Thursday, May 21, 2009

Family Day At Stone Mountain

We don't give a lot of presents on birthdays here. Usually, we go a special place to celebrate. This year Thomas wanted to go to Stone Mountain park. It's a great place!
His real birthday is tomorrow and Daddy will be working. We will take a field trip to the zoo tomorrow. :) However, Daddy wanted to go with us to Stone Mountain. Here are some pics from today. Enjoy!


Gideon has been asking for weeks now to ride a train. He was so excited!!


He does not LOOK very excited because he was wanting me to get on with them, not take pictures. Hehe!


He wanted to ride that one too and was disappointed when I told him it was just there so we could see it.



Michael bought us all a chocolate snack for the train. Thomas is eating a chocolate covered marshmallow.


So is Judah.


Gideon chose the chocolate covered Oreo. Isn't that a sweet little cookie face?


And we're off. He was so mesmerized!
We all enjoyed watching his expressions.

After the train it was lunch time at Miss Katie's Sideboard Restaurant. Thomas is pretending to be a King. The table was BIG and Michael said that's what he felt like.


Judah loves having his picture taken.


The Great Barn. It was a fun place to play for awhile. There are different games you can play inside. They all involve foam balls. Michael's favorite involved the guns you could shoot with the balls (of course!).

After the Barn, Michael and the boys decided to go on the Sky Hike. It looked awesome but with my shoulder thing I couldn't do it. Gideon was too little anyway. So, while they were suspended in the air on a ropes course, Gideon and I went on the train again!!! Yeah! He fell asleep almost as soon as we pulled out of the station.


Here is the relief carving on the side of the mountain.


It's really quite something!!


What a goof! I wanted to take our picture so, of course, he put his hand over his face. :) Silly boy!!


Isn't this the sweetest picture EVER??!!


AS we were walking back to the Sky Hike to see how the boys were coming, we saw the bubble man. Gideon loved that!


The guy made HUGE bubbles!

Michael said that both of the boys were scared during the "hike". He was really proud of them though because they both worked THROUGH the fear and finished the course. Thomas was afraid the whole time but Michael said he kept saying, "I'm NOT going to let the fear win!" Judah was afraid in the beginning but Michael said about halfway through he just took off on his own and didn't even need Daddy next to him! Yeah!!! That's HUGE for him!


Thomas is waiting for Michael to cross.


Here he comes.


Oh look! Daddy spotted Mommy and Gideon...


and decided to clown around for the pictures! I rolled my eyes of course.

Since they were only about 1/2way through... we went on a short walk.


Gideon was just fascinated by


this waterwheel. He watched it for awhile.


Okay back to the carving, it's HUGE! It really doesn't look so big from far away.


But in perspective... this is a tree.

Here's some info I gleaned from the web:
The entire carved surface measures 3 acres (12,000 m2), about the size of three football fields. The carving of the three men towers 400 feet (120 m) above the ground, measures 90 by 190 feet (58 m), and is recessed 42 feet (13 m) into the mountain. The deepest point of the carving is at Lee's elbow, which is 12 feet (3.7 m) to the mountain's surface.


Gideon wanted to climb too.


He was so cute!


He enjoyed himself immensely. I enjoyed watching him!


This is what we saw when we returned to the others. Thomas being brave.



Judah waiting his turn.


Look at him go! He's got it now!!


Every once in a while though he would get this serious look. I'm sure it had something to do with the height.


C'mon Thomas!


You can do it!!


DON'T LOOK DOWN!


It really was HIGH.


There was a small rope course for little kids. After the big boys completed the real course this was a cakewalk for them.


They practically ran through it. LOL!


Gideon could do it too but he needed a little help from...


Goofy Dad!

At the end of the little rope course there was a zipline. That was a HUGE hit!!!


Even Michael tried it out.


Judah loved it too.


Can you see the sheer joy on Thomas' face?


He was like an old pro.


Gideon's first try.


Gideon's second try. He kept falling off after about 10 feet. He just kept going back over and over until he


GOT IT!!! YEAH GIDEON!! Look at that beautiful smile!


Thomas was pushing Gideon and there was music playing. He started moving the stroller like he was dancing. It was so funny! Gideon loved it.


These last two aren't from Stone Mountain but I just couldn't resist...

Some people have normal woodpiles...



Others landscape their woodpiles.


Scary isn't it? Heehee!!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Boyhood!

My boys are always doing boy things. Sometimes this can be, um, challenging. (Mothers of boys understand this statement I'm sure!)
While I was taking pics of the dogs yesterday, this is what the big boys were doing...



Let's work together and see if we can tie this piece of stump to the rope and make a swing!


Let me test it and see if it will hold.


We got it! Now how do we get on it?


Judah always uses his head in situations like this. :) Smart boy.

I held my breath knowing that it would fall off in a few minutes. It did but thankfully it didn't crush anyone. :)