Summer Trip #4 June 28 Stone Mountain, GA

Oh how I wish words could capture the events that took place in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Okay, well, I don't have that many pictures but I sure do have many, many memories. It all started with a "fuss and bustle" out the door because we did not leave at the designated time (clearly pointed out to Russell the night before). After finally getting to my cousins', Molly and Nate's, house it was all good. Levi of course had pooped and was crying as he met them for the first time. Anyway, after a little visit and playing football out in the front yard we finally decide on a place to meet up with all the rest of our family to eat.


playing outside was sooooooo hot!
Nate and Molly meet Levi.

Oh, wait, I failed to mention: this was a planned little family get together of all the cousins, aunts and uncles, and my 83 year old grandma.


So 18 people get a large area in Mellow Mushroom to eat. That was okay once everybody finally got their food, but, my good ole cousin Jim accidentally dumps an entire glass of freezing cold water across the table into my salad, my lap, onto the floor into my new purse and the side of the diaper bag. Thanks Jim for the cold shower.


one of our tables...




So after a couple of hours we finally finish eating making our way to the parking lot. Here we stand for another 18-21 minutes with everyone talking/fussing/sharing opinions of what to do next. My mom,aunts, and Ganmama decide we need to go to Food Lion to get discounted tickets to Stone Mountain Park. We pile into all of our cars to follow each other to yet another minor shananigan. This time Aunt Debra, Molly, and I are the only ones to get out and go in to purchase the discounted tickets with all of the pre-collected cash. We left the others sitting in the cars for about 15-20 minutes since we didn't add enough tax and collect the right amounts of money from each person... all-the-while we are using a friendly guys little "bonus card" while he waits and there was a language/communication barrier between us and the cashier guy, Shadeid. We did get the tickets!!


my cousin Meredith with Cason while we loiter in the parking lot.

We get to Stone Mountain Park and this is where the fun begins...ha...depends on your perspective I suppose but I will try to type it briefly. We take 30 minutes to actually park and get through the gate...maybe closer to 40 (literally). Wait, did I say through the gate, well not exactly we stop right in the middle of the little "building/gate/entrance" type thing to the park. I had a sense of accomplishment with 18 of us through the gate (this includes Russell and Uncle Mike who truly wanted to stay at the hotel and watch golf) once we all made it about 12 yards to a little curb where we stop to look at a map of the attractions in the park.



there we stop to loiter again in the way of the entire entrance,imagine that...we stand here for, no lie, another 20 minutes until we decide to proceed through the park.



So, after we finally get to a good walking pace looking for an activity to do (in this park that we paid $26 per adult to get into) we decide to stop at this rocky place for a family photo op...the best thing we did all day~

Gosh, we look like 3 mm big...the camera was on a rock.



Now more walking as it begins to get really dark in the sky and overcast (yet still sticky sticky hot). We end up at the cable car ride that takes you on a ride to the top of Stone Mountain and back down. Our family is separated...part of us get into a cable car that makes it to the top of the mountain around 3:00, not to come back down until almost 9:00, yes, that's a 9 not a typo and part of us were still in line waiting on the next cable car. Thank you Jesus I was in the part of the family that did not make it to the top! A huge storm came which causes the park people to shut everything down, meaning all 300 people at the top of the mountain must stay at the top of the mountain.When it was nice and sunny again we see the park has no power...yes, no power! So Cason was at the top with Gigi, Pappy, Aunt Debra, Uncle Van, Molly, Nate, Blake age 6, Ganmama age 83, just hanging out watching the storm and luckily (go Molly) playing cards for almost 6 hours of our alleged "family day." Meanwhile, down at the base of the mountain the rest of us, Renee, Jim, Meredith, Andrew, Mama Judy, Uncle Mike, Russell, Levi, and me, are left to find a little tiny diner to get out of the rain. With no seats and no air conditioning we sit and sweat and wait on the huge storm to pass. Well a long time goes by and finally the storm passes and we all leave the little diner to walk through the park hoping to find something to do. Well, with no power still, we find nothing that is up and running. Mama Judy, Meredith, Renee, Levi and I decided to pop-a-squat to people look. This was the most fun we had...we find mom's camera in the bag she left in Levi's stroller so we decided to take pictures of people (of course they didn't know we were taking their pictures because we would make out like we were aiming at one another or "birds" or "signs"). Hey, we got some cutie little guys on the camera for Meredith while we were aiming "at that Honey Baked Ham store." This was fun and passed a lot of time. Wonder what happened to those pics? We sent Jim, Russell, Andrew, and Uncle Mike to get into the car, go to the hotel, get Renee's van so we could all pile in and go eat. Its $8 to park so we didn't want to have all vehicles leave and re-enter.

So our group makes it to Applebee's down the way a bit. With the run of "luck" we'd been having all day I told Renee that they'd probably run out of food. Well the Lord has a sense of humor and they didn't have any Dr.Pepper or any Penne pasta when we ordered. Ha. Not surprised. Did I mention we were all sweaty, stinky and gross (except Levi)? Amy, the sister who was only 1.5 hours away in Columbus, Georgia was on her way to meet us around 6:30 all to have the same type of luck getting in traffic and lost making her miss all of our fun day by not arriving at Applebee's until a little after 8:00. That's okay...she got to cram in the van with us to make it back to the laser light show on the side of Stone Mountain. Yes, finally everyone on the mountain gets down the mountain and on the hillside at about 9:30 in time to see the lights and fireworks. Yay, we did one activitiy together and then had to pack it up. Russell, the boys, and I left Georgia about 10:45 to make it home so we could go to church. Now, how's that for one little day trip???? There is a picture slideshow with some pictures included from mom and Molly's cameras while they were stuck up on the mountain.