The first thing we did was ride the train. It's about 15 minutes long and goes around the base of the mountain. The station is right next to guest services, so we went ahead and did that first. The boys were so excited. I tried to get a picture of them smiling at me.
But, I was not having any luck getting them to give me a real smile, or smile at the same time, or look at the camera.
This was what Evan gave me and said "cheese" He looks thrilled, doesn't he?
It's so pretty up on Stone Mountain and the weather was beautiful.
You're allowed to bring in snacks and picnics, so we brought our own food to save money. I always bring a ton of stuff everywhere I go--I always overpack. I do the same with food for the boys, but they were bottomless pits. We actually ate all the food that I brought. Evan was especially hungry, maybe he's going through a growth spurt. ?
So, the train blew it's whistle every now and then and the boys thought it was the greatest thing ever.
They were so tickled by it.
This is my favorite picture of the entire day. I love how happy they look. This is how they felt about the whole day and I'm glad I was able to get a picture of it.
It was a pretty train ride, I thought the boys would think it was boring, but they loved it.
Next, we went to the Great Barn. I didn't know anything about this except that it was for kids and there was a ton to do.
It was 4 floors of slides, ropes to climb, and balls. They had foam balls everywhere, you could load them into guns, put them in tubes with suction that sucked it in, etc. The boys had the best time.
They really could have stayed here all day. If it wasn't such a long drive, we'd seriously just take them and let them do this the whole time.
Carter went down the same slide as Evan before he could get all the way down and they ended up bumping heads. He cried for a few minutes, but was fine and as soon as he saw this little girl sticking balls into the tube, he was "cured" and had to do that too. The employees were so concerned about him and so sweet. It was their fault at all, but they were so apologetic and even let the boys take a ball with them when they left. Actually, all the employees we encountered over the day were really, really nice.
It wasn't really busy, so the boys were just running around like crazy. They were so excited about everything. They were squealing and jumping and just have the best time.
You place the ball in these tubes, but you have to hit a button first to turn it on and it sucks them into the middle and then after several get in there, they go through the tube in the middle and come flying out like rain. It's hard to explain, but the boys loved it.
After the Great Barn, we had our sandwiches that I packed and some drinks and then took the skylift up to the top of Stone Mountain. There was like, a 5 minute wait for the skylift and it only took us a minute or two to get to the top. Greg and I have been there before, but it's still so neat up there. Evan loved it and couldn't wait to go exploring. It was so bright and Carter started acting fussy and saying he didn't want to be there, but I noticed he was rubbing his eyes. I gave him my sunglasses and he was like a brand new kid. He just didn't like the sun in his eyes and how bright it was, so once he got my sunglasses, he was excited to explore too.
Such a pretty view, I had both boys in my lap but that lasted about .2 seconds before they were up and wanting to run around.
You can see downtown Atlanta in the distance.
Greg suggested we walk down the mountain instead of taking the skylift. He seemed excited and the boys LOVED the idea. It's only a mile and it's downhill, I figured, how hard can that be, so I agreed. I told the boys I wanted one picture of them on stone mountain and that if they'd pose, we could hike down.
Greg and the boys
I tried to get a picture of just Greg so he'd have one for Facebook, but the boys were not having that. :)
And so we started our leisurely walk down the mountain.
Well, it wasn't leisurely. It was terrifying and I don't know how I didn't slip and fall off the mountain. I was wearing my Bobs (my toms knockoffs) and a skirt. My shoes had no traction at all and there's a really steep spot where they even have hand rails and I was just slipping, it was like I was wearing roller skates on there. Greg didn't have any problems because he was wearing sneakers, but, I had to use my foot and put it against the railing to keep me from falling and he had to come get Evan from me, before I could go any further. It was rough, but after we got past that steep spot, it was fun and easy. Until we realized that the trail ended about 2 miles (I say 3, Greg says 1.5miles, so I'm compromising) from where the main park and our car was, so we had to walk for sweet forever just to get back to the main area after the one mile walk down the hill.
And the boys who have endless amounts of energy? Their legs were tired! So, we carried them on our shoulders for a little bit and made lots of stops for them to rest their legs.
They loved jumping off the rocks.
See, this is how I thought the whole trail would be, nice and flat but downhill.
Taking one of our many rest stops.
These boys have a hard life, let me tell you.
Here we are at the entrance after our long trek and Greg is going to the car to get the boys sandals and towels, so we could let them play in the splash area. They were exhausted, but that's what we promised them at the end of the walk, they could go to the splash area.
The splash area has lots of nets to walk around and crawl up and through. Then, in the middle you can stand and when the water comes up, you get wet. The boys didn't really go in that area, they just walked the bridges and climbed ---forever! They must have got a second wind, because they were completely spent before we got there, but they had a blast while we were there.
This is the trampoline thingy in the middle where the kids can jump and they get hit with the water when it comes on.
Right before we left, Evan went and checked out the water part.
There's so much stuff we didn't get to do. But, we were all exhausted and after the boys played in the splash area, we left. It was about 4:00 when we hit the road. Evan fell asleep almost immediately. Carter managed to stay awake the entire car ride home. We stopped at a drive thru and woke Evan up to eat, so he ate and stayed up the rest of the car ride. They slept good Saturday night--we all did! I hate how long of a drive it is to get to stone mountain. Evan woke up on Sunday and begged to go back and play at the big barn. :( We plan on going at least once over the summer, fall and winter, but it'd be nice if we could go a couple more times than just once a season. There's just so much to do there.
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