Our Presidents Day Weekend was one we won’t soon forget! It was chock-full of friends, family, and some big, big fish, but it was also filled with some sorrow too. On Friday night, Jamie’s uncle passed away from a hard-fought battle with cancer, and though it wasn’t unexpected, it was still a somber evening around here as we felt such heaviness for his daughters, wife, Jamie’s mom, and so many others who love Johnny so much.
He was a strong believer though, so also knowing that he was finally free of cancer and pain and meeting God face-to-face in Heaven was overwhelming too. We’ll travel for his funeral in about a week. We were glad we didn’t have plans Friday night so that Jamie especially could grieve, but we were also glad that we had a full, fun weekend to look forward to starting bright and early Saturday morning.
We kicked off the day at my best friend’s son’s birthday party, and all four of us enjoyed a couple of hours with friends.
It’s funny how much I look forward to kid birthday parties these days because in this season of life they serve as a great opportunity for a bunch of our friends to all get together and hang! The husbands all usually come too, so it’s a good time. 😉
After the party was over, we hit the road straight to Birmingham for a pit stop to hang with my brother David! We met at Big Spoon Creamery in Avondale, immensely enjoyed their unique ice cream, and then walked over to Avondale Brewing Company.
This area wasn’t developed when Jamie lived in Birmingham as a teenager, so David enjoyed showing Jamie everything that’s developed in this formerly run-down area of the city. The brewing company had a huge grass area for kids to run around and play, so Jamie and I enjoyed catching up with David while watching the girls run around and have a ball.
We left Birmingham around 3ish and booked it straight to Atlanta! The girls had 2.5ish hours to watch movies on their Kindles, and Jamie and I listened to some podcasts together.
We made it to our great friend’s house – the Clarks – just in time to see their twin boys and play a little bit before getting all the kids ready for bed. We hadn’t seen the boys since they were 2.5 months old, so the girls were in Heaven with two new buddies to play with!
Seeing the girls interact with the boys made Jamie and me smile all weekend. They loved them so much, which made us excited about giving them a baby sister soon.
Our big event that we planned the whole weekend around was a visit to the Georgia Aquarium, which we’d heard is the biggest and best in the world. My parents took the girls there in the summer of 2017 while we were in Savannah for a wedding, and Hadley has been asking to go back ever since!
They had so much fun and loved it from start to finish, which made the insane crowds worth it. Once we got to the vicinity of the aquarium, it took us a full hour and a half to inch toward the parking deck, make it to the ticket area, get tickets, wait some more, etc. It was wild, but we conjured up all of our patience (in the wind and rain, eek!) and hoped it would be worth it. It was!
They were at the most perfect ages to take them. Hadley is 5 and Sadie is just about 3, and they were overly fascinated by everything and never whined.
We ended up staying in the aquarium for about five hours and still didn’t get to see two of the exhibits. Hadley was practically sleepwalking and Sadie was nearly falling asleep in her stroller, so we decided to call it a day. It’s an expensive aquarium ($120ish total for Jamie, me, and Hadley with Sadie being free), but we felt like we MORE than got our money’s worth. We saw a great dolphin show, short 3D movie, saw tons of exhibits with big tanks, and generally really enjoyed the layout and everything there was to do.
With that being said, we won’t be back for a while. 😉 This was a nice check mark in the box that we’ll maybe come back and do in five years or so. Ha!
The rest of our time in Atlanta was full of playing our hearts out with the Clark twins and hanging with Bethy and Bradley. Every single visit with them is a great one! They are wonderful people and friends.
Ted hopefully enjoyed his stay at his pet hotel and was a happy boy to see us when we picked him up Monday!
A note about sleeping arrangements for the girls, if you’re interested:
Our sleeping arrangements worked out really well this trip. Bethy put a queen-sized air mattress in the room Jamie and I were sleeping in, and then when we put the girls to bed, we put one girl on the air mattress and another in our bed. When we eventually came in to go to bed, Jamie moved Hadley to the air bed was well.
Since they are short, they slept perpendicular to the way they usually sleep so that there was more space between them. Besides Hadley briefly (accidentally) getting too close to Sadie around 3 a.m. one night (Sadie was not happy to have her personal sleeping space invaded!), they did great. We’re hoping that they can share a bed in Grand Cayman next month too. We’ll see!
Let’s chat!
- Have you been to the Georgia Aquarium? What tips would you give to first-timers who want to plan a trip there?
- What genius sleeping arrangements work for your family when you travel?
Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo