A day trip before school starts...

Okay, I was feeling guilty because we hadn't taken the kids anywhere outside the Auburn/Opelika city limits this summer due to the pool construction and all the landscaping we did, so David and I decided to surprise the kids on Saturday and take them for a day trip over to Stone Mountain Park in Georgia.  We told them we were going somewhere right after lunch but we gave them no clues.  They didn't figure it out until after we drove past the Atlanta airport.  Yea!  We pulled off a surprise!

It was a day of fun and we did as much as we could in the 5 hours we had there.  We did the 4D "Journey to the Center of the Earth" movie ride - it was Michael's favorite.  (I think because it was air-conditioned and because we got to sit down!)

Michael wanted to take a closer look at the carving in the side of the mountain...

"uh, son, I think you have it backwards!"

We took the train ride around the base of the mountain.  It is 5 miles around the base.

Oh, and by the way, it was HOT!!! 

They had a ropes course the you could do and a rock climbing wall too!

And they had a zipline..Mary was all for it-
Michael was very hesitant but he gave it a go!

We rode the Summit Skyride up to the top of the mountain and enjoyed the views and the cooler air too! 

It was a little windy at times (check out Mary's hair in the photos!)

As the sun was setting, we headed back down the mountain to go to the Lasershow Spectacular.  It was a 40 minute show of fireworks, laser lights and special effects all set to music.  It was an awesome show and worth every penny! 

We are planning another trip in November or December, when they have the Christmas Decorations out (And the weather is COOLER!!) and we will be able to do the putt-putt golf and a few other things we wanted to do but ran out of time.  It was a great day trip for us and we all enjoyed spending the day together (not working in the yard!) before the kids start back to school on the 10th.  Summer Fun!!