their blue ribbon fries dipping sauce. Anthony agreed!

On the way home we stopped at the Welcome Center in Tennessee, and while I hit the restroom, David introduced Anthony to the world of vending machines. They got a bag of Doritos, and Anthony thought it was the funniest thing ever that you push a button and the chips fall down. Seriously, he went around for weeks laughing out loud and telling people that, "The chips fall down!"