Mother's Day and Atlanta

This year we decided to have a picnic lunch and spend the day at Fernbank Park for Mother's Day. It was a wonderful family time! Mom, Dad, and Holly were able to meet us also. We had fun walking the trail and visiting with everyone. I brought along the cornhole game that Jesse made for me! I'm absolutely awful at cornhole, but it IS a fun game! I'm not exactly sure about the rules or scoring either, but that just makes things more interesting.

Mom brought me some plants for my garden! She had tomatoes and goards that she grew from seed. Mom also gave me three moonflowers! These bloom with giant, fragrant flowers (almost 12 inches in diameter) that open in the evening. I planted 2 in the back yard where the wisteria used to be, and the other in the front yard. Yes, I finally ripped out the last wisteria. After 12 years of trying to get that finicky plant to bloom, I decided this was the last year.

Mother's Day just wouldn't be complete without an emergency room visit. Just before we left for the park, Emma was running down the hallway and missed her doorway. I think she tripped on her flip flops. She fell and hit the wall. It didn't look serious, so we took an ice pack along, and thought she'd be back to normal in no time.

A few hours later, I changed my mind. I thought her collar bone looked ok, but she wasn't using her arm much and didn't want to play. Rich thought she seemed alright, but I took her to the doctor anyway. Moms just know. They doctor took x-rays and thought that her shoulder was possibly broken. He gave her a sling and told us to see an orthopedic doctor.

I took her to Dr. Argo at Beacon (the same dr. that did my knee), and after more x-rays, he determined that she has a separated shoulder. Two weeks of limited activity and she should be back to normal. I'm so thankful nothing was broken. Somehow, I don't think this will deter Emma from running down the hallway, though. Emma is just so energetic, to put it mildly. It's not easy to limit her activity.

We went to Atlanta last weekend for Shelley's graduation. What a fun time!! It was wonderful to have almost the entire family together (on Rich's side). Miranda came up from Florida and brought the kids some t-shirts :) Here's a family pic that was taken the afternoon of the graduation. On Friday, we decided to do a little sightseeing. We took the kids to the Georgia Aquarium. Jordan has wanted to see whale sharks for several years, ever since he found out this was one of the few aquariums in the world that had them. We weren't disappointed. The aquarium has four whale sharks, and we were there for feeding time. It was fascinating. Each whale shark had a different colored feeding bucket, and was trained to follow that bucket as it traveled through the water. I think this allows the aquarium to supplement the diet of each individual shark. The whale sharks extend their mouths an average of four feet in diameter to feed. Their diet consists mainly of krill. We also got to see beluga whales. I thoroughly enjoyed the aquarium, although it was a little crowded by the time we left (around 12:00). It's a good thing we got there when it opened at 10:00.

Next we went to see Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. The Civil War museum was so informative and interesting. We hiked a little on Kennesaw Mountain, and could see both Stone Mountain (32 miles away) and downtown Atlanta (28 miles away) from the overlook at the top. Saturday we returned to the park to hike to one of the actual battlefields. The Confederate earthworks were located on the top of a small hill. They had dug a series of trenches behind which they hid. On one side of the hill was a meadow, through which the Union troops had charged the earthworks. It was sobering to think of how many men died in this particular battle. At one point, both sides took a break from fighting to remove the dead and wounded from the field. Over 400 men died in this battle, while around 4000 men died in the various battles on the mountain. Such a loss of life. It was sad to think about.

There was a memorial to the soldiers from Illinois who died charging this particular Confederate earthworks. Some of the Union troops who survived the initial charge were trapped less than 80 feet from the Confederate position for 6 days. They tried to build a tunnel under the earthworks , with the hope of filling it with explosives and blowing up the enemy. However, after several days, they found that the Confederates had secretly retreated.

The museum contained several pictures of men that fought in the Civil War at Kennesaw Mountain. I couldn't believe how young some of the men looked. In fact, one picture greatly impressed me because I thought the person looked so incredibly young. It was the picture of a 13 year old boy who played the bugle for the Union army. He had been in the army for three years, joining when he was only 10 years old! As a mother, I certainly can't imagine sending a son off to war at such a young age.

We had a fun family weekend, although the 16+ hours riding in the car was a little tedious. It's nice to be home.