Monday, July 24, 2017

Children's Church Trip

This weekend has been so much fun! I've had our clothes packed about a week prior to our trip. Thanks to Pinterest, I discovered rolling clothes saves more space than folding, so I managed to fit our family-of-five into one large suit case, including toiletries and diapers. Isn't that insane???


Wednesday night, after Zac got off work, I left him with the boys and brought Leah with me to drop off our pets at my parents' house. We went to bed early and woke up early, getting to the church at 7am. I had spent most of the week practicing getting up early as I'm anything but an early bird. I have no desire to catch the worm. I'm proud to say that our family had the most members with the least amount of luggage. High-five to self, noted for the next trip. Mo' luggage, mo' problems.

I had planned to crochet on the bus, but realized that after switching tote bags, I forgot to grab my hook and scissors from the pocket of my first choice. I ended up playing on my phone and napping until we arrived in Alabama.


We took a small break at the Alabama state line before continuing on another few hours to get to Birmingham, AL. We arrived at the Southern Museum of Flight and had lunch under the shade of a Naval aircraft before going inside the museum to look around. Elias really loved the "main mains". I think Dad would've enjoyed it as well. Maybe one day. I spent much of the time with the kids in the activity room. They built planes with blocks and climbed inside a small radio tower. Zac wandered around by himself looking at all the displays.


Onward to the hotel in Atlanta, GA. I was surprised to find Bath & Body Works products, as usually there are only hotel-brand shampoos and soaps. Luxurious!


We went to Steak 'n Shake for dinner. Zac and I have never been, though there's one being built near our house. It was better than Backyard Burgers. Zac even walked over to JoAnn's next door to pick up a crochet hook for me.


We ended the day with a swim in the pool. Note: I feel a bit guilty/awkward that my kids needed floaties, but as a parent, sometimes you postpone certain lessons (like swimming because we never go swimming) and before you know it, eleven years go by and your kids still haven't had swimming lessons because "there's always next year".

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Friday morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel. Waking up early really wasn't too difficult, especially as there was a squirming toddler between Zac and me. I saturated the kids with sunscreen, we loaded onto the bus, then headed for Six Flags Over Georgia. Except, after getting onto the Interstate, Zac realized we left our tickets in our hotel room... So the bus turned around and set us back ten minutes. No big deal, though. We still made it and met up with the rest of our group. My only complaint was the excessive heat. It felt like Louisiana heat. However, I'm so glad none of us were sunburned. We had a really fun time and even met Bugs Bunny.


We went straight to Five Guys for dinner, followed by a long, hot shower while Zac brought the kids to the pool.


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Saturday morning, we ate hotel breakfast in our room before heading out to the World of Coca-Cola museum. The kids were worn out from Six Flags, but made it all day, thanks to the free samples of so many soda flavors. The museum was fascinating. I was reminded of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory a bit.

This looks too much like Zac and me.

We walked to the Georgia Aquarium from the Cola museum. We watched a few dolphins perform, and were able to see beluga whales and whale sharks up close! It was awesome.


We were going to go to a mall for dinner, but everyone was so exhausted. Instead, we came back to the hotel and Zac walked with the kids across the street to Chik Fil A. I got all of our things re-packed and cleaned up the hotel room a bit while I was alone. Zac brought the big kids to the pool for one last swim while I spent some quality time with the littlest.


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Sunday morning, Zac went downstairs to grab some breakfast for us while I gathered all our things. We were one of the first ones downstairs (finally). Our family has been late getting to the bus, thanks to long lines at registers. Everything was loaded up and we headed out. We were going to stop at a mall for lunch, but malls don't open until noon on Sundays, so we stopped at Dreamland Bar-B-Que in Alabama for lunch. The kids don't usually like ribs, but they ate more than I did.


One last stop at the Mississippi line rest station and we made it home. I got all our things unpacked and washed, Zac picked up our pets, and it felt nice to sleep in our own bed... even though Elias woke up at 2:30 this morning and had to get in bed with me. I did wake up early enough to take Zac to work this morning. Even the kids were up and ready to go by 7. I've still got to get out to the store before I pick him up later. I did NOT miss the rain. It's been raining all day!