Yesterday the kids headed back to school after fall break. For once, I was really happy for them to be going back to school. It's not that I was trying to get rid of them (really!), we just need to get back on schedule. It was a fun break, but it was crazy!
The first week we headed to Atlanta. We had tried planning trips to two other places, and the plans just weren't working. Then we realized that a long weekend in Atlanta would work well with our schedule and our budget. As a bonus, when we mentioned to my best friend's parents that we were heading there, they invited us to stay with them in Atlanta. We had a great time, and it was the perfect mix of fun activities and relaxing. It was exactly what we needed.
The kids had very few requests for the trip, so we tried to accommodate them. They wanted a variety pack of the little boxes of junk food cereal. (My mom always got them for us on car trips growing up, and that tradition lives on with my kids.) The boys wanted to go to Legoland. We couldn't quite fulfill that request, but we did make it to the Lego Discovery Center. They loved it. Ree wanted to go to an American Girl flagship store. Again, we couldn't quite accommodate, but we at least went to American Girl regular store in Atlanta. She really liked it. Natalia loved it. The mall with the American Girl store also had a Lego store, a traveling Lego exhibit with national monuments built to Lego scale, a carousel, and a food court with a Moe's. I am pretty sure that trip to the mall was the real highlight of the trip.
The kids also insisted on staying at a hotel, at least for one night. It was another one of those things that took several tries to find a plan that would actually work, but we ended up staying in Newberry, SC for the night. As it turns out, we were practically the only ones staying in Newberry, SC for the night, so we were able to score an amazing deal on a room at a Holiday Inn Express with an indoor pool. We had the run of the pool and the hot tub in the evening and again in the morning. In between the kids zoned out and enjoyed watching all the "forbidden" shows on Cartoon Network and we got more than our money's worth out of the breakfast buffet.
We got home on Thursday, October 1, right before The Big Rains came. The heavy rain started the next day. We were grateful that we only drove in light to moderate rain, and we were really glad we got home when we did once we found out the section of interstate we drove on washed away that weekend.
