A Mother/Daughter Adventure

Ella and I left home early Sunday evening and spent the night with Uncle Jesse and Aunt Sandy.  We were up early Monday morning for the first full day of our adventure.  We drove to Atlanta where we met up with my parents and Josh and Nicole, who had just completed the Peachtree Road Race.  After they got cleaned up, Ella, Mom, and I went to an afternoon movie.

We thoroughly enjoyed Cars 2.  It was fun listening to Ella's carefree laughter, and it was nice to be able to fully focus on just spending time with her with no other distractions.  After the movie we went back to the hotel for a little down time before leaving for a Braves game.  We hadn't driven a quarter mile down the road before the heavens opened up, and rain poured down.  We made a brief stop at a Kroger to pick up ponchos and an umbrella.  Thankfully, the rain slowed down and stopped and didn't start again until the 8th inning.

Ella had a really great time at the game.  It was so fun watching her cheer and clap and learn the tomahawk chop.  It brought back a lot of my own childhood memories.

After the game, there was a fantastic fireworks show, and then we walked back to the car in the pouring rain.  Uncle Judson got a good bicep workout by carrying Ella all the way.  Sweet Ella sacked out in the car at 10:30 p.m. on the way back to the hotel and barely woke up when I carried her inside and put her to bed.  

Tuesday morning all the siblings headed to Six Flags.  It was my first trip there in several years.  Ella and I split up from the others to ride the "kid" rides.  We had such a good time.  Now that I'm a parent, I really appreciate the things amusement parks do to make time there fun and relaxing for younger children.  Bugs Bunny World was a big hit in Ella's book.  She had a blast, and Jesse made sure I got in a couple of thrills before we left.  Sandy sat with Ella while he and I rode Batman and Goliath. 

Swinging

Truck-driving

After Bugs Bunny World we did a few rides for slightly bigger kids and then headed to Skull Island, which was FANTASTIC.  On those terribly hot summer days amusement parks can be so draining on kids, and this was such a fun place to cool off and run around.  To my surprise, it wasn't just for little kids, but there were big water slides for teenagers and parents to enjoy, too.

This is right before she screamed out, 

"Best!  Day!  Ever!!!"  :)

She said it just like that, too.

It's nice to have a friend bigger than you are

at the end of a long day.