{"id":4397,"date":"2011-11-26T22:25:06","date_gmt":"2011-11-27T03:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=4397"},"modified":"2011-11-26T22:26:10","modified_gmt":"2011-11-27T03:26:10","slug":"thanksgiving-staycation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=4397","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving Staycation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Strange family decided to celebrate Thanksgiving all week by having some special family time.\u00a0 Rather than extravagant gifts that eventually end up in some closet or the basement, our family really tries to focus on having experiences together.\u00a0 We are so blessed that North Cobb Christian School<\/a>‘s calendar gives me the whole week off school and Clint had enough vacation days to take the whole week too!\u00a0 We were trying to think of something fun to do for the first part of the week before family came down on Wednesday.\u00a0 We realized that we live in one of the coolest cities in the world and decided we needed to check out Atlanta for some fun things to do.\u00a0 My mom got us an awesome rate at the Doubletree Hotel\u00a0 in Buckhead and we headed down there on Sunday right after Thanksgiving with Clint’s family in Summerville.\u00a0 We picked up pizza on our way to check in and ate it in our room picnic style while hanging out.\u00a0 Since we were at the Doubletree, we topped off our pizza with some of the awesome chocolate chip\/walnut warm Doubletree cookies.\u00a0 Wonderful!\u00a0 We all went to bed early to rest up for a big Monday.<\/p>\n

Monday morning started with Starbucks for me and Emma (apple juice for her…chai for me) and the Georgia Tech McDonald’s for Daddy.\u00a0 Then, we headed to the Georgia Aquarium<\/a>.\u00a0 What a blast!\u00a0 I’ve not really been all that interested in the aquarium before because I am not really into museums or tours or that sort of thing.\u00a0 But…the Aquarium was right up my ally since it is all self-guided and there are tons of cool things to see.\u00a0 Of course, it was even more fun watching Emma’s reactions to everything.\u00a0 She was most concerned that something would “bite me”.\u00a0 Once we convinced her that wasn’t happening…she was good to go.\u00a0 We stayed at the Aquarium from the time it opened until around 12:30ish.<\/p>\n

We ate lunch at Baja Fresh down by Centennial Park.\u00a0 Since it was so beautiful outside, we decided to play at Centennial Park<\/a> for a few minutes.\u00a0 That quickly turned into about an hour and a half since we were having so much fun!\u00a0 From there, we headed to do some quick shopping.\u00a0 One of the most fun things we did while we were out shopping was to take Emma to ride the Pink Pig at Macy’s<\/a> at Lennox Mall.\u00a0 The Pink Pig is an Atlanta tradition and she loved it!\u00a0 After shopping, it was time for dinner.\u00a0 We went to the OK Cafe<\/a> in Buckhead since none of us had ever been.\u00a0 It was pretty good.\u00a0 Then, we rushed back to the hotel to enjoy another round of those Doubletree cookies before bed.\u00a0 Emma was so pumped about sleeping on the pullout sofa.\u00a0 She absolutely loves hotels and elevators, so the Doubletree was a big hit with her!<\/p>\n

Tuesday morning, we woke up and did Starbucks and Chick Fil-A on our way to the Atlanta Zoo<\/a>.\u00a0 Emma and I had never been to the zoo and Clint hadn’t been in a very long time.\u00a0 We\u00a0 figured that it might be a bit much to cover in one day, so we went ahead and bought a family membership.\u00a0 We are looking forward to visiting the zoo a few more times in the next several months. Emma loved looking at all the animals.\u00a0 If you want a laugh…just ask her what a giraffe says…pretty hilarious!\u00a0 From the zoo, we headed to Nueva Laredo Cantina<\/a>…an Atlanta favorite for Mexican food.\u00a0 The restaurant was pretty packed, but we got a seat right away and all enjoyed our lunch.\u00a0 We headed home from there after our awesome Atlanta adventures.\u00a0 It was such a treasure to have this special family time together!<\/p>\n