Atlanta Adventures

Adventures really is the right word to describe this trip! On Wednesday, my phone quit working. On Friday we left for Atlanta, and on Saturday EJ and I went to a festival. Saturday morning, my phone started working again, so we woke up about an hour before the sun to take my husband to his conference, and as we drove away, I put in the directions to the festival. And my phone turned off and I couldn't get it back on.

So we turned around and got my husband's phone--he had his computer and could text me via google voice. So all was well again. The festival didn't start until 10, and it was only 8:30, so we stopped for breakfast and I found a cemetery/park to hang out for a while. Took a bunch of pictures. That was fun. Then off to the festival! Right inside we made our first stop--making slime! Squirt some chemicals in there and some red paint (because he's an Alabama fan).

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Then shake it up!

When we got home, it had leaked all over the rest of the stuff in the bag, so we had to throw it away, but it was fun to make!

He did this strength thing twice, because it was just so much fun the first time!

There are three videos in this post. If you play it and it buffers every second, let it go all the way through and then play it again and it should play smoothly.

This was disappointing because although he got 4 tries, he didn't make any of them.

Home Depot had a huge area set up for kids to build a small toolbox. They also had a vehicle kit the kids could take home. EJ's slime was ALL over the toolkit and I couldn't clean it up, but at least he has the vehicle he can make with his daddy (or grandpa) some day.

Next was the petting zoo.

Miniature horse

That alpaca blends right in!

Miniature donkey

Pot-bellied pig and sheep

Those Angora rabbits were the SOFTEST things I have ever felt! And this here is a Scottish Cow. You can click it to see it bigger.

Yes, that's real snow!

Fair warning--turn your speakers OFF before you push play! They were blaring rap music from the van. So he has a thing or two to learn about traveling. He played for 2 minutes, and I videoed the entire thing, in case he made a shot. He didn't, so here's the first 30 seconds. The rest looks the same as this.

When we had memorized the layout of the entire festival and were SO disappointed that they didn't have the camel and pony rides, we found a whole nother section, complete with--camels! The lines were incredibly long, so after standing under the noon sun for an hour and 15 minutes, EJ finally got to ride the camel! And I got a nice October tan.

The line for air baseball wasn't nearly so long. There were maybe 8 or so kids, all under 5, and most of them swung at air for the first couple swings. EJ laughed and said, "How hard is it to hit a ball?!" I warned him that he might just find it harder than it looks. Sure enough, three balls and the first swing for all three was just air. Guess he learned a lesson!

By this time we were both so hot and thirsty, we got a huge cup of lemonade and sat in the grass. There was this little game right next to us, so I stayed relaxing in the shade while EJ threw a ball in the buckets for some prizes. He got the first three blue buckets.

There was a science show at the main stage, so we slowly made our way there. "Madame Miraculous" was hilarious! Every teacher should take notes. She asked for volunteers and EJ got picked first! He had to keep the ping pong ball up in the air--with his mouth! She said, "If this works, we're gonna throw our hands up and yell! If it doesn't, we're gonna blame <EJ>!" Right after this picture, my camera died, so I wasn't able to get video of it. But it was awesome, and he had a great time at this show.

Literally as soon as it was over, the heavens opened and drenched us. We calmly walked (EJ grabbed my elbow, tipped his head back, and caught raindrops while I calmly walked) to the car. Everyone else at the festival ran like the zombies had just invaded. We were hungry anyway, so we found a McD's around the corner. I let my camera charge while we drove/ate. We had five more tickets to "spend", so we went back to the festival (and it had stopped raining).

EJ did a LOT better at the gun shooting than he did at basketball. Earlier, the scout table had a pvc contraption with a plastic bottle on one end you stomp on and it sends a cardboard bullet thing shooting into the air. EJ did it so hard the bullet landed on the second story roof! I seriously thought I got pictures of it, but alas, they are nowhere to be found.

These people had a bunch of masks and etc. for kids to dress up as different superheros. The guy wanted me to dress up and get in the picture, too. Um, no thank you. But EJ is nice and scary-looking! Wouldn't want to meet this little Hulk in a dark alley!

We got free trail mix, free applesauce, a free frisbee, and I even won a raffle (it said I didn't have to be there to win, and they would call later with the winners, and when I got home and on Monday got the battery fixed on my phone, I had a missed call saying I won and head on over to the booth to collect my prize! Sadness.). My feet hurt for several days after this, my tan is slowly fading, but EJ and I had the best day and made the best memories! I think it might have even been worth getting up at 0'dark thirty. :-)