Summer 2018 (Week 9) - Space Science Museum & Atlanta Braves Game Trip

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Y’all.  WHERE HAS THIS SUMMER GONE?!?!  This is officially our last week and we’re going to make it a good one!  As a matter of fact, we made last week a good one, too.  Here it is…

Monday, July 23

Monday was Jacob’s birthday, but I included it in last week’s post.  You can read it here if you missed it.  We had a great day celebrating him!

Tuesday, July 24

Tuesday Brian left early in the morning to go to Chicago for the rest of the week for work, so it was just the babies and me.  Since we had done all the things on Monday, Tuesday ended up being a lazy day around the house.  Jacob had a bunch of new toys he had gotten for his birthday, so the kids played with those all day while I got some things done around the house.  My peonies had arrived from Amazon so I got those in a vase, I finally took the July 4th decor down, and I got some laundry done.  We had sandwiches, cheetos, and grapes for lunch, and then we all played a game of Sorry because it was one of the new games Jacob had gotten for his birthday.  I hadn’t played in years but I quickly remembered how fun it is.  The kids love it, too!

Meanwhile, B was doing this:

We did leave the house in the late afternoon long enough to go tour one of the potential dance studios for Olivia, and then on the way home we picked up Zaxby’s for dinner because when B is out of town, Momma doesn’t cook… because I would be the only one eating it.  Haha.

Wednesday, July 25

Since we’re officially in back-to-school mode, I took the kids for haircuts.  Both of them were long overdue.  This was only Olivia’s second hair cut ever because she wants to grow her hair “as long as Rapunzel’s” so we only had an inch or two trimmed off for her.  I took both of them to see the guy who does my hair for the first time and he did a fantastic job with both of them.  We’ll definitely be seeing him from here on out.  The kids both loved Mr. Jamey!  And now Jacob looks 12.  Why does that happen every time?!

After hair cuts, it was time to resister Olivia for ballet and tap.  After touring the dance studio the previous night I was able to make our decision to attend the other one that I had toured last weekend.  While we were there, we picked up her leotard and she was ecstatic! 

We went home for a quick lunch of spaghetti and meatballs and Greek yogurt, and then we headed to the Space Science Museum.  This was the kids’ first time and they had a ball!  They got to see an engine from a real rocket, see all kinds of space artifacts, ride in a flight simulator, predict the weather, play with moon rovers, and watch a movie about Super Volcanoes in the planetarium.  I’d say it was a successful and educational trip!

We left the museum mid-afternoon and headed straight to Chick-Fil-A for milkshakes because it was way too hot to spend any time outside.  After the kids were done, they played on the indoor playground there (praise hands for CFA!) and then we headed to Target to grab some tap shoes for Olivia.  Girlfriend is in heaven.

Thursday, July 26

Thursday we stayed home all day again.  It was a gorgeous, albeit HOT day, so we had another pool day.  We stayed out there all morning until lunch time and then we came in and had lunch – leftover pizza and applesauce pouches – and then we spent the rest of the day hanging out and packing for a little weekend getaway.

Friday, July 27

B got home late Thursday night and then we were up bright and early on Friday to take Olivia to the endocrinologist for her thyroid nodule.  They drew her blood to run all of the tests that the ENT in Atlanta requested and we should have results in two weeks.  We are praying that all of her levels are normal because that will mean that the nodule is not causing issues with her thyroid which means we shouldn’t have to have surgery to remove it. 

We hit the road for an overnight getaway in Atlanta after her appointment was over.  First up was a stop at Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  We typically hit up that same CFA on trips to Atlanta because it’s on our route, and we arrived to find out that they had completely torn the old one down and built a brand new (super-fancy) one in its place!  It was definitely the swankiest CFA we’ve ever been to!

The next stop was Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta.  The kids got to see their first dinosaur bones in person, we saw all kinds of exhibits, did some hands-on learning, touched some live baby alligators, and watched a 3D Imax movie about ocean life.  We had so much fun!  And Kate Winslet did the voiceover for the ocean movie which gave me aaaallll the Titanic feels!  Haha.

We fought the ATL traffic all the way to our hotel after that, checked in, and had just enough time to freshen up before walking to the 7:30 PM Atlanta Braves baseball game!  We booked a hotel right there near the complex so we didn’t have to worry about fighting traffic and finding a place to park and it was the best thing that we could have done!  It was just a short walk over to the stadium and the area it’s in is SO CUTE.  They just moved into a new stadium last year so it was our first time there.  The new complex is just adorably with its loads of local restaurants, bars, a taco truck, a splash pad, live music, twinkle lights, and lots of other nightlife.  We walked around for a bit to see the sights, and then it was time to head into the stadium for the game.

We hadn’t eaten dinner so we grabbed some brats and beers on the way to our seats and then we settled in for the evening.  Both of the kids did really well for the first three innings of the game.  They started getting a little squirmy towards the end of the third, so we left our seats to grab some Sour Patch Kids (their request) and popcorn (my request) and then they lasted another four innings before we finally called it a night.  They probably could have made it through the last two innings but we didn’t want to push it, so we left after the seventh for the walk back to our hotel.  

