May 2014 Trip to Eric's Mission

We had the incredible experience of going to visit Eric's mission this past week.  We loved every minute of our 10-day trip and it is going to be hard to capture through words and pictures the love we felt from the wonderful people we met from his mission.

Before we get started, I need to tell about our trip to the Denver International Airport.  We were about 2/3 of the way there when it started raining, then pouring, then hailing!  We were getting tornado warnings on the radio for the exact area we were in.  We stopped several times under bridges on the highway along with many other cars to try to get protection and to wait out the hail.  We were genuinely scared!  It was so loud inside our car from the pounding on the roof and the windshield.  We drove through probably six inches of hail.  It looked like a snowstorm.  We were praying mightily and we finally made it to the airport.  Flights were being delayed and cancelled at this point to almost all destinations, but by some miracle, ours was only about 1/2 hour late!  We took a deep breath to calm our nerves and set off on our adventure!

I'm going to blog our trip in segments, the first being our first stop which was Kennesaw, Georgia to visit Steve and Jenny and their four amazing kids!  We flew into Atlanta on Wednesday, May 21, rented a car at the airport and headed to their house.  We arrived around midnight and had a nice visit with Steven before heading to bed.  We awoke well rested and so excited to spend the next couple of days with them. Their good friends were out of town but they let us use their pool while they were away.  The perfect way to spend a hot, humid day in Georgia!

 From 2:00-4:00 p.m every day, Steak and Shake offers 1/2 price milk shakes!  We couldn't miss an opportunity like that.  We ordered nearly every kind of shake (well not quite) and there wasn't a drop left when we were finished.

Jenny had some over-ripe strawberries that the kids were excited to feed to the neighbors chickens!

 I guess I was excited to feed them too!  Don't I look excited?

 The evenings were just right for a stroll around their lovely neighborhood!  We even saw a few lightning bugs!  A favorite thing that we don't have in Colorado!

 Fun selfies in the car!

 Just a quiet evening at home with Darth and Jenny!

 Emmy and I snuck out for some delicious Stilesboro Biscuits. They really are as good as they say!

 Saturday morning, Mike and I had breakfast (at Stilesboro Biscuits) with our good friend, Joey, and her husband Ron.  We had such a fun visit and caught up on our lives since we were last together, which was in Georgia a couple of years ago.  Joey and her four kids used to be in our ward here in Longmont.  It was great being with them again.

 We got to be there for Alyssa's piano recital.  Her teacher just graduated from high school and is heading to BYU in the piano performance program.

 After breakfast with Joey and Ron, and then Alyssa's recital, we headed to Kennesaw Mtn. to see the battlefield, but it was too crowded with no parking, so we headed to Marietta Square.  It's a pretty little square with a beautiful park in the middle with shops and restaurants all around it.  It was a beautiful day for an outing!

We had an extra special treat for lunch!  We went to a Japanese Hibachi restaurant back in Kennesaw.  It was delicious, fun and even affordable.  It's such a better value to go for lunch!  Same fun service, but at half the cost!  The kids loved it.  Alyssa was a little concerned about the flames, but she got into the "show" pretty quickly.  Our chef asked if it was anyone's birthday, and since Steve had just had his and mine was coming up, we told him and he ended up giving us extra portions of the food!  It was delicious!

 After our delicious Hibachi dinner, we headed back to their house and had to pack up our bags and head on to the next stop in our adventure.  Eli and Alyssa were so sad.  They cried and made us feel so loved.  We had such a fun time with them.  Eli loved having Eric there.  I think it was so fun for him to have another boy around with his house full of sisters.  

Thank you Steve and Jenny and kids for making us feel so welcomed and for planning fun things to do.  Even though a couple of the plans fell through, what we did was perfect!  Thank you Jenny for the delicious meals!  We loved the Navajo tacos and scones so much!  What a treat!

We were sad to leave, but we were excited to be off to our next stop....Pearson, Georgia!