Road Trip!

We bit the bullet this past weekend: we packed up the kids, toys, snacks, books, and video player and made the ten hour drive to Atlanta for the 4th. Ryan's parents, Mimi and Bob, are in Atlanta and we were way overdue for a visit, having last been when Isabel was an infant. During the weeks running up to the trip, I began to live in dread of the drive. The girls are pretty frequent car travelers since we go visit my family in New Jersey and New York every few months. We even drive routinely to Vermont with them. But we always overnight in NY on the way to VT breaking up the trip into manageable shifts. This was 10 hrs in the car straight through. I was so worked up by the night before we left that I only slept an hour and a half. Clearly I have issues. The thought of 10 hrs of whining, crying, and general complaining still gives me hives.

But surprisingly, the girls did great. Each slept the first three hours of the trip (it helped we rolled out at 4:30 AM), didn't have to make incessant potty breaks, and managed to keep the whine to a minimum. It helped that we stopped for breakfast and lunch although neither stop was long. Thank the lord for the charger adapter I bought at Radio Shack before the trip.

Atlanta itself was wonderful. We went to the Georgia Aquarium on Friday.





It's been a long time since I've been to an Aquarium and according to one of the guides, the Georgia Aquarium boasts one of the largest tanks in the world. There were plenty of fish, including several whale sharks. Very cool.

For the 4th itself, we took the girls down to Olympic Centennial Park. It's smaller than I imagined but the fountain there was definitely worth the trip! We arrived in time to see a fountain show and got some good splashing in. Well, Isabel did- Lottie wasn't particularly keen.







Saturday night we drove to Decatur for their parade, concert, and fireworks.





The Children's Museum of Atlanta, swimming, lots of eating, and looking at old family photos rounded out the trip. As lovely as it was, all I want to do now is stay home. It's been alot of traveling for the Schroeders and we're barely halfway through the summer!!

Happy Tuesday.

A Weekend Away

I am a bit behind on my blogging and I am officially dragging at the moment, so these few entries will be kind of short.  Ryan and I took our first non-small fry vacation two weekends ago.  To be fair, we've managed to slip in a conference or two sans enfants (and had a lovely time doing so since both conferences were in the UK) but this weekend entailed no thinking, no time management, and only fun.  Look how happy we were...



Well maybe we weren't as happy together as Ryan was playing pirate at the Field Museum.



Officially we were in Chicago for my cousin's wedding. The wedding was just as all proper weddings should be: a bit touching, a bit tacky, and alot of fun. I do just love Chicago. I don't think I've ever had a bad time when visiting as an adult. We stuck to our old favorites: the Art Institute, Millennium Park, the Walnut Room in the old Marshall Fields. Someday we'll venture out more, but for now, a perfect weekend.