Kennesaw Mountain

Me and the kids are at my parents house for a few days. Lee is enjoying his nerd convention (DragonCon) in Atlanta. I'm sure I'll have pictures and a post on that later on! Thursday night my parents work at the Atlanta temple, so I had to figure out something to do with the kids that didn't involve hours of tv. Adam and Lauren were getting ready to head to a weekend wedding trip, so I didn't want to bother them. So I came up with the idea to get the kids McDonalds (which they rarely have) and let them run around Kennesaw Mountain.

Earlier today, on the drive up here, I was thinking that maybe I'm a bit too, oh I don't know.... not easy going with the kiddos. They exhaust me everyday and maybe I just make too big of a deal out of things. I thought I gave them freedom to be kids or whatever, but maybe I was wrong? Well, after this evening, I realized- I don't make this stuff up. I don't seek it out. They are kids. I am an exhausted momma. It is what it is.

Will wakes up from a long nap and purposefully, I don't give him much to eat. Amy is starving, but that's good, right? Because I want them to eat their very bad for you food that I'm about to pay for. So, I head to Kennesaw Mountain and I knew there was a McD's practically next door. I get to it, only to see a huge sign "Thank you for 35 yrs of service, We are now closed down." WHAT???!!!?? So I start to hunt for another, the one that I thought was down the street was actually a Burger King. Gross. Despite both kids grumbling, crying and whining, I found one, zoom through the line and before I can even get the drinks, Amy is begging for her toy. We head to the mountain, Amy had devoured her happy meal, and because she's 'busy eating' won't share with Will, who is crying because he's watching Amy eat and doesn't have any of his own. (She did give him a fry or two, but that was it).

We drive up the mountain. Oh my goodness- talk about feeling flabby and out of shape! After 15, I lost count of how many BICYCLES I passed riding up the thing. Talk about hard core. Not to mention all the walkers and runners... some with small children. We get to the top, and Amy declares that she has to go to the bathroom. There are no bathrooms at the top. And stupid me, I forgot our small toilet. (I meant to pack it, but forgot) I look around the car and decide that she can pee on a blanket and I'll just wash it later. She's ok with that idea. So she does. Except she doesn't pull her pants down enough and her pants get soaked. In the meantime Will has a drink, but I'm so distracted by Amy, I don't notice until until it's too late that he has poured the entire thing on himself. (sigh).

Amy now says she doesn't want to go walk the mountain because her pants are wet and she wants to come back another day. I think to myself, "I'm not doing this again," so I talk her into staying.

Pre Spill

Do you think they gave us enough ketchup and BBQ sauce??

When everyone finishes their food we head out to walk to the tippy top. I carried Will up some stairs and I felt better when some rippling, muscular man said, "Wow- that's a load to carry up here." Yes sir, a 25 lb boy is quite heavy while going up a mountain.

Look closely and you can see both of their pants are soaked. 

Amy ran up, Such energy!

Resting on a bench

When we were at the top, there were 2 really cute women who were taking picutres with their camera phones. They asked me to take one of both of them and they were enamoured with our kids. They both have 16 yr olds and said, "Oh you will miss these days!" I said, "Really?!" They replied, "Oh yeah, we felt like you, but now I wish for those days again. I was in control then, I'm not anymore." They were really sweet and looked fabulous. I told them I hoped I looked like them when my kids were 16. And off they went, running down the mountain.

The kids played around for awhile. Climbing all over the rocks, getting dirty and looking for treasure. Amy managed to find some treasure (trash) and was pretty excited. Thankfully she didn't want to bring it back with us.

Atlanta in the horizon. It wasn't really a clear sky. 

treasure hunting

Look how dirty!!

It was nice that someone carved this into the rock.
 I wondered two things- did the carver knew an exact day?
And how do you carve into a rock... and without anyone noticing??

Taking off

I explained cannon's to her. She was pretty intrigued. 

Amy didn't want to head back down, but they were now covered in dirt and mixed with the pee/orange drink- I figured it was time to go home. I was also soaked from carrying soaked Will and dirty from the both of them. So we headed back to MeMe and Papa's for bath and bedtime. They had better sleep tonight! I plan on getting them to bed and watching HGTV until I pass out- which probably won't take me too long. :)

Thank goodness kids are cute! At times it takes away the exhaustion.