Georgia Part 3.....

Mason is at that age where he is obsessed with trains. The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway would open its season right after we were leaving so we were bummed to have missed it. But we took the kids down by the train to take some pics. Mason was so excited.


Like the rain boots, by the way?

Bigger than life for this little guy.

Loves choo choo tracks.

He got a new train that makes noise in lieu of riding it and was happy with that.

After visiting the train, we headed out to find a suspension bridge we had read about. It was off some little country access road that was described as "a 3 mile bumpy trip". Now remember we are in a rental minivan. We found it and headed on up. It remains the talk between Matt and I. It was a one lane, curvy, muddy, hold your breath kind of trip. But once we began we were sort of commited...lol. We made it to the top and it was worth it.

A long view. It was pretty solid but did move as you walked across it. The views were pretty in either direction.

A sepia shot.....

So, remember I said it was muddy? We were nervous about the trip down and making jokes the whole way. Seriously, if we had ran into someone coming the other way, not sure what we would have done. The snow was melting so some places were muddy, particularly the turns. We were sure we were going to get stuck but in the end, all was well. However, you can see the mud up on the sideview mirror that had been kicked up onto the van. Later when we got out, red streaks of mud were splattered all over the white minivan. We were glad to be in a rental at that point!

We then headed up to Amicalola State Park to see the waterfall. It is also the beginning of the Appalachian Trail. A beautiful state park.

My handsome dude.

A cabin in the mountains is proving to be my favorite kind of vacation......

Kenzie Loses a Tooth!

She has been working this for a couple of weeks anxiously awaiting for it to fall out. She could not have been more excited. She was diligent in putting in a baggie for the Tooth Fairy so she could more easily find it. The Fairy left $2 and she decided to save it, for what, I don't know. Madalyn couldn't spend her quick enough...lol.

Itty bitty....

So proud!

This is just part of how Mackenzie has matured over the last six months or so. Can't believe she will start Kindergarten this fall. She is still (and will always be) my baby.....

Fashion and Declarations....

So Mason couldn't find his crocs so he insisted on wearing his next favorite, his rain boots. Then we ventured outside to play and this was his get up including a helmet that is way too small. He didn't care.

The girls had to get in on the photo shoot.

In other random news, Madalyn wrote this a few days on her chore board, "Hello Welcome to the Prostak Family! I wanted to put this sign up because we love God and Jesus". This is hanging on our fridge just as you enter our house from the garage. That's my sweet girl and her heart for Jesus.....

Easter....

We had a very relaxing Easter day as a family, low key and quiet. Not much to say really. We went to church and had an egg hunt afterwards. The kids came home to see that the Easter bunny had been through to leave them their baskets. The girls loved their zhu zhu pets and Mason got a Hot Wheel door ramp thingy. We colored eggs later that day and finished with a Polish dinner. Matt's entire family is Polish and he loved Easter and all the traditional food. So we had fresh keilbasa and peirogies from this Polish deli, braised red cabbage, and sweet bread. Very tasty! Here are some highlights.....

Hope you all had a sweet time with your families as we remembered and celebrated that Christ is Risen!

Georgia Part 2....

So I haven't uploaded Easter pics yet so we'll revisit our vacation......

So it was our first morning in the cabin. Still cold with snow on the ground. I was getting my bearings around the kitchen and found a Mickey waffle maker. I think I was more excited than the kids were. So I surprised them each with a slice of home before they headed out to collect "things" in their bags with Matt. What "things" I wasn't sure but they each asked for a bag.

Ready to go exploring. Kenzie insisted on not pulling the hat down over her ears, crazy girl.


Then we decided to do some fishing. When I say our cabin was "right" on the water, I mean we went outside and threw our line over our deck. Matt was very excited to fish although we had no success. We didn't know what we were doing but the guy at the Honda dealership, Ed, gave me a quick tutorial....and I quote..."You go up there to the Super Walmart and get yourself some number 8 hooks and some number 5 split shots. You put those splits about 12 inches up from your hook. Then you git yourself some of the Magic Bait. It comes in all colors but neon yellow is my favorite". Seriously? And this is the guy we trusted with our vehicle?? In any case.....

I just love this pic!

Little Brown Buddy, his occasional nickname, has trouble throwing his line over but he found some buckets and had just as much fun.

She is more like me, likes it for about 5 minutes or less, and moves onto something else. Now Kenzie would be a much better fishing partner.

Later we went hiking.....

A mama bear and her cubs...

The waterfall at Falls Branch Falls....

Courtesy of Mackenzie.

More adventures to come...........

Celebrate....

HE IS RISEN!

HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Georgia on our minds.....part 1

Happy Daddy

So two weeks ago, we packed up and headed to Blue Ridge, GA where we rented this adorable shabby chic cabin. We were very excited about vacation, relaxing, reading, and "hiking" (you know, the kind you do with 3 little kids). We split up the driving since we left on Friday afternoon. We stay in a hotel in Cordele GA for the night. We came back after dinner to find that the room next to ours had been driven through by a car. Yep, window crushed inward, wall smashed, and yellow tape wrapped around the area. Apparently, a woman was standing in front of the window backing in her husband and he hit the gas, drove up over the parking bumper AND curb and pinned her. It was unclear whether this was accidental but this is how our week began. Not a good sign......


Keeping busy during the drive.....The next morning we headed out and figured we'd be in our cabin by noon.

We were wrong. Remember what I said about "not a good sign"? Well, we got just outside of Atlanta when the van broke down. Transmission. Cha-Ching!! So here are the kids hanging out behind the guard rail as we wait for our tow truck and for Enterprise to come pick us up. We were quite a site....broken down van, two white parents, two Chinese kids, and a black kid all sitting on the side of the road.

We sat there about 90 minutes before being rescued. The van was towed to the Honda dealer a few exits down and we rode off in a rented Dodge Caravan, for a small fee. News on the van would come a couple days later. We had a bad feeling that our cheap vacation had just turned into a very expensive one. What are you gonna do? The kids were quite enthralled watching the van being loaded up. On the road again......come on....sing along.....

So we get to our very cute cabin and much to our surprise and excitement, find snow on the ground and on the deck. The kids have never seen snow and we all were so excited! We had enough to make snowballs. Mason wasn't sure what to do with it.

Touching snow for the first time!

Gathering for a collective effort snowman.

This was the best we could do with the leftover snow on the deck.

Not sure who was more excited, Matt and I, or the kids!

Snow ball fight......

Here's my sweet girl journaling about her first day of vacation. It had been very eventful so far. She was excited to have her own little girly room.

Mason slept on a futon and did just great, only fell out once.....thud.

And here's Kenz content in her own space with her Leapster.

That's it for now. I took over 500 pics so this is To Be Continued. I'm headed out for a cropping weekend so you'll have to wait till next week..........