Hotlanta Re-Visited, Masters Golf Tournament, and TWO Birthdays!

 Let the good times roll! And for us, all of our "good times" this spring have come in one big clump (instead of spread out-- so we could linger over them, like I would prefer). After Grandma and Grandpa Cardon's last visit to NC, and then our Cruise, we jumped right into Spring Break! Which took us even deeper south to Atlanta to see Grandma Joanie, Grandpa TomTom, and Uncle Devin, who were in town with tickets to the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, GA.

 We had a quick turnaround from our Cruise, getting home late Friday night, seeing Grandma and Grandpa C off Saturday night, celebrating a speedy version of Easter morning, re-packing for all five of us, and then driving the 5 1/2 hours down to Atlanta on Sunday afternoon. Phew! We were just glad to get there! Monday morning we met everyone for breakfast in the hotel lobby, and officially wished Zachary a HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY!!! See what I mean?!? JAM-PACKED.

 After some delicious complimentary waffles, we headed back to our room so Zach could unwrap his birthday loot. He had to ride all the way to Atlanta with that big huge stack of presents, just sitting there, tempting him! 

He's now a few more Star Wars lego sets richer, and has a new Pokemon card set and a Wii game to add to his official birthday tally. We were finally ready to head out and see what Hotlanta had to offer!

We decided to start at the Georgia Aquarium, which is the largest aquarium in the US. We still remembered how neat it was from our visit two years ago! I don't know what's so mesmerizing about watching fish swim in a big tank of water-- but it really is magical!

Ooooh! The jellyfish. Leah was so convinced that the fishies could touch her through the glass she wouldn't get within 5 feet of anything!

Mommy with the birthday boy! (Notice Leah's white-knuckle grip on the stroller, ha, ha!).

The kids loved getting to spend the day with Grandma Joanie. 

 Wee-Wee's was happy just being far AWAY from the fish!

 They had a huge tank with beluga whales that we could have sat and watched all morning. They swam so gracefully. 

 The aquarium also had a really cool tunnel you could walk through and see hundreds of different fish, as well as sharks, and manta rays. Amazing! Jon wasn't so impressed considering he'd snorkeled with their relatives just a few days before though. 

 Ginat manta ray-- he was enormous!

 Saw Shark

 There were several divers in there cleaning the glass, and I caught this picture just as a humongous whale shark swam right over one of them. You couldn't PAY me to be in there with all those sea creatures!((Shudder))

We spent all morning and well into lunch-time with our new fish friends, but our growling stomachs finally got the better of us and told us it was time to eat! I was so excited to go back to Atlanta in order to eat at FLIP Burger Boutique again-- my Top Chef fav Richard Blais' chain of local restaurants. Looks like it's won all kinds of awards!

Jon was a real trooper and waited out in the car with Zach and Leah (who was napping), so my mom and I (and Lucy) could indulge in our foodie lunch. We split a Krispy Kreme milkshake (made with liquid nitrogen) for starters and my half was just a distant memory by the time our food even got there!

 We also shared the Sides Sampler consisting of the most amazing vodka-battered onion rings (I know I probably shouldn't like that flavor but they were divine), sweet potato tater tots, and hand cut french fries. They each came with their own dipping sauces and were FAB.

 Now onto the pies de resistance! We decided to try two different burgers and split them half and half: 1) "the Southern," which had a chicken fried beef patty, pimento cheese, b&b pickles, and Coca Cola ketchup, and 2) "the Oaxaca," which had avocado, cilantro lime mayo, queso fresco, and pico de gallo. Blais pretty much killed it on the burgers! (And don't worry, we brought Jon some takeout for being such an awesome sport).

 We quickly checked out Dekalb Market (a huge international farmer's market), then headed back to the hotel and pretty much kicked it the rest of the afternoon until Grandpa TomTom and Uncle Devin joined us (they'd spent the day golfing). We settled on Frontera Grill for dinner, which was Zach's special birthday feast, and even though we were at a fine Mexican joint, he picked a hamburger. Gotta love him!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our handsome, silly, irreplaceable 6-year old dude!

