Stone Mountain

We spent the day at Stone Mountain Park yesterday. It was sunny for the first time in forever so we took advantage of it and headed out. We stopped at Chick-fil-A for lunch first - can't go wrong with that, right? So we entered the park around 1:30 or so. Our plan was to climb up to the top of the mountain. My kids had never done that before. And I know Lorena has never done it.

I used to do it as a child many times - my Uncle Renee used to take us most every weekend, we would take Chico the dog and climb up to the top. We'd stop at our "cave" and have a picnic, head to the top and then climb back down. Those were fun memories. Anyway, the kids were excited about giving it a whirl. So we started out. Alex fell down and skinned his knees right away. I thought it was all over at that point. But my boy brushed himself off and started on his way, despite his injury. Way to go Bubby!

We had a great time. The kids climbed on every rock they could find. They climbed trees when they could find them. Mary had an incredible amount of energy and would run everywhere. Everywhere.

We made it almost to the top, when we saw the rails on this super steep spot. To the left of the rails was the "cave". I was unable to enjoy it at all because my kids suddenly became crazy kids and were climbing all over it and jumping off and in every possible way trying to give me a heart attack. Apparently I have a fear of heights and it was raging yesterday on that mountain! I could just picture any one of the kids falling off the cave and rolling down the mountain. Yikes. Thank goodness no one did.

At one point, we went off on a trail and were able to see a great view of Mount Carmel. The kids were excited about that.

Liv saw moss everywhere and was particularly interested in it. For some reason, Lorena thought it was gross so Liv would tease her by touching it all the time. Here's a shot of her moss.

We finally made it to the top!

It was c-o-l-d!!! The kids were shivering and dying to get down. We decided to take the tram down to the bottom of the mountain and take the train around to our car. Well, long story short, the tram cost $30 for us to ride and when we reached the bottom, there was no train to take us to our car. So we had to walk! All the way to the other side of the mountain.It was getting colder and darker. Mary was whiney and we were all exhausted. Praise the Lord we finally made it before anyone fell out! We were so thankful to see the car! So our adventure ended w/ four very tired kiddos but some wonderful memories made.