One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish!

     We all loaded up (and when I say all I mean me, Brad and Morgan in our car and Brad's parents, Lisa and Randy, Brad's brother, Matt, and Matt's daughter, Ashlyn in another car) Monday morning and headed to Atlanta for the day to see what kind of trouble we could get into.  Well, trouble found us.  We were already running a little behind because, let's face it, when you have a baby, something happens in the space-time continuum and you're not able to get anywhere on time ever again no matter how hard you try or how much time you allot yourself.  Let me preface this next sentence by stating that in spite of running a little behind, we were NOT speeding AT ALL!  In fact, we had actually slowed down to under 45 mph for an elderly couple in the car ahead of us.  With that disclaimer in mind, I'll continue... Brad was driving my jeep and we were literally about 1000 feet from our exit when a woman slammed into the driver's side of our car!  That's right, the whole side of my beautiful car, from the front side panel all the way to the back looks like it took batting practice from Albert Pujols and he was definitely swinging for the fences (for the women out there who aren't married to a sports stat book, Pujols plays for the St. Louis Cardinals and is an amazing baseball player).  The positive side is that nobody was injured, praise God.

     Taking it all in stride, we arrived at the hotel to meet everyone about a half hour late, but in one piece.  After calming our nerves and a dirty diaper change (Hey!  Scary car wrecks would make anybody have a dirty diaper!), we all headed off to The Varsity to be yelled at by the cashiers and to enjoy some yummy hotdogs.

     As soon as we stepped into The Varsity, we heard, "What'll ya have, what'll ya have, what'll ya have, what'll ya have?!"  For those of you not familiar with The Varsity, it's been around since 1928 and has a great history.  This history, however, was completely lost on 2 little girls.

     After lunch, we all headed to the Georgia Aquarium to see the fishies!  Morgan LOVED them!  Here she is looking at one of the larger tanks (picture at right).  She was so amazed!  She LOVES fish!  Her doctor's office has a big saltwater tank in the waiting room and she has so much fun watching the fish swim around.  Towards the end of our aquarium visit, we found a smaller tank with Morgan-size fish in it and she lost it!  She spread her hands and arms over the top of it (the top was glass, too, so that you could look down on top of the fish as well) and squealed with delight non-stop at the fish!  I guess this means we're going to have to get her a little aquarium of her own for Christmas!  Hopefully, she won't try and eat the fish out of it like she does with everything else these days. That's all I need is to have to rush her to the hospital and tell them she ate tropical fish!  "And the Mother-of-the-Year Award goes to..."  Maybe we'll put the tank up somewhere high... on the kitchen counter... with a gate around it... and a motion detector... and a moat... or maybe we'll just wait until Christmas 2011... or 12... 13?

     The girls were angels the whole time, even though they were totally exhausted by the time we left.  Here's Morgan all tuckered out on her daddy.  A quick nap in the car, some down time back at the hotel and they were recharged and ready to go again!  The guys headed off to see the Braves play the Dodgers and the girls headed to a nearby mall for a little shopping and dinner at Johnny Rocket's.  Morgan got to be a big girl and sit in a highchair for the first time!  She's growing up so fast!  I can't believe she'll be 7-months-old on Friday!  Wow, how time flies!  We all had fun being "the loud table" and banging our hands on the table to Wipeout (before anybody rolls their eyes and sends a general cursing our way for all of the tables like that you've ever had to sit near, we were the only ones in the restaurant).  Even Morgan chimed in and banged on the table, too!  Here's a picture of the girls at Johnny Rocket's (Morgan's in the highchair!)... best buddies!  We had a great time just being girls.  Ashlyn said "I LOVE girl parties!"

    Later that night, the guys got back to the hotel with huge smiles on their faces.  They thought they were going to have to suffer the dreaded family curse again of the Braves always losing when we go see them, but they actually got to see an exciting ending at the game when the Braves came back to win 4-3 with 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th inning!  What started out as such a crappy day ended up pretty good after all!  The trip was a success, Morgan loved seeing the fish, just like I thought she would, and we all made it home safely.  Now, I get to take my car to the body shop tomorrow and start on a new adventure in life!