VACATION....(warning-very long post!)

Sorry for the blogging hiatus.  We have been MIA for the past week, taking our first family vacation with the three of us!  Trey and I have tried to take a vacation each year, and I am so thankful that we ventured out and took Reives along with us this year.  Our vacation has changed a little from previous ones (cruise, Maine, DC, etc.), but we still had a BLAST!  Little R did way better than I thought that he would because we were on the road a good bit, and he missed a ton of naps.  He was a real trooper, and he only had one "melt down" on the last night when he had a hard time going to bed that night.  I was so proud of him :)

Here is a recap of the vacation:

We left last Friday afternoon for Athens.  We stayed with one of our good friends from college, Jennifer Whitaker, and then went to the Georgia game on Saturday.  It was a blast tailgating with some family friends, my parents, and my sister and brother in law.  It was a cold morning, but the day warmed up and was absolutely gorgeous.  Little R got a little overwhelmed at the noise and commotion at the beginning of the game because he was so tired, so we did a good bit of walking around the stadium during the first quarter.  After halftime, he was good to go, and he sat with us the whole time and cheered the Dawgs on to a victory!!!  After the game, we tailgeted a little more and then headed back to Jennifer's to put the little guy down and catch up with Jennifer.

On Sunday, we packed up and headed to Blue Ridge, GA to go to Mercier Farms.  They have a huge store with all kids of apple products and cool gifts.  Trey and I both got apple cider slushies...they were yummy!  We took a tractor ride up to the apple orchards and spent some time picking apples.  Little R had a great time, and we came home with a ton of apples.  Reives prefers his baked with some cinnamon.

We left the orchards, stopped by the grocery store to pick up our food for the next 3 days, and headed to my aunt and uncle's cabin near Blairsville, GA.  On Monday, we went for a very cold, early morning walk around a lake and then hiked a 4.25 mile trail at Vogel State Park that afternoon.  Trey carried Little R on his back.  It took us about 2 hours to hike the trail, and it was beautiful back in the woods.
Then, we found a picnic area to have our snack and let Little R stretch his legs after riding on Trey's back for 2 hours!

On Tuesday, we headed to Brasstown Bald and ate a picnic lunch.  We rode the shuttle up to the top of Brasstown Bald and spent some time taking in the view.  It was such a clear day that you could barely make out the skyscrapers of Atlanta in the distance.  We also visited the museum, and Little R loved seeing all of the animals and the big train.  And, he kept pointing at Smokey the Bear, so we had to get a picture with him.

We left there and headed to Helen, Ga.  Every time Trey and I go there, we leave asking ourselves why we event went there and vow that it will be our last time.  For some reason, we keep going back and leave asking the same question.  We did get ice cream, but we have no pics to show for it.

On Wednesday, we cleaned up the cabin and then headed to Atlanta to see Trey's brother, Adam.  We spent the afternoon at Piedmont Park, which is in midtown Atlanta, close to where Adam lives.

On Thursday, we headed to the Atlanta zoo.  It was so fun to watch Reives check out all of the animals.  I am so glad Uncle Adam was able to come with us because Trey started to feel bad and it turns out he got sick and ran a fever for 2 days :(

Friday, we got up and came home to unpack!  We were sad to see the vacation end, but there is no place like home!!!