ATL - Turner Field

Jordan actually had to attend the conference for a little while on Saturday so I had originally planned to take the girls by myself to the last remaining place on our City Pass, the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. But since we missed out on Turner Field Friday, we rearranged a bit and made sure we left early enough Saturday morning to get that in before Jordan had to be at SECO! We did the first tour of the day, and it was just our family and another couple. It was also FREEZING - like there were snow flurries ... IN ATLANTA! (I actually blame Jordan for this. Every time we go somewhere where it should NEVER snow, it does. I once went camping with him over Memorial Day weekend in Arizona and there was a blizzard. In Arizona, people!!! Honestly, I didn't know there were places it really does snow in Arizona until I met him!) Anyway, despite the less-than-fantastic temperatures, we still loved our tour! Jordan has been a Braves fan since he was a little kid, and while I have more of a west coast bias (Go Angels and Dodgers!), I love baseball in general so this was really cool for both of us. I know, we're sports nerds :) In addition to learning a bit about the stadium itself, we got to see the media areas (a little nostalgic for me!), the clubhouse, the dugout, the VIP stuff and walk on the field. I'm really glad we did the tour - now hopefully we can make it back for a game before we leave!!

After the tour, I dropped Jordan off at the Georgia World Conference Center for his meetings. It was actually a pretty cool part of town. It's right behind the CNN Center and situated in a plaza that also has Phillips Arena, where the Atlanta Hawks play, and the Georgia Dome where the Atlanta Falcons play. So it was a little bonus to get to see both of those places too. (Man, we really are nerds!) I took the girls to the museum but was pretty underwhelmed. I just think Madison is too young to get into anything like that. There were some impressive dinosaur skeletons in the atrium and an exhibit on extreme animals that we walked through, but she just really wasn't interested so we only stayed an hour. Then we headed to my favorite Atlanta hotspot, the one place I've been dreaming of going to since we moved out here - IKEA!!!! I love Ikea. I could spend hours there (Next time you can come on the trip with us, Nana, and keep the kids so I can really enjoy myself!!!) I wanted to buy everything of course and had all kinds of brilliant ideas on how to organize, decorate and improve our entire house, but I restrained myself and only picked up a few things :)

Once we picked Jordan up again, it was time to head home :( We loved our trip so much and I hated to think our time together was coming to an end. I wish I could say the return trip was uneventful, but I have to tell the story if only to remind myself to not be a brat sometimes! We went to Atlanta via Birmingham, AL, and it was a very easy 6-hour drive (7 with our nursing stops). However, as we went to leave, the GPS was taking us a different way, up north and then across the tops of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. There were no major cities up there and no interstates. I argued in favor of the tried and true route, but Jordan wanted to see more of the countryside - "I like new roads," he said. So north we went. And our seven-hour drive turned into a nine-hour drive through windy two-lane roads in the middle of nowhere, which of course our kids were thrilled about. And it got dark like two hours into the drive so you couldn't see any of the countryside anyway! Needless to say, I was not in the best of moods and spent a good portion of the ride sitting in back trying to console crying children and stop fuming. I finally softened up the last hour or so and got back up front but by then he was mad at me for being mad at him so he refused my attempts to make amends. Silly of both of us, I know, but whatever. We made it safely but were much later than I had planned and I had to teach Relief Society the next morning. Grumble grumble grumble. Anyway, I was talking to some friends at church the next day who had also gone to Atlanta and traveled home the previous afternoon but had taken the Birmingham route. They said a tanker truck had tipped over in the road, blocking the freeway and making everyone get off on a detour that added at least an hour to the drive. So our way wasn't really that much longer in the end, and I spent nine hours being grumpy instead of enjoying what little time I had left with Jordan on vacation. Oops. Lesson learned :) On a side note, though, we had to stop at a little hole-in-the-wall convenience store for Madison to go potty somewhere in cannibal country (just kidding). The bathroom faucet only had hot water, but I was not about to let her out of there without washing her hands. I tried valiantly to keep turning the water off and on and only stick her hands under in the two seconds right after I turned it back on before it had a chance to get too hot, but she still wasn't a fan. Now, almost two weeks later, she's still fighting me on washing her hands after going potty because she says the water will be too hot!! Silly girl :)

Overall, we had an awesome trip, and I'm so glad we went!! I love spending time together and making memories! It would be easy to just sit at home and say we can't afford things like this, but it's so important to us to really grow and experience things together as a family. My greatest memories as a child center around family vacations so I'm happy to already be starting those traditions with our family!!

(Looks like I went overboard on pictures again! Fair warning :) )

Welcome to Turner Field!

With the exception of the strike season, the Braves won the division 14 straight years! Jordan is checking out some of the highlights

Jackie Robinson game-worn jersey (and a little Dodger shout out to annoy Jordan!)

 1995 World Series trophy

About as close as either of us will ever get ;)

 View from the upper deck

Of course the ballpark has Coke stuff all over it. These are the cannons that go off when a run is scored

A view of the city from the ballpark. The gold-domed building is the state capitol

The view from the broadcasting booth

Press box. Don't make fun of me for including this picture! Sometimes I miss it a little :)

Entering Mecca

Inside the clubhouse!

Supposedly the first dollar Chipper Jones ever made. He taped it above his locker, which is now cleaned out since he just retired, but he left the dollar and for now the Braves don't plan to give the locker to anyone else.

Group shot - note all the blankets!! We needed them when we were outside!

Hank Aaron bat

Chipper Jones bat

McKinley checking out the backstop 

The seats behind the backstop are like recliners and start at $25,000/year. We can dream, right?!

Happy family

Hanging out in the dugout

Put us in, Coach!

 Even Mom was there :)

 I think Jordan was having a Field of Dreams moment here. If you build it, he will come.

Hello from Turner Field! (Unfortunately, they were resodding the infield grass, so it doesn't look very pretty)

 Visiting bullpen

Parting shot

Dinosaurs at Fernbank

The Fernbank mascot (a sloth I think). You can tell she's thrilled 

She's supposed to be waving hello to all of you, but I think she just wanted to wave goodbye to the museum! But the dinosaur skeleton is impressive

 Bye Atlanta! We'll miss you!