A weekend in Atlanta

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Last weekend I had asked the kids to name a few places they would like to visit in the upcoming week. Elizabeth responded, “Georgia”. I thought this was kind of funny because I was already going to be there for work but agreed knowing that there is plenty to do in the Atlanta area. So, Carolyn and the kids flew down on Thursday evening to join me. They had a little adventure going through Milwaukee to get there and when they landed there were some pretty ugly storms approaching. It made for an interesting arrival but we got them safely to the hotel.

On Friday we went to the Atlanta Aquarium, followed by the World of Coke, and finally a CNN tour. We enjoyed all of them. The Aquarium was my favorite and of course the kids REALLY liked tasting all of the soda flavors available at the end of the Coke visit. The most disgusting flavor was from Italy – ick!!

We started Saturday with the Waffle House and went to Zoo Atlanta. This was Carolyn’s favorite visit as we watched various monkeys and gorillas. In addition, we saw elephants, zebras, and giraffes. We were only about 20% through the zoo when Carolyn took a bad step and hurt her foot. This abruptly ended our zoo tour and our trip. After picking up some crutches and getting help from the airport courtesy people we made it home safely and were able to get Carolyn settled in. Good memories for the kids and a interesting story with the foot 🙂

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The aquarium is amazing!
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This exhibit reminded me of Hawaii. It was fun to point out all the fish we had seen when snorkeling last fall
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Joey loved all the living creatures that he could touch
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The kids were crabby when they saw the crabs…
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The Coke Bear
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With one of the London Olympic Torches
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The next generation of news anchors?
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We ended the day with a purchase of some new t-shirts and a swim at the hotel pool
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On Saturday we went to Zoo Atlanta
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The zoo was wonderful!
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This guy had something stuck in his teeth. Crazy tongue action
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The last picture of Carolyn on her own two feet 🙁
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Carolyn at home on Sunday with a hurting foot
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Elizabeth’s 4th Grade volcano project

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Elizabeth teamed up with Ella and Ruby on a volcano project and “the Dads” were put in charge of this project by our spouses. Kyle coordinated so that we could get the project going, Matt encouraged the girls to be creative, and I looked for the most explosive eruption which was Mentos and Diet Coke instead of the baking powder solution 🙂

The girls did a great job! They were very creative with all of the details of pine and palm trees, painting, water, and dinosaurs.

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During the build
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Video

Post eruption at school
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Creating the foundation
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Getting messy
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Test eruption’ – We doubled the Mentos for the real one 🙂

The finished product
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Congrats to Nix and Jenny

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Nix and Jenny were married this past weekend in a beautiful setting in the caves located in downtown Stillwater. We are all very excited to have Jenny in our family. Lots of fun with friends and family. Sunday was a little rough 🙂 Enjoy your honeymoon!!

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Proud parents
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It has been a long time since the four of us brothers have been together
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The girls with the Groom
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The boys with the Groom
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Joey found some pirates!
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Wolfpack!
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First camping trip of 2013 – Baker State Park

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We joined the Netzinger family and friends at their annual first camping trip of the year. We had not been on this trip since 2009. I went early on Friday afternoon to setup the camper and then picked up Carolyn and the kids after school to avoid setting up in the rain.

We enjoyed Friday night and most of Saturday but it was certainly muddy especially after all the rain on Saturday morning. The time with friends and family was great and the kids all had a great time together. A little (or a lot) of mud never killed anyone 🙂 I hope to join the crew again next year.

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Playing at the park
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Chloe and Broady’s first Geocache
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A little rain while I prepare breakfast
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Our first model rocket launches!

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After building our rockets and fixing some mistakes we received our order of rocket engines today in the mail. It was perfect timing because tonight was a beautiful night with little wind. So, we all jumped in the car and ran down to a local park for some initial launches.

We were worried about losing Elizabeth’s rocket because of the small size and the altitude that it reaches so we stuck to the larger rockets that Joey and I built.

As instructed, we started with the smaller engines and then got a little more confident and went with the ‘big boys’ on the second launches (my launch was not recorded).

Thankfully we recovered the rockets with each launch and have more rocket engines for future launches. Carolyn is saying that I am enjoying this more than the kids 😉

Next up is taping a small HD camera to the rockets to record the flight – stay tuned…

I recommend this activity for anyone with kids as it has been a fun journey!

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Elizabeth launches “Big Bertha” – 200 ft

Joey launches “Amazon” – 200 ft

Joey launches the “Amazon” again with a cheering section and a larger rocket engine – 600 ft