Monday, October 5, 2009

GVA Stone Mountain Day

We went out to Atlanta on Tuesday to visit Stone Mountain with our friends at the Georgia Virtual Academy - the group we homeschool under!! It was THE most gorgeous day and Chris had taken a day off to join us. We drove out early to arrive by the start time of 10am. When we arrived, there weren't too many people there and we were one of the first ones in line for fake tattoos. Jeremiah and Chris started tossing around a football and Jessica competed in the Hula Hooping contest. The girls wanted to draw and be crafty so we left the boys in the rapidly filling field and hit the pavilion for the crafts. It was a mad house. I couldn't believe how crazy! We did get to make a few things before we decided we were starving and needed to find the guys. We walked back down to where we left them and were surprised to see them in the middle of a huge group of boys playing football... so we left them and went up to the car where we sat and started to prepare our yummy peanut butter and jam sandwiches, chips and water bottles. We took a few bites and then the boys showed up starving too! We fed them and drove up to walk around the little Village of shops (which were totally closed!) and walked down to stare up at the huge rock that is Stone Mountain. On the face of it is The Memorial Carving depicting three Confederate heroes of the Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee and Lt. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Yep. The "mountain" is 825 feet tall and covers 583 acres. The top of the mountain is 1,683 feet above sea level. The entire carved surface of the Memorial Carving measures three acres, larger than a football field. The carving of the three men towers 400 feet above the ground, measures 90 by 190 feet, and is recessed 42 feet into the mountain. The hike was the highlight for us. We hiked the trail to the very top of Stone Mountain and the view was seriously breathtaking! We could see forever. We also met a great LDS family there and they hiked up with us to the top which made it a lot more entertaining for the kids to have people to jump around and explore with! Overall it was a great trip and we would love to go back sometime soon to see more of the park! Enjoy the pictures!

Resting up on the way back down the mountain with their new friends!

Jessica and A sliding down the railings on the steepest part!

Coming back down the 'mountain'

Checking out the view!

Posing at the top!

Gorgeous view!

Jilli was like the Energizer bunny! She ran the whole way up - a mile and a quarter!!

Making the climb!

The face of Stone Mountain...

Jillian and the Indian statue in the Village

Posing by the HUGE pumpkin!

View of the mountain from the Village

Being crafty! And cold! It was 55 degrees with a cold breeze! Brrrr!

Helping Jilli color

Love the people she draws!


Tossing around the football

tattoos!

Tattooed Jessi

Hula Hooping!
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5 comments:

Browns said...

6th grade!!! Jessi is in 6th grade???!!!! that is crazy!! I am sorry you dont like the schools there. hope homeschooling goes well. AND I LOVE the Isabella pillow. When I was unpacking yesterday and took out Cooper's pillow you made him for Christmas I was so happy to see it. It is so cute.

David and Jessica Wakefield said...

Fun!! So close to my hometown. Sure makes me miss home. Hope your family is doing well.

Foote Family said...

It looks like you had a great time! We'll have take a trip there sometime.

Gage & Jessica said...

I love Stone Mountain. Great memories of camping and laser shows. What caught my eye was that Chris was playing catch with his kids. That was something he talked about when we roomed in Rexburg- said he wanted to have kids sooner than later in life so he could play catch with them and whatnot. Exact quote unavailable but you get the idea.

Anonymous said...

WHAT FUN! Our little girls color the same! Jilli and Rylie. Rylie draws the same exact people...where are the bodies? Who needs them with their characters! :)