Vines Gardens

The girls didn't have school today, so we went to Vines Gardens to walk around, play, and take pictures:

While we were there, a local art club -- or something like that; I didn't actually ask any of them for an explanation -- was there painting landscapes. There were four painters that we saw; there might have been others in places we didn't see. I only got three of them in pictures, though:

And of course, there were geese:

After we got home and had lunch, the girls went outside with their easels and brushes and paints to paint our backyard!

Zoo Trip with Elyse's Girl Scout Troop

Today Elyse and I went to Zoo Atlanta with her Girl Scout troop:

(This is only half of the troop, and one of them you can barely see. All nine girls did make it.)

The next two pictures were taken while we were waiting for the train:

And finally a couple of pictures of Elyse on the playground:

Elyse and Mommy Go to the Circus

Tonight, Elyse and Anna went to the circus!

Post-Christmas Trip to Chattanooga

Just as we did last year, we went up to Chattanooga this year for brief post-Christmas vacation. We were only there for two days (Tuesday and Wednesday, yesterday and today), but it was still a nice trip, since going to Chattanooga gives us easy access to two of our favorite places: Rock City Gardens and the Tennessee Aquarium. (It also allows us to stop for lunch at the Fazoli's in Ft. Oglethorpe on the way up, but that's only a small part of the attraction.)

We went to Rock City first thing Tuesday afternoon--we pretty much had to, since we couldn't check in at our hotel until 4:00--and then went back at night for the "Enchanted Garden of Lights" We spent much of today (Wednesday) at the Aquarium, then headed back home.

Here are a dozen and a half pictures from our brief trip:

Elyse decorated a cookie at the North Pole Lodge (or the Pavilion, as it's known the rest of the year):

Butch Ross played Christmas songs on the mountain dulcimer:

Along the trail headed to Mother Goose Village:

A couple from the Aquarium:

Snow Mountain!

Today, after years of them begging for us to do it, we took the girls to Snow Mountain at Stone Mountain. Overall it was a good experience; the girls both loved the SnowZone area, with its small tube ride ("Penguin Run") and snowman-making equipment and snowball targets

The big snow rides were a different story, though. At our appointed time of 12:00 we got in line and did an Avalanche Alley trip--that's the one where the whole family rides down an impossibly steep and forbiddingly tall hill on a giant inner tube--and Elyse and her daddy were both traumatized. That was enough of Snow Mountain for us. ("Are you okay?" I asked Elyse after the ride as we walked towards the Crossroads area. "No," she said. We sat at a table and I held her and we talked about it for a while, and eventually she was okay, but she said she doesn't want to do that ever again. I don't either.) Jessica, however, wanted to do it again, so she and her mommy did.

After that, we went back to SnowZone for a while, then we rode the train, and we ended the day with a red velvet funnel cake (which, sadly, I did not take a picture of).

Here are some pictures from the day:

This is the Christmased-up Pebble Ridge Courthouse, as seen from the train: