Thanksgiving Vacation 2016

We had a great Thanksgiving vacation this year! It was a busy one.

Jeanny was here visiting us from Panama, so we were out and about some days.

We spent an afternoon at Atlantic Station.

Santa happened to be there ! Rebecca still believes in Santa and there was no line, so we

stopped and chatted with him. He was the nicest Santa.

I have been watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving with the girls for several

years now. We always have popcorn, jelly beans, ice cream and pretzels

just like they have in the movie.

Raphael carving the turkey and my Dad supervising.

We had a wonderful dinner.

The girls and I watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and the National Dog Show while the

turkey is cooking. And they helped me set the table.

We took a few family pictures......

We played games and ate desserts.

We took in a few events too... The Christmas Carol at Alliance Theater,  Atlanta Hawks basketball

game, the Disney movie Moana, and the Atlanta Falcons football game.

Thankful for family and friends.

We started decorating for Christmas and these two

girls went back to school this morning!!

Thankful

Print from KaitlynBouchillon.com

Stone Mountain Hike

On Sundays, we go to the 9am church service and that leaves us with time to go and do something the rest of the day.  We have been to Stone Mountain park a lot over the years, but we have never walked to the top of the mountain. I knew we wanted to go in spring or fall when the heat and humidity is lower, so a few weeks ago, we finally hiked up to mountain.

It was a beautiful fall day and we were not the only family with the same idea. There were a ton of other people making the hike too. The path is mostly really big and mostly flat rocks.

Along the way there was some pretty impressive graffiti that has been carved in the rocks over the years.

The girls did really well on the hike up. We did stop once for a water break, but we managed to keep a pretty steady pace.

                                                               Almost to the very top!!

                                                                    

                                                                        We made it!!

We walked around and took in the views. We had a little water and snack break before we
decided to walk back down.

What goes up, must go down.

Once section of the trail is fairly steep and slippery, so a handrail is good to have!

Back at the bottom.

Across the street there was an old plantation kind of house that provided all

sorts of information about Stone Mountain, so we wandered through.

I loved this scaled down version of the Stone Mountain carving.

It explained who each man was and gave the name of their horses too.

Another fun trip to Stone Mountain. Thankful our girls are big

enough for us to do this type of activity as a family.

Life Lately

We are officially out of school for the next week !! The girls have time off for Thanksgiving and I am looking forward to some slower days around the house. A few pictures of what we have been up to....

Rebecca has had a lot of activities going on at school. They had a dress up "like a pilgrim" day at school. This was the best we could do.  And they had a Thanksgiving feast party on Thursday.

We went to the mall to buy her shoes, but some how ended up in Build a Bear

and came home with The Grinch.  She loves The Grinch !!

Rebecca and her soccer team celebrated the end of the season with a little

party at  McDonalds. She had the best coaches this season and great

team mates. I already signed her up for the next soccer session in spring.

Rachel had a dentist checkup and then we were back the next day to

get a little cavity fixed. She is missing three adult teeth, so we will soon be

visiting the orthodontist to see what is the next step.

Fun with Snapchat filters .

We love the Starbucks red cups!!

We had been hearing all the hype about the Super Moon, so Rebecca

woke up with me and we went out to take a look.... looked like a

regular full moon to us. We were a little disappointed.

It has been unseasonably warm lately.

And that's about it.

We have a few things planned for this week and look forward

to celebrating Thanksgiving!

Election Day 2016

So, the girls were out of school for Election Day. I knew that I needed to plan something for us to get out of the house or we could end up spending the entire day doing a bunch of nothing.  I had been seeing advertisements for a new attraction at Fernbank Museum , so I thought it would be a good place to go.

Last time we were at Fernbank, Rebecca was so little, I thought it was

time to visit again.

The star of the museum. The dinosaur is so big, just incredible to see.

So big, that I couldn't get it all in one picture.

We saw a special exhibit about the largest dinosaurs.... the Sauropods.

They had tiny little brains, but managed to survive for over

100 million years.

We had lunch and then finally went outside to see the new exhibit,

Wild Woods in the Fernbank Forest. It is one of the largest old-growth

urban forests in the country.  It covers over 10 acres of woodlands.

Lots of trails and pathways to follow and even wooden play areas

for the kids.

A bee "hotel".

We found the playground.

It was a perfect fall day to be outside and exploring.

We headed back inside to see an IMAX movie and then up to

Nature Quest. It teaches about the different geographical areas in Georgia.

We finished off the day with a look at some amazing seashells from

all around the world. Made me want to go to the beach and look for shells.

It was a fun day at the Museum.

We came home and spent the rest of the evening watching tv

to see who the next president would be.