Figuring out how to get him a birthday cake was a little trickier, but I'd seen some cupcakes at the Dekalb market earlier, so I bought a box and we celebrated by singing him Happy Birthday and eating his birthday cupcakes that night in our hotel room. WE LOVE YOU ZACH-O!

Tuesday morning was Jonathan's HAPPY BIRTHDAY, but he got to wake up early and head out to Augusta, GA with my Dad and brother Devin to spend the day at the Masters Tournament. Woohoo! That left my mom and I to wrangle the kids by ourselves, and we decided to start the day with a yummy Southern breakfast at The Flying Biscuit. 

They have kind of an eclectic menu and are famous for their biscuits and creamy dreamy grits, so it was a fantastic way to start the day off!

 We found this Legoland Discovery Center while searching online for things to do, and decided to give it a whirl and see what it was all about. It's located in a mall in downtown Atlanta, and we had no idea what to expect-- but we were very pleasantly surprised with how much was there!

 It featured two different rides, a little mini-tour of how they make Legos, lots of different play areas, and a mini-world with different models. Zach is our resident Lego-fan, and he was in heaven!

 The featured exhibit for the month was of Star Wars Episode 1: Phantom Menace, so there were a bunch of different scenes all made from Legos. This was of Padme's home planet of Naboo.

Waiting in line to ride "Merlin's Apprentice" which was kind of like a carousel that went around and around up in the air. Zach loved it! Ha ha! Actually he rode with my mom and she said he was kind of freaked out.

 Next we waited in line for the 4D movie, which was really, really cute. In addition to it being 3D, it snowed and splashed water on us. All in all we had a blast playing at the Lego Discovery Center and it was well worth the $15 ticket fee. Nice job, Atlanta!

 We had no idea what time the guys would get done in Augusta, so we decided to kill some time at a nice little park close to the hotel until they made it home for Jon's birthday dinner.

The weather forecast predicted rain, but we lucked out and had a gorgeous afternoon with perfect temperatures. Leah climbed up this mountain all by herself and was very proud! She looks so grown up to me in this picture!

The guys finally got done around 7:30 pm and met us at a pizza place for dinner. Probably not Jon's pick for the ideal birthday place (he'd want sushi), but it hit the spot and he was ready to get home and open his presents! HAPPY 33rd BIRTHDAY to our wonderful, hard-working, funny DAD!!

He had a great day exploring the world famous Masters golf tournament during the "practice round." Apparently tickets are next to impossible to come by, and it was pretty thrilling to be a part of something so prestigious and historic in the sport's world.

 They all three said how immaculately kept the golf course was-- and it looks amazing from the pictures! How cool that he's now been to the US Open, as well as the Masters. 

 A delicious birthday lunch of traditional Southern fare-- at least concessions-style! Egg salad sandwiches, BBQ beef, lemonade, and a sugar cookie ice cream sandwich (with peach ice cream of course, this being Georgia and all). 

I think the thumbs up means they're Boys Day Out was a success! So glad he got to have a whole day to himself for his birthday!

 We were all sad to see Wednesday morning roll around, because for the Cardon Clan-- that meant our vacation time was up! We squeezed in some extra play time with Grandma and Grandpa at the Pirates Cove mini-golf before we had to hit the road.

 Lucy and Grandpa TomTom have been good buddies for years now!

We all headed nearby for a quick bite to eat and then piled into the car and headed back up to North Carolina. We were so glad we got a chance to see some family in our neck of the woods for a change! We had a blast exploring Atlanta and celebrating our two birthday boys!

And we couldn't sign off without acknowledging the "Flying Bum in the Sky" which has become a pretty famous landmark in the Morris household (it's really a random peach in Gaffney, SC). Ha ha! Happy Spring Break to you!