ExpeditionNik: Fun in the sun...and the dark!

Saturday, we went back to Atlanta for the day because Grace and I had a 5K saturday night. We went to the aquarium again in the morning and then walked around the park outside the aquarium. The park is a really neat reminder of the 1996 olympics.

Hanging out in Centennial Olympic Park

Later in the day we went to do some shopping at a huge (and really expensive) mall and then headed to get some dinner. We went to a great little burger place called flip burger.. one that we were supposed to be eating at with Abe and Grace. However, we didn't know that there were 2 locations and my GPS on my phone took us to the one further away... the traffic getting there was horrible, so we ended up eating at the restaurant, but in 2 different locations. Its pretty funny now, but it wasn't at the time! We then sat in traffic again on the way to Atlanta Motor Speed way to get to the 5K. It was also pouring and I was starting to have my doubts about running it! Eventually the skies cleared up and Grace and I geared up for the electric run.. which of course consisted of lots of glow sticks and hair glitter. Below E is really excited because she got her very own glow stick necklace to cheer us on with.

Getting ready for the 5K

Pre-race

The picture below was while we were waiting for the run to start. It didn't start until 8:50, so that it was plenty dark! We were right in front of where the run kicked off from and they were throwing out free stuff. We didn't catch any t-shirts, but we did catch some foam glow sticks to run with.

Waiting for it to start

View from outside the 5K.

The picture above is one that john took just before the run started. It was such an awesome run! It was really muggy because it had been raining earlier, but we ran around a lake that was lit up with umbrellas and glow sticks. It was pretty cool. We also ran through the tunnels into the race track and even got to run on the speedway! I have never been to a NASCAR race, so it was pretty cool that we got to run on the track. Just as we finished our run, it started to pour again.. it ended up being perfect timing and we all had such a great time!

Post-run--just as it started to pour again!

Hugging the peanut after the run

Sunday, John and E made me blueberry waffles and then we headed to Callaway Gardens. We had heard from several people that it was a really cool place.. and it turns out they were right! The "gardens" weren't just gardens. They had a big lake with a beach, some cool restaurants, lots of hiking, golf, tennis, hotels, and even a tree-top adventure that includes zip-lining through the trees and over another lake! It's about 35 minutes from the house and I think we will be spending a lot of time here this summer. The town around it is pretty small, but its called Pine Mountain and there is tons more hiking, lakes and cabins to rent, so we may even try some camping here one weekend!

Despite the warm weather lately, it hasn't quite been hot enough to warm up the water yet, so its still pretty cold, but true to her Colorado roots, E LOVED splashing around in the cold water.

The beach was really nice and had lots of sand for peanut to eat. And she did eat quite a bit!

John washing all the sand off peanut. She had it everywhere!

There is a vegetable garden that you can walk around that looks like something straight out of a peter rabbit book. It was a quiet little garden and the perfect place to end our Mother's day adventure.