Valentine's Day On the Town!

On Valentine's day last Saturday we decided to hit the town. I had promised Jackson that he was going to get to ride a train that day thinking that we would go to Stone Mountain to do this, but it turned out that the train at Stone Mountain was closed. So, we had to think fast. We decided to ride Marta instead, Atlanta's own beloved transit system. I think that Jackson considered it an acceptable substitute, after all taking Marta isn't just a train ride, it is also a one of a kind experience. My parents and my cousin, Darron and his Wife, LuAnne joined us on our excursion.

When we got downtown we were all hungry so we went into the CNN center for lunch. As soon as we entered we were crowded amongst thousands of prepubescent, scantily clad, make-up doused cheerleaders. Apparently there was some national cheer leading competition going on at the nearby Georgia Dome. The men were quite content in this new setting, but I was appalled by it for several reasons. First, it saddened me to see so many young girls trying to mature so quickly beyond their young years. Second, I was distraught by the fact that some of these girls considered themselves fit enough to wear such skimpy uniforms as they scarfed down buckets of fries, inhaled grease soaked pizza, and gulped down gallon sized cups of Coke (not diet). And third, I was mad because I didn't make the cheerleading squad in middle school and my residual shame comes hurtling out in the form of anger and disgust whenever I come in contact with young peppy cheerleaders. You stole my dream! But I digress. Since the females of our group were the ones carrying the cameras we conveniently forgot to get pictures of this distressing scene.
After lunch we walked in the bitter cold through Centennial Olympic Park to the World of Coca Cola. We had a good time there even though it was a little crowded (some of the cheerleaders followed us there). The boys enjoyed riding in their stroller through the exhibits (side note about the stroller: This ugly piece of hud was generously given to us by Carey Fox. Carey I really do appreciate you giving this to us even though it is the funkiest looking stroller I have ever seen. It has come in handy on many occasions. Honestly, thank you!) We got our picture taken with the Coca-Cola polar bear and tasted a lot of Coke's soda flavors from around the world. Drake fell asleep, and Jackson spilled coke all over himself and Drake. What could be better?!

The adults had fun too. I ended up staying close to my favorite soda dispenser, Tab. My dad even bought me a hat so that I could emblazon my drink preference. LuAnne bought a hat too. We almost lost Darron once. He said that he was going to the bathroom, but we all know that he was trying to find a secret place to "wheeze the juice". We were all happy to see him again when some coke employees managed to find him and escort him back to the tourist area of the museum.

After leaving the World of Coca-Cola we made our way back through the park. Some of us, namely LuAnne and myself, were a little inebriated after drinking all of that coke and we began to act a little crazy as you can see in the pictures below. I was jumping off everything I could and LuAnne was fascinated with walking in slow motion. Eventually our sugar high wore off and we joined the rest of the family back in reality. We all had a really fun time. I would not have preferred to spend my Valentine's day any other way.

Love you all!