Stone Mountain ROCKS!

I love Stone Mountain - it was where we lived when I was first born, and my parents used to ride their bikes into the park. So basically I have been going to Stone Mountain ever since I was created. For those unprivileged souls who have no idea what I am talking about, please book a ticket to Atlanta and let me take you for a treat! You can walk about the "mountain" (really the largest piece of exposed granite), take the tram to the top, ride bikes/walk around the mountain, ride the paddle boats or take a ride on the train, so many more activities you can do there, but my FAVORITE thing to do at Stone Mountain is the Lasershow. It takes place on the lawn with the lasers projected on the mountain face every night in the summer. Years ago when my dad owned Oz Records and Tapes his store used to provide the music for the lasershow - I'm sure their technology has gotten much better! Besides the parking, it is free to get in and you can take a picnic on the lawn. I've already gone to the lasershow 3 times this year - Madeleine loves it too! She is entranced by the lasers and fireworks and loves to play on the lawn before the show starts. Favorite songs played during the laser show include "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", "Dixieland" (by Elvis), "Georgia On My Mind", and best ending ever used to be Lee Greenwood's "Proud to Be and American" - and to whomever the powers that be - could you please put this one back in the show? For as long as I remember this was how the show ended and this year they also took our Charlie Daniel's "Devil Went Down to Georgia" and added some ridiculous version and the grand finale is a majorly drawn out version of the national anthem - and don't get me wrong, I LOVE the "Star Spangled Banner", but that version seems all wrong for the show. Well that's enough critiquing for the moment :)

The first time we went this summer we were meeting up with our friends, Joe & Vivian, John & Jenny, and Erik & Alicia because John was on a break in his military training. Andrew and I decided to head up a little earlier than the group so we could ride our bikes. Halfway into our ride we hit a nasty thunderstorm - I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life!!! We somehow made it to a bathroom that had a little overhang to wait out the storm. Andrew took this pic from his phone's camera - I love how Maddy is leaning in - so typical!

Once we were able to make it back, our friends had arrived, and we feasted on our picnic. I let down my dirt guard and actually let Madeleine play in the dirt - this was very difficult for me!

She even started eating it. I just had to keep thinking it was probably healthier than most other things and block it out. One of my favorite things was seeing Joe & Vivian's little boy, Eric, with Madeleine. He loved holding her hand and walking around with her, it was absolutely precious!

Madeleine also got to experience having her first laser - she was enthralled! We had so much fun! (By the way both of the above pictures were taken on the same day - thanks to the rain you should have seen her behind in that yellow dress - yikes! It was time for a wardrobe change.)

My second time was just with me and my fam - Andrew had to work late. This was a blast to because we got Madeleine another "laser" toy - she couldn't let it go and still today is crazy about her magic wand

The third time we went was just last week with our church youth group. What was crazy was that my brother-in-law, Scott, ended up going with his youth group as well and when

we were parking, Andrew thought he recognized my sister's car - sure enough! They were there celebrating her sister-in-law's birthday - how funny, we didn't even know we were all going to be there the same night!

We've been able to go so much this summer and I can't wait to go again!