Summer Vacation Send-Off

School may be rapidly approaching (next Tuesday!!) but we are not going out without a bang.

My friend Amy invited us to explore the Fernbank Museum with her and her daughter.

We did this yesterday and it blew our minds with the Extreme Mammal Exhibition.

(i.e. Mammal characteristics, mammal evolution, and the whole time frame thing)

It literally blew our minds (mine and Amy's.)

We felt like we left knowing less than we knew before we ever entered the doors.

The kids were troopers.  They were actively interested and I think learned a lot from the Extreme Mammal Exhibition.

They also enjoyed the Under the Sea IMAX movie.

After that though they were all about the playground aka NatureQuest.

little archaeologists putting together an "ancient" pot 

cheese!

Today we made the switch from Museum to Amusement Park.

The kids earned free Six Flags tickets from school and they expire on Sunday.

I did not want to go on the weekend (too many people!) so we asked Tera to join us and went today.

(I love that we live only 40 minutes away and can take traffic-free back-roads the whole way.)

This year I decided to do it different than in the past.  Instead of listening to the kids yell-out which ride they want to go on next and then heading directly there, I decided to just walk the perimeter of the park (it's basically a big round-square, if that makes sense) and go on the rides as we come to them.  Much less walking and backtracking than in the past.

I don't want to brag about my genius idea but hoo boy we had such a good time...virtually no complaints, no fights, no demands...this is how theme parks are meant to be enjoyed!

riding the train around the park

(we are the caboose)

Tyler, Lauren, and my, favorite ride.

Tera was not a fan.

This was a swing ride, the seats holding two people each.

(the Sky Screamer is a 2013 addition)

Another favorite ride for Tyler and Tera at least, was Splash Water Falls.

Lauren chose not to go on the ride but was happy to watch them in the splash zone.

They got soaked!!!

After the ride the kids wanted to watch another boat make a big splash.

Our last ride of the day was another water ride.

Thunder River

Last time I went on this I was in the "lucky" seat and got drenched by the dreaded WATERFALL.

This time it was Tyler's turn.

oh ya sucker!

Of course I didn't take my camera out to take a picture but after the ride we enjoyed watching other boats get soaked by the waterfall.

(you can't see her sitting there because she is being overtaken by a wall of water)

 (If you have some extra time here is a cute youtube video I found of someone else riding Thunder River.  The waterfall part comes up around 3:15 in the video.)

And finally, here they are: 

happy, exhausted, wet and pruny

2013 Six Flags Over Georgia Survivors.

PS.

What would a post be without a "Find Romy" pic?!