Bye-Bye Atlanta

Our girls with Evelyn Grace right before we left.

 

The girls with the ferris wheel that's right by the Olympic park.

silly Abbie won't be still!

Thanks for letting us stay with you, Patrick, Suzanne and Evelyn.  We had a great time!  Sorry that we missed the Burnett's and Uncle Bobby this time but they both had company.  It was nice to see Paw-paw Tom and Aunt Leia!

Lions, Tigers and Bears...oh my!!

We got to see the male and female lions up and about-a rare treat.  We were so close to them!

We found two sweet little lions there!

Here's the baby rhino-what a cutie!  We got to watch her playing some.

Sophie and the elephants.

Aunt Leia, Paw-paw Tom, and Sophie

Here are some more pictures from our trip to the zoo.  We had such a good time!  Beautiful weather.  Lions sleep about 19 hours out of the day so we were excited that we got to see the lions moving around.  Before we left the zoo, the girls got to play on the playground for a little bit.  Matt's dad, Tom, has been having some health problems since this summer.  He's had a lot of different tests done to try to find out what is wrong.  He did fine walking around at the zoo (I think) but I'm sure he was tired.  Matt and Leia went to get the cars before we left while the rest of us hung out by the playground.  After the zoo, we said our goodbyes.  Matt, Paula and the girls had dinner with the Williams on Sunday night.  Monday morning, we slept in and then after the girls played a bit, we took the girls by the Olympic Park.  Then, we had lunch at Pappasito's, a wonderful Mexican restaurant I was introduced to years ago in Texas, before heading home to Franklin.

Zoo Atlanta

 

 

Abbie and Sophie with the panda.

I love pandas (even though they are lazy).  They are so pretty!

 

Our family with the gorilla statues.

It's hard to see but it was fascinating to watch.  A mama gorilla was carrying her newborn baby around on her back. 

Look who just hatched-Sophie!

Sophie and Aunt Leia in the nest.  (Abbie wouldn't get in there.)

On the last day that we spent in Atlanta (Sunday), we went to church with our hosts, the Williams, and met up with Tom, Leia and her friend, C.D.  After church, we went to lunch with Tom, Leia and C.D.  Her friend, C.D., was interesting to be around because he is mostly blind and has only about 30% in one of his eyes.  He had ridden a bus to Atlanta and takes a lot of bus trips throughout the country because he can't drive.  He uses a walking stick.  We went to the zoo in Atlanta on Sunday and it was pretty busy because it was such a nice day.  We really enjoyed seeing the gorillas, lions, rhinos (there was a baby one), and the pandas because we don't have these at our zoo.  Many of the animals were moving around when we were there, including the lion, so it was a great time to go.  I was hoping that we could see the baby panda that was born in the summer but they didn't have it on display yet.

Stone Mountain Park

Sophie on top of Stone Mountain.

 

This little piggy was having lots of fun!  =)

 

They were having PumpkinFest with lots of cool activities like dressing a scarecrow!

We had to get the girls picture with the Duck Dynasty pumpkin men!

We stayed for the Laser and fireworks show.

Abbie and Sophie

Abbie doing the ropes obstacle course. 

 

 On Saturday, the girls had fun playing with Evelyn who we were staying with.  She and Abbie are the same age.  They loved jumping on her trampoline and playing on her swingset.  They also decorated some headbands.  Evelyn was very sweet to share with the girls.  Our family and the Williams took a picnic lunch and ate at a local park.  The kids enjoyed playing there too.  Then, our family headed to Stone Mountain.  We spent the afternoon there with the kids playing in the big barn, doing the obstacle courses and playing on the big playground.  The kids had so much fun on the ropes courses with the zip line and in the big barn.  They had some fun activities for the kids to do that were Halloween related.  Sophie loved this scavenger hunt kind of thing where you had to look for things.  She and Abbie got some candy after they finished that.  We also rode the cable car up to the top of Stone Mountain and walked around some.  The temperature reached the mid to upper 80's so it was pretty hot. 

After we had dinner, we met up with some friends that live near us (the Clark's) that had come to Atlanta to visit their grandparents.  We knew in advance that we were both planning to visit Stone Mountain on Saturday.  Our girls played with the Clark girls as the adults took turns reserving a spot on the lawn to watch the laser show.  A few days before our trip, we also found out that Matt's sister, Leia and his dad, Tom, were also going to be in Atlanta.  Leia had planned to meet up with a friend of hers.  Tom came to Stone Mountain in time to see the laser show.  It was an awesome show!  The Clark's grandmother, Judy, bought all of our kids this laser beam sword thing that was really cool!  We had a fun time Saturday but we were exhausted!!

