Last Stop: Shamus & Karen's

Our last stop on our vacation was to stay a night at Shamus and Karen's house in South Carolina. Shamus and Gene are cousins, and we just love hanging out with this fun couple! They have one son, too, so it was a lot of fun to get to spend some time with them (and some extra time with Aunt Judy & Uncle Jim, too, since they live close by).

the boys whip up breakfast for dinner...Shamus on pancakes and Gene on eggs

The only type of eggs that I'll eat are my dad's special eggs that he made for us growing up. Karen remembered having them at our house at one point so she bought the ingredients so Gene could make them for everyone. Nothing too special...just some Velveeta cheese & Season All seasoned salt. Gotta love using fake cheese in a recipe.

Aunt Judy reading with Callan

Callan found Jay's walker to be intriguing

they took us downtown where there was a beautiful park to walk through and a fountain play area

Callan giving Godilock's "Three Bears" hugs

this one is just right!

two dads, two matching strollers, two sleepy kiddos

Karen, me, Aunt Judy
(this is the most hideous picture of me...this is what a pregnant lady looks like after walking around in the sweltering southern heat)

beautiful scenery around us!

Uncle Jim & Aunt Judy graciously treated us all to a fulfilling meal at Sticky Fingers
before we climbed back into our car for the 8 hour ride home.

4th & 5th Stop: The Underground & the Coca-Cola museum

Everyone told us that we had to visit The Underground while we were in Atlanta. Well, let's just say The Underground has gone down hill. It's an underground shopping center that's turned ghetto. While we were walking around there, Gene left me for a minute to run into a shop to check on an item that he wanted. When he came back I said, "Don't ever leave me alone again while we are here."

We also visited The World of Coca-Cola, which was located right next to the Aquarium. It wasn't our favorite stop, since neither of us are huge Coke fans. But it was still neat to see all the different varieties of Coke from around the world. At the last "station" before you left, you could taste 64 flavors of Coke from all the different countries. Of course Gene had to taste-test all of them. one of the taste-test stations

3rd Stop: Georgia Aquarium

The Georgia Aquarium was by far the most exciting stop on our trip. All three of us loved it. It made the Baltimore Aquarium look like nothing. The way the Aquarium was set up allowed you to get face-to-face with all the animals.

One of the best parts was when we went to the upper level and saw a sign on an open door that said "Ballroom." The doors were wide open, and one or two other families had already wandered in the room. When we went inside, we found out that it was this huge empty ballroom with two HUGE windows on different sides of the room. One window looked out into the whale shark aquarium and the other looked into the beluga aquarium. After a few minutes we found ourselves alone in the ballroom, so we pulled up some chairs from the nearby tables and sat to watch the immense animals swim by right in front of our faces! We didn't even have to fight any crowds to get close to the glass! This is when I took the picture of Callan with the beluga that's my blog header. Gene and I said we could have sat there all day just watching these peaceful animals swim around.

a view from the inside of the aquarium...the blue neon lights at the top changed colors as you walked around, which was so totally awesome

just another in-your-face picture of some large fish that swam right in front of me

the magnificent whale shark

one of the huge windows we sat in front of in the ballroom

father teaching son

once again, our fearless child...he didn't hesitate at all to stick his arm in to touch the sting rays as they passed by (he loved this hands-on exhibit)

2nd Stop: Atlanta Zoo

The next day we traveled to the Atlanta Zoo. Zoos are one of my husband's and son's favorite places. They are the type that could stand in front of one exhibit all day and be content whereas I love to keep things moving. Let's just say that this pregnant lady took lots of breaks under trees while a certain husband and son made trips back to particular exhibits to see the animals for a 2nd time. It was one HOT day that day!

One of Callan's favorite things that day was when we went into the parakeet house where they flew around freely, and you could feed them by holding out a stick with food on the end of it. He loved it when a bird would land on his stick just inches away from him! FEARLESS is his new middle name.

A father-son moment in front of the gorilla exhibit

Gene's favorite...an alligator snapping turtle (trying to catch a fish)

Callan's favorite (this boy LOVES birds)...a Ground Hornbill.
We could have parked his stroller in front of this cage and left him there all day.

hugs for the komodo dragon

1st Stop: Stone Mountain

Our first stop in GA on vacation was Stone Mountain. It's the largest exposed piece of granite. Only 1% of it is exposed. The other 99% is under ground. We took a train ride around the mountain (Callan had to hold on to the train railing all by himself), rode to the top of the Mountain on the sky lift, and watched the laser show at night. It was a beautiful day!

(We cracked up every time Callan walked in front of us,
just strolling along with his hands behind his back.)

they're coming...

vacation photos are coming soon...

we're back

We're back from vacation and all unpacked. Arrived home at 3am on Sunday morning. Fun times driving through the night. We have a house full of company today and tomorrow so I'll post pictures from vacation later this week. But, just for starters, here are two of our favorite highlights from the trip:

1. When Gene bought Callan a Manny (from Ice Age) beanie baby, and Callan turned to him (without being prompted by us) and looked him straight in the eye and signed "thank you" with the cutest face and then turned to me and did the same. I think it was the best moment of the whole trip...for all three of us!

2. While on the trip, Callan started something new: he now loves to hold on to my finger while Gene pushes him in the stroller. It was so cute. Gene would be pushing him along and all of the sudden Callan would lean forward and motion me to walk beside him so he could grab just one of my fingers to hold on to while strolling along. I'll take all the affection I can get out of my boy!

Greetings from Atlanta

We are on vacation this week in Atlanta, GA. We've seen lots of great sites so far: Stone Mountain, Atlanta Zoo, Georgia Aquarium, Coca-Cola museum, the Underground...

More pics when we return to MD. For now, we'll leave you with this family shot at the top of Stone Mountain in Georgia.