Exploring GA

 The first month we lived in GA, we got out and explored as a family pretty much every weekend.  The kids and I really liked the trail we had found along the Chattahoochie river, so we made sure to take Trent there with us the next time.  

 It really is beautiful!  Just make sure and put lots of bug repellant on before you go outside in the summer here in GA.  Holy bugs!

 It took an entire month of living here before I saw a sunset.  It was super rainy last summer (I believe  I have mentioned the rain once or twice), added to the fact that there are trees everywhere, and you get to see a sunset very rarely.  So sad!  Definitely not used to that.  I miss the CO sunrises and sunsets so much.  

 This is definitely not my favorite part about living in the South.  There are bugs EVERYWHERE!  And more types of bugs than I have ever seen in my life!  While I am getting more used to the bugs, I still don't like them any more than when we first moved here.

 One of our first family outings here in GA was to the Atlanta History Museum.  There is quite a bit to see, and we knew the kids would never make it through the whole museum in one visit, so we ended up buying an annual pass.  On our first visit, we went through the Civil War exhibit.  After seeing all the different weapons and pictures of war, Preston announced, "I don't ever want to go into the Army.  I just want to go into tractors!"

 My big boys are all about their food.  We made sure to feed everyone before we left for the museum, but do you think they lasted more than 30 minutes into our trip?  Ever since moving to GA, my boys had been DYING to eat at Waffle House.  After hearing them beg for food through the whole museum, we stopped at their dream restaurant on the way home.  They thought they had died and gone to heaven!  

 Jillian's hair finally started to grow after we moved.  Maybe it was the humidity?  I was so excited to finally be able try pigtails in her hair!  

We had a very fun, albeit rainy, 4th of July.  The Sherbet family were so kind to invite us ove,r along with several other families, to join in their Independence Day celebrations.  There were tons of others kids there my kids' ages, which was awesome.  I don't think we would have settled in, or so quickly, to our life here if it wasn't for our church.  It was such a blessing to know that wherever we went, we would have an instant family through our ward.  Our kids had made good friends here shortly after we moved.  Thank heavens for a wonderful ward family that helped us to feel so welcome and loved! 

 One very wet and rainy weekend, we decided to make the jaunt up to Chattanooga to check out the aquarium there.  Since it was so rainy, I think everyone else had the same idea we did, because it was packed!  But still tons of fun.  Seriously awesome aquarium!  

 Another trip to Steak and Shake on our way home from the aquarium.  Trent was more thrilled than he looks.

 A couple of weeks after our first visit, the kids and I went back to the Atlanta History Museum.  This time we took a tour of the Swan House.  They tour was done as if we were in the period the house was built, which was the 1930's.  The tour was given by the interior decorator of the house, so if you had questions, you were supposed to ask them as if you were in that era.  Very cool.  The tours at the farm house are like that as well.

 The kids at the farm house, bleating with the sheep.  My kids still do this every time we go.  They sit and "Baa!" at the sheep until the sheep do it back.  It never gets old!

It was fun getting to know our new surroundings during our first month in GA!

Settling In

 One of the first things we did after getting settled was go check out our new home site.  With all the rain we had last summer, the building of this home was VERY delayed.  Our original closing date was supposed to be less than two months from the time this picture was taken.  Yeah, that didn't happen.

 While out driving around and exploring our new surroundings with my mom and the kids one day, the boys saw a Steak and Shake, and all of a sudden, they just couldn't make it through life unless they got to eat there!  Needless to say, they loved it.  Especially the shakes, which admittedly are very yummy.  Jilly just loved making a mess.  I don't think she ate more than two bites.  Except for the shake.  She loved the shake!

 Every day it wasn't raining, we were at the pool.  Which wasn't very often because it rained a lot last summer!!!  I think we only made it to the pool a handful of times.

 My poor Viv.  She takes after her mother.  She is an accident waiting to happen!  She was running up the front steps of our rental house (which were brick), tripped, and destroyed her leg.  It was so swollen I was worried she broke it!  It was just really scraped and bruised though.  She didn't like those front steps vey much after that and avoided them whenever possible.

Before grandma left, she did some sewing lessons with the kids.  Buds made this super cute bumble bee pillow with her.  It amazes me the amount of patience my mom has when teaching these kiddos how to sew.