American Girl Atlanta

Abbie with Julie and her fun car behind her.

Abbie with Kit and her friend, Ruthie, with their many different looks. 

Saige dropped in for a visit too while we were there.

Here are the girls with their American Girl dolls.

Over the girls' fall break, we headed down to Atlanta for a long weekend.  We had really nice weather while we were there.  Sophie got her Molly doll in Atlanta when she turned 6.  Since Abbie's birthday is in January when the weather is unpredictable, we decided to go ahead and let her pick out her big birthday present in October (yes, I know we are kind of crazy).  I just think it's really fun for the girls to pick them out themselves).  I know you can order them and all that.  We arrived in Atlanta on a Friday afternoon and the American Girl store was the first place that they wanted to go.  Abbie knew she wanted Kit and went right for her (no looking around for her).  I let her pick out a couple of other things to go with Kit.  Both girls wanted to get their dolls' ears pierced too because Sophie didn't have a chance to do it before.  It was fairly busy when we were there and we skipped the cafe this time.  Now, each girl has an American Girl doll with pierced ears.  =)  We decided to walk around the mall a little bit while we were there because they had some fun stores there like the Lego store, Disney, etc.  We stayed with the Williams family while we were in Atlanta and had a great time!

Disney on Ice

Princess Abbie and Princess Sophie ( I mean regular Sophie)-she did not want to be classified as a princess

 

This was at the end of the show when all of the princes/princesses came back out.

I loved this song "Be our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast

This past Sunday afternoon, we took the girls to Disney on Ice.  It was their first time to go.  I had wanted to take them in the past but it's ended up that we've been to Disney World a few times so we didn't go to this too.  Sophie might have almost been a little old for it but she still enjoyed it.  Both of the girls took their spinner lights that we had bought at Disney World and they used them some when it was dark.  We saw a few folks we knew and our seats were awesome!  We all enjoyed sharing a funnel cake.  The only downside was that when we came out it had started raining and had gotten colder.  We had to walk a few blocks in the rain to our car.  Overall, we all enjoyed the show.  Abbie enjoyed dressing up as Cinderella for the show.

Soccer Pics

Abbie's ready to play!

Here's Morgan and Nana!  Morgan liked to cheer and chase after a ball.

Here's pictures of some of the gang after Abbie's game.

Uncle Phil, Morgan, Aunt Martha, and Nana came to Abbie's game to cheer her on and Matt helped coach.

Abbie got a ride as Uncle Phil and Paw-paw brought drinks to the players. (Paw-paw just came for Sophie's game).

This past Saturday was so hot!  I am happy to say that now it is cooler because a front came through!  It's starting to feel like fall.  Abbie played first thing in the morning on Saturday.  The other team only had four girls show up so some of Abbie's team played for the other team.  I think all of the family brought Abbie's team some good luck!  Abbie hasn't scored any goals yet but she was out there kicking it.  =)  Morgan missed his morning nap to come out and cheer Abbie on.  He really liked being on the soccer field kicking the ball and when the girls had breaks in the game, we let him.  He is moving all the time because he started walking a couple of months ago. 

We all found places to hang out between the games and get some lunch.  Sophie played at noon.  There was no shade and it was really hot!  Some of our family enjoyed using umbrellas to try to beat the heat.  Sophie's team played a really good game.  She did a good job playing despite the heat!

It was such a busy weekend for us!  Friday night, our family went to a Pharmacy Department Open House as part of Lipscomb's Herdcoming.  Matt is working in the Pharmacy Department  now and they were letting us tour the brand new building.  Matt will be managing the lab in the new building.  It is so nice and they will probably officially move in later this week.  Saturday, we had soccer games.   Then, the girls had a play date at some friends' house.  Sunday morning, we went to the Sara Walker Run at Lipscomb.  Our good friend, Sara, passed away last year from cancer.  They established a foundation in her name that is doing a lot of mission work in Africa and other things.  The girls and I met Matt for the church service afterwards because the morning started out stormy.   We were afraid we'd be running outside.  It turned out that it only misted during the run and so Matt ran most of the way on the outside course!   Go Matt!!   More pictures from our weekend coming up!