We drove down Wednesday afternoon. Brian left work early and we got to the hotel around 5:30 pm. Rylan slept most of the drive so we made it there without stopping. We stayed at a Staybridge Suites in a room that had a separate bedroom with a door. So we put Carter out in the main room in his playyard and Rylan in the bedroom with us in the playyard we're borrowing from Brian's parents.
We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and then went to dinner at Shane's Ribshack. The hotel was near Perimeter Mall so there are a ton of stores and restaurants in the area. After dinner we played a little and then got everyone ready for bed. Brian got Carter down while I fed Rylan. We were able to put Rylan down then and watch muted TV for a little bit before we went to sleep. It was nice going to sleep around 9:30 pm!
Rylan was up a lot both nights we were at the hotel but I was able to get him to quiet down by feeding him or moving him to the bouncer before he woke up Carter or anyone else in the hotel (hopefully).
On Thursday morning we all got ready and dropped Brian off for his conference around 8:30 am. Because it was early and nothing was open yet, the boys and I killed some time at Target and then headed over to IKEA. I was able to keep the boys happy enough while I shopped for about an hour and a half. I brought the double Maclaren stroller with us on this trip and it worked out well. I was able to maneuver it around the store pretty well.
After IKEA, we ate lunch in the car and then headed over to Zoo Atlanta. We were there about 2 1/2 hours exploring. It had rained a lot on Wednesday and some on Thursday morning, but it cleared up in the afternoon. However it was still cold and really windy. But that meant the zoo was practically empty. We often went 20 minutes without seeing anybody else. I loved that. It meant that it was a lot easier to keep track of Carter as he ran around. He never got in the stroller once and walked the entire zoo. Luckily Rylan was happy in the stroller the whole time which made it really easy for me.
Carter can now say the word zoo and was excited when I told him where we were going. Every time I asked him where we were going to go that day, he answered with "zoo". Even today when we ask him what he did the other day, he answers with "zoo".
Zoo Atlanta is part of the zoo reciprocal program so I only had to pay for 5o% of one adult ticket for me and the boys with my Knoxville Zoo membership.
When we entered the zoo, Carter ran right up to the flamingos. He was so happy. He kept laughing at them and imitating the sounds they were making.
We saw a lot of these animal statues and Carter had to sit on all of them ...
Carter stared at the zebras for awhile ...
Rylan all snuggled up in the stroller ...
Carter ran up to all the boards you can put your head through but always gave me some weird expressions ...
More statues ...
Zoo Atlanta has a huge gorilla exhibit. One of the gorillas had a baby ...
The silverback walking ...
This was Carter's favorite exhibit ...
Can you guess what he was so excited about?
Naked mole rats!
The Komodo dragon statue ...
We liked watching the pandas. The female had a baby the day before we got there. I think it was the only panda cub born in the US in 2010 so far so it was a big deal.
Carter liked looking at the animals, but we liked playing in the landscaping even more and finding sticks. I spent a lot of time pulling him out of the bushes ...
Rylan seemed to like looking around for awhile but eventually he got tired and took a nap ...
Actually, the naked mole rats were probably Carter's second favorite animals. I think he would have watched the kangaroos for hours if I would have let him. He liked to imitate them and jump around.
We stopped by the petting zoo to pet some goats and sheep ...
Before leaving, we stopped by the playground. Carter really liked the school bus ...
When we left the zoo, we made our way back up to the Sandy Springs area. I was planning on stopping by the hotel before getting Brian but there were a few accidents so we went straight to Brian's conference and got there about 5 minutes before he was done. Both boys slept the whole time so the traffic wasn't a big deal. If they had both screamed for an hour, I may of gone crazy.
Brian had to do some work so we went to the hotel for a bit, did a quick dinner at Panera, and then all got to bed.
On Friday morning Brian had to do some work again. I got us packed up and then we headed out to drop Brian off. Since Brian only had a half day at the conference, the boys and I stuck around Sandy Springs and did some shopping. It was freezing and I didn't want to have the boys outside. It actually sleeted while we were in the car eating a snack!
Brian had lunch with some of his coworkers and we were on the road around 2 pm. We decided to stop at the Tellus Science Museum (link) in Cartersville, GA because it is right off the interstate and we get in free with our AMSE membership. I highly recommend becoming a member of the AMSE. Our membership only cost $35 for the year and we have already used it to get in free to 4 other museums around the country.
There were a couple of trucks, a crane, and train car outside of the museum that Carter was super excited about as soon as he caught sight of them.
The fossil gallery was impressive ...
Rylan hung out in the stroller again but we noticed him looking around a lot ...
The Science in Motion Gallery had all sorts of land and air vehicles ...
Our little astronaut ...
There was a fossil dig area for kids that Carter enjoyed ...
There was also a gem panning room ...
"Found one!"
Carter wasn't too sure about getting his hands wet and dirty at first, but he eventually loosened up ...
Carter didn't quite get it and when he found a gem, he'd throw it back in the water ...
Carter really liked running around the Big Backyard section of the museum and playing with all the exhibits. The museum expanded and remodeled a couple of years ago and so everything still looked new. I was really impressed with everything there.
Trucks!
Carter enjoyed banging on this drum that caused the wooden birds to move on the attached drum ...
Carter being cute ...
The last section of the museum was the mineral gallery which we only did a quick run through because it wasn't too interesting for Carter. We had fun at the museum and it was definitely worth stopping at for a couple of hours.
We got on the road around 4:45 pm but only made it a few miles before three highway patrol cars pulled in front of us and stopped all traffic for 30 minutes.
A car had gone off the road around the bend and a helicopter had to land to take someone to the hospital. We totally understood the need to stop traffic but couldn't believe that if we had left the museum only one minute earlier, we wouldn't of had to stop. The boys (especially Rylan) weren't too happy about stopping - there was lots of crying.
We stopped for dinner just north of Chattanooga and got home right around the boys' bedtime.
I'm really glad we made the trip with Brian. I had lots of fun taking the boys to some new places and I think they enjoyed it too.