 Two weeks after we left for GA, my mom left to go back home to CO.  We were a bit devastated to say the least.  It is amazing how much comfort having her company brought us through all of the moving.  My mom is a very tiny woman, but she is a pillar of strength, and we love her dearly.

 This was the most heartbreaking of all!  When this sweet girl realized what was happening, that her grandma was leaving, she was a wreck!  The kids and I cried all the way back to the car, where I passed tissues around.  On the way home, I knew I had to do something to distract us from our sadness, so we went through the drive through at Dunkin' Donuts.  Nothing a little food won't cure!  Which is probably why I'm a good ten pounds heavier since we moved.

 We also stopped by a trail that is next to the Chattahoochie river, where the kids threw rocks into the water and we explored a little bit.  We felt a tiny bit better by the time we got home.  I think the only thing that really brought us comfort was knowing that we were going back to CO at the end of July, and would get to see all our family and friends again then.

Birthday Boy

 A few days after we arrived in GA, Trent had a birthday!  My mom and I made him a yummy dinner of brisket, mashed potatoes and gravy, and asparagus.  One of his favorite meals!

 His dessert of choice for this year was chocolate chip cookies and ice cream.  We're glad we made it to GA in time to celebrate with him!  It was so nice to have our family back together again and know that Trent wouldn't have to be gone six days out of the week, every week, any more.  That alone made the move to GA so worth it!

Roadtrip and Moving

June 11, 2013 was Vivi's last day of school.  I dropped her off, then headed back to Janet and Steve's to get all of our things packed up because June 11, 2013 was also the day we left to move to Georgia.  Oh it was a hard day!  While Vivi was at school, the other kids and I finished packing up the car, said a very teary goodbye to Janet, then we went back to the school to get Viv.  The second I walked in to her classroom, the tears I had just gotten under control from saying goodbye to my mother-in-law started up again because as soon as Vivi saw me, she started bawling.  Which of course set off a round of fresh tears for me.  Out of all the kids, Vivi was probably the most upset about moving.  After seeing her teary face, I was such a mess I totally forgot to get an end of year picture of Vivi with our most favorite teacher ever, Mr. Kennedy.  I have never missed getting an end of year picture of my kids with their teachers!  I still, a year later, could kick myself.

Here is the only picture I have of these two, taken at the CU game in Nov, 2012.

After picking up Viv, the kids and I drove over to my mom's to pick her up.  She was so nice to volunteer to go on a road trip with us.  To make the move more exciting for the kids, we stopped and did a lot of un things on the way.

Day 1

Not on the first day though.  This pretty much sums up our first day of driving.  Just blue skies and wide open spaces.  We stopped that night in Kansas City, KS.

Day 2

We got ready the next morning and headed straight over to Liberty Jail.  The kids and I had never been to any historic church sights before, so thought we better take advantage of the ones that were right along our route.  There was a sister missionary their (wish I could remember her name) that was the most gifted story teller.  And she had some of the coolest analogies that helped so much for my kids (especially the younger ones) to be able to understand better the things she was teaching.  I wish I could remember those too!  That's it.  It's about time I start a journal.

 Some pictures of what the inside of Liberty Jail looked like at the time the prophet Joseph Smith was there.

 Look at the thickness of these walls!  No breaking in or out of this place.  They are 4 feet thick.

 The view from up above.  There was only one door to the building.  This was built only a few feet from where the building was originally.

 I still can't believe all the prophet Joseph Smith went through and endured in the months he was in Liberty Jail.  What an amazing and faithful man.

 While driving through Missouri, we saw a sign for a little historical museum off one of the exits, so we decided to go check it out.  We never found the museum, but we did find this beautiful park!  It was a great place to get out and let the kids run and stretch their legs for a few minutes.  Plus there were bathrooms there.  Double bonus!

 Sometimes I forget that this little one used to have a binky.  She was so happy and content when she was sucking on that thing that I often wonder why I ever stopped giving it to her.

 Group hug!

 The cool thing about moving was seeing my kids bond together.  All they really had was each other that first little while after we moved.  The coolest though was watching how Trenton matured through the whole thing.  He was like a rock for the rest of us, always staying so positive about it all.  Our last Sunday at church in CO, the other kids and I were a mess.  We cried the whole way there, I cried during (good thing I was in the nursery with the babies!), and we cried on the way home.  Trenton was amazing though.  He kept telling us all of the positive things about the move and that we were going to get to have a new adventure!  I am so grateful for his strength during that time.  He was the one I worried about the most when we found out we were going to move.  In the past, he had really struggled when there was any kind of big change going on.  It usually took him a while to adjust to not only big changes, but sometimes small simple changes too.  I felt like with the stage of life he was in, just going in to high school and everything,  that it would be a really hard adjustment for him.  I need not have feared though.  He was a champ through the whole thing!  And like I said, a rock for the rest of us.

That night we stayed in St. Louis, MO.  My original plan had been to take the kids to check out the Arch while we were there, but after talking to a friend who used to live there, we decided we needed to go to the City Museum.

Day 3

This place is seriously A-MAZING!  It is worth taking a trip to St. Louis just to go there!  My kids were in complete heaven!

Not only was this place as fun as could be, but it was amazing to see as well!  I have never seen any other place like it.  My kids climbed and ran and slid and explored for 4 hours straight.  They were so busy and having so much fun, the only thing they ever asked me for was a drink of water occasionally.

 P-Diddy, at the bottom of the two story slide.

 Look at these mosaics.  And they were everywhere!  There were so many different textures and so much detail, it was amazing.  Have I mentioned it was amazing?

 Everything was very industrial, such as this ladder.

 The big boys were so nice to take Jilly exploring with the.

 I have since decided that I need one of these giant hamster wheels in my house.  Endless amounts of fun and entertainment!  Especially for me as the observer.

 Hall of mirrors.

More mosaics.

There was also a giant turtle tank, which Jilly thought was beyond fascinating.

Everyone's happy!  There is also a ten story corkscrew slide, which we made ourselves sick on by going down it several times.  This was the absolute best place to take the kids after having been in the car so much the two days prior.  Not only did they have a blast, but they were completely worn out by the time we left.

 After leaving the museum, we decided we couldn't leave St. Louis without at least stopping to walk around the outside the Arch.

 The kids were starving at this point, so it was kind of torture for them to have to get out in the heat and walk around some more, but they were really good sports about it.

 If I lived in St. Louis, I think I would have to take a stroll through this park every day.  So beautiful!

Walking through the park, we saw a cute little pup.  Trenton sat down to pet it, and it jumped right up in his lap!  It didn't want much to do with anyone else, but it sure liked Trenton!

 I honestly couldn't believe how big this thing was in real life!

 Exhausted and tired at the bottom of the Arch.

 If you are standing (or lying) at the bottom of the Arch and look up, it looks like it will tip right over on you!

I think we wore these kids out!

After checking out the Arch, we went in search of a place to eat.  We went across the bridge to the other side of town and quickly realized that was a big mistake!  That side of town looked a little shady.  We crossed back over the bridge and found a place that looked kid friendly.  After parking, paying the meter, then walking to this place, we realized it was closed.  So we went to the place next door, (a Peruvian restaurant) which was definitely not kid friendly, but we were desperate for food so decided we would make it work.

And this is what a day at City museum and walking around St. Louis will do to your kids.  Success!

We drove through four states on this day.  I'd say we packed a lot in!

Driving through Illinois.  Much more greenery than there was through KS.

Once we entered the South, my mom got a hankering for fried pickles.  We stopped at a diner in Kentucky, and what do you know, they had fried pickles!

 And we finally made it to Tennessee!  We stopped for the night in Nashville, and boy were we tired by the time we got there!

Day 4

We got up the next morning and drove on to Chattanooga, where we visited the Incline railway.  We were going to try and find some caves we had heard about, but when we realized the only shoes my mom and I had were flip flops, we opted to not go hiking in a cave.  We also drove all around up by Lookout mountain, which was beautiful!  There is actually quite a bit to do in Chattanooga.  Lots to see and explore.  We have been up there several times since moving to GA and find something new to do every time.

 Frosty's at the end of the day made for a yummy, cool treat.

And we finally made it!  It was a fun four days, but by the time we made it to our destination, we didn't want much to do with the car for a while.  At least not for any extended period of time!  We are so grateful for my sweet mom for taking this trip with us.  She was an enormous amount of help through it all!