Road Trip!!!

Look what came just in time for our first real "road trip" to Atlanta, GA! How exciting to take the boys somewhere, away from here, with daddy all to ourselves. The trip was planned for Grant's 6th birthday present. For those of you that don't know, Grant is a fish fanatic. So we thought it would be appropriate to take him to see the WORLD"S BIGGEST AQUARIUM! When we first started planning this trip the thought was to take Grant alone, thinking he might want some "me time", but as turns out it at dinner one night he had different plans in mind. Shane and I were talking about who would take care of Drake and all the details that went along with it, when Grant said,"But, I want Drake to go with us to see the aquarium too." How could we argue?!?!?!?

I'm not sure if I was more scared of taking Drake that far out of town, away from all the doctors or if it was really ,I secretly wanted some, "me time". As it turns out I couldn't have dreamed of a better time with the four of us. The travel down went well even with the pit stop every 45 minutes to change Drake. Seems a long road trip is the cure for cleaning out his system! We had great food everywhere, slept well, played hard and went to all the sites we could fit in to a single weekend.

The aquarium was magnificent, a real treat for both boys. The views of the ginormous fish tanks were such that I think Drake had a chance to understand the beauty of the ocean. We left there and grabbed a snack and went across to the Coke museum, too cool for the grown-up kids! After a long hike back to the car, we jetted over to the Varsity. A true hot dog loving, greasy burger, chocolate shake, drive-in landmark. Soooooooooooooooo glad Shane found this spot and insisted we give it a try! We were told they serve several hundred people and cars A DAY, we believe it!Following that, we topped of the day with Grant getting to swim in the indoor pool back at the hotel.We went to a crazy good place for dinner, a Mongolian noodle house. You go and pick your noodle or rice and all the toppings from vegis to meat and add your pick of GREAT sauces to top it off. They then cook it on hibachi grills and when your done, you go back for more. Can't wait for one to come to Greensboro!

The next day was a trip to see the largest dinosaur bones known to man at the Furnbank Meuse um of Natural History. Only to find a real treat for me, there was an exhibit called-Blind/Sight:Conversations with the Visually Impaired. What are the chances to see what all the doctors and therapist talk about with Drake's sight. Even though no one knows for sure, it was so enlightening to get a visual of Drake's possible or lack of sight.( I'm trying to find out if the exhibit will be any where in NC in the future.) After that, we headed to the Atlanta Zoo! The pandas were a site to see and oddly enough the entire Zoo wasn't too long and we got to see it all in about an hour & a half. Pizza was the hit of the day for lunch. Swimming again, while mommy got in a little shopping time. Seems a waste to go to Hotlanta and not check out a few shopping sites! I think at this point we were all to tied to go any further and decided to have dinner in the hotel restaurant, Ruth's Chris Steak House. Probably the only time to go on a romantic dinner for four at such a nice restaurant.

We even made it home with out an "Are we there yet?" We are now home safe and thankful for the chance to have spent some time together as a family, a real family, not handicapped one, just a family.

Thank you Grant for this gift to us, on your 6th Birthday!!!