Once there, everybody crashed for the night, but I had one of the worst night’s sleep EVER.  Our hotel was a Hilton so it was perfectly nice, but the air conditioner wouldn’t stay on so I kept getting hot.  Plus it was loud when it would click on and off which was about every 5-10 minutes.  I have to sleep with a fan on during the summer, so when the air was off it was way too quiet in the room which made it too easy to hear all of the highway traffic noises… even though we were six floors up.  Needless to say, I was pretty exhausted when the alarm went off Saturday morning.

Saturday, July 28

Despite my lack of sleep the night before, I didn’t feel too exhausted on Saturday so that was good.  We left the hotel early-ish to get our day started.  I had Googled “best donuts in Atlanta” and it took us straight to Sublime Donuts downtown.  And Google was right… they were amazing.  It was a tiny little shop in the middle of a small strip of stores/restaurants and it was so cute inside.  They had over 30 flavors, most of which were pretty fancy, and we ended up with a Nutella and a Honey-Glazed Cinnamon Swirl for me, a Fresh Strawberries & Cream and a Red Velvet Cake for B, an Oreo for Jacob, and a Fruity Pebbles frosted for Olivia. 

Y’all.  They were so good! 

Y’all know we are donut connoisseurs so we were all really happy.  We will definitely be going back!  I also grabbed a Caramel Cloud coffee for the road and – YUMMMM!

Our next stop was The Children’s Museum of Atlanta and the kids had a BLAST.  They are already asking to go back.  This place is SO COOL, y’all.  Everything is hands-on and they have lots of stuff for role-playing – a little diner where they can serve food, a Publix grocery store where you can shop and ring people up, a farm where you can “milk” a cow and get eggs from the chickens, a pond where you can fish, loads of train tables, a huge climbing wall, other random playground areas, a science center, a medieval times area, and our kids’ favorite, an area for problem solving. 

The area for problem solving consisted of a maze of overhead tracks and a ball pit.  The kids would take the ball pit balls and put them in lots of different contraptions to get them up to the overhead maze.  Once they went through the tracks in the maze overhead, they would land in a big bucket.  The bucket could be dumped into the huge arm of an excavator, and then the excavator could be “driven” to spin around and dump the balls back in their original pit.  Our two kids would have played in that little area all day long if we had let them.

After they had their fill of play time (well, actually when we forced them to leave – haha), we headed out in search of lunch before hitting the road, and we stumbled upon Max’s Coal Oven Pizzeria.  It was so cute and the pizza was SO delicious.  Even B agreed it was really good, and he’s a pizza snob.  ;o)  If you’re ever in the Centennial Park area near the Georgia Aquarium and The World of Coke, we highly recommend that place.  It’s in walking distance of all of those tourist attractions.  :o)

When we finished lunch, we walked back to our car, snapped a picture of this cool mural (I wish we could have taken a picture with it!), and then we headed home just in time to get everything unpacked, rest for a few minutes, and then get changed and off to church. 

We have a whole new set of priests starting this week, so we got to meet our new pastor and I really liked him from the start.  He gave a good homily and even cracked us up a few times.  I have a feeling he’s going to be a hoot!  And he looks a little like Santa Clause.  ;o)

We had Mexican with my parents, grandmother, and bro, SIL, and nephew since they were in town, and then it was back home to get the kids in bed.  Olivia was a complete and utter disaster at bedtime and she cried herself to sleep.  Bless.  She was overtired and pretty much out of her mind so I sat with her until she fell asleep (which didn’t take long) and then I did a little dance when I left her room because I was so excited for some peace and quiet.  I love her so much, but she is positively exhausting, y’all.

B and I watched a couple more episodes of Breaking Bad.  I am loving that show so much!  And you know how I can tell?  Because I was going on four hours of sleep, had a margarita with dinner, and B rubbed my feet while we watched.  Normally that combination would put me in a coma in about 15 minutes flat, but I stayed awake until 11 PM and watched two whole episodes.  If you need something to watch, watch this! 

Sunday, July 29

We were back on our regular schedule for Sunday and we went to my MIL and step-FIL’s for lunch.  My SIL and BIL and two nephews were finally back in town after three straight weeks of being on the road with Little League baseball so it was nice to catch up with them again since it had been so long. 

After lunch we spent a little bit of time outside.  It was hot, but the humidity was miraculously low for a July day in the south, and when the humidity is low, you go outside and enjoy it!  My MIL had planted some fennel a while back and this week she discovered caterpillars all over it!  I had never seen that many caterpillars together before and it was so neat to watch them eat.  She said that they had already completely stripped some of the fennel of its leaves and they were working on the lower branches.  I guess pretty soon we’ll be on chrysalis and butterfly watch!

Sunday evening was spent at my parents’ house for Sunday dinner with all the fixings, and it was the perfect way to end a busy week.

Nine weeks of summer down, only one to go!  It’s bittersweet for sure!

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