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Day 12: Atlanta to... Atlanta??
When James woke up the next morning still with a fever (judged by touch) he was acting like himself and in a good mood. However, we gave Heather a call to let her know since we were supposed to drive down to Ocala to my aunt and uncle's house to stay there with them. (We'd be celebrating Garrett's 2nd birthday and meeting the newest member of the family, Bayleigh, who was just a month old.) I told her the situation and left it up to her judgement as to whether we should come or not. With Bayleigh being so little, we just weren't sure it was a good idea to expose her (or Garrett) to the germs, especially when we didn't know exactly what was wrong. It was frustrating because James was till acting like himself, but his little body was obviously trying to fight something off... or was it just teething? We didn't know.
It was sad, but we figured we were in Atlanta where we had more choices of what to do than we'd have time for. So, it wasn't all bad... just a bit of a detour from the original plan. (We decided we'd see how he did that day and what the next morning held before deciding if we'd totally skip over Ocala or not.) We informed the hotel we'd be staying another night and left our stuff in our room before heading out for some adventures in downtown Atlanta.
We knew the Georgia Aquarium and The World of Coca-Cola were next to each other and right across the street from the Olympic Centennial Park. We planned to visit the Georgia Aquarium first, but when we got there, the line was so long we decided to go over to the World of Coke first. We weren't too impressed with The World of Coca-Cola. One of the coolest things was it was the first anniversary of its opening on the day that we were there so we got some free commemorative Coca-Cola bottles for the occasion. 
They also had some other fun activities and festivities going on to celebrate. Another neat thing was the room we first started the "tour" in which displayed some of the more than 1,200 artifacts from around the world that, until now, have never been displayed to the public before. One of the items was an old Rockefeller painting worth over a million dollars!Next we saw a really weird movie in a theatre-style room about "The Happiness Factory"... I don't even know how to describe it other than to use the word weird. We were pretty much free to explore after this and we went in to see the "Milestones of Refreshment," which pretty much showed the history of Coke and saw displays of old Coke machines and other various artifacts. Another area, called the "Pop Culture Gallery" had paintings from an artist named Penley (who was actually there autographing some free small prints of his work) and displayed various things people had made out of coke cans and bottle tops. That was pretty cool. 
We also got to sample different Coke products from around the world, which was pretty neat... although some of them tasted really nasty to us! (James liked this part, too, and it was the only thing that kept him going at the end.)
By the time we left, it was time to find some food for lunch. We asked someone where we could walk to get some food, and they said there was something near the Olympic Centennial Park. 
So, we decided I'd watch James and give him a chance to play on a really cool playground they had there at the park (keeping his mind off of his stomach, of course) while Matt went and got some food for all of us. After we ate at a picnic table near the playground, we walked across the HUGE park to explore the other side. We made a "cool" discovery for this really hot day... a really awesome fountain (shaped like the Olympic rings) that you could actually play in! We didn't 
know this was here, so we weren't prepared with bathing suits or towels or anything. James was having so much fun watching all the kids playing in the fountain, we thought he should have the opportunity to join them. So, we stripped him down to his shorts and diaper, lathered his little white body in sunscreen, and let him run free. He was a bit intimidated by the huge 
streams of water coming out of the ground, though, so he kept his distance. Eventually, daddy "helped" him cool off in one of the streams shooting up by picking him up and swinging him into one of the huge streams of water. It was hot outside, so we figured it would feel good and he was very intrigued by the water. Shortly after that, however, we took off his wet shorts, changed his diaper, and put back on his dry shirt before heading back to the hotel for James to take a nap. After his nap, we went into the hotel's indoor heated pool for a little bit before getting ready for dinner.
So, we decided I'd watch James and give him a chance to play on a really cool playground they had there at the park (keeping his mind off of his stomach, of course) while Matt went and got some food for all of us. After we ate at a picnic table near the playground, we walked across the HUGE park to explore the other side. We made a "cool" discovery for this really hot day... a really awesome fountain (shaped like the Olympic rings) that you could actually play in! We didn't 
know this was here, so we weren't prepared with bathing suits or towels or anything. James was having so much fun watching all the kids playing in the fountain, we thought he should have the opportunity to join them. So, we stripped him down to his shorts and diaper, lathered his little white body in sunscreen, and let him run free. He was a bit intimidated by the huge 
streams of water coming out of the ground, though, so he kept his distance. Eventually, daddy "helped" him cool off in one of the streams shooting up by picking him up and swinging him into one of the huge streams of water. It was hot outside, so we figured it would feel good and he was very intrigued by the water. Shortly after that, however, we took off his wet shorts, changed his diaper, and put back on his dry shirt before heading back to the hotel for James to take a nap. After his nap, we went into the hotel's indoor heated pool for a little bit before getting ready for dinner. Because we enjoyed last night's dinner so much, we were tempted to head back to the Mexican restaurant, but we decided we'd try something else. We found a reasonably priced restaurant near the mall that served buffalo meat so we decided to give it a try! 
Evidently, buffalo is much lower in fat than beef so it's healthier for you. Matt had a buffalo burger and I had meatloaf made with buffalo meat. We both enjoyed the dinner! =o) For dessert, we decided to splurge and get a strawberry shortcake since we figured James would enjoy that as well. In the picture it looks like he's going to dig right in, armed with not one but two spoons but he didn't! He wouldn't even eat a 
strawberry! I think he was just very tired from the day's activities and ready for bed... like the rest of us. He did eventually taste some of daddy's coke float, though, and he seemed to like that! We went back to the hotel and crashed into our super-comfy beds, ready for some good sleep!
Evidently, buffalo is much lower in fat than beef so it's healthier for you. Matt had a buffalo burger and I had meatloaf made with buffalo meat. We both enjoyed the dinner! =o) For dessert, we decided to splurge and get a strawberry shortcake since we figured James would enjoy that as well. In the picture it looks like he's going to dig right in, armed with not one but two spoons but he didn't! He wouldn't even eat a 
strawberry! I think he was just very tired from the day's activities and ready for bed... like the rest of us. He did eventually taste some of daddy's coke float, though, and he seemed to like that! We went back to the hotel and crashed into our super-comfy beds, ready for some good sleep!Day 13: Atlanta to Ocala
When we woke up the next morning, we were still unsure of James' diagnosis. He seemed like himself, but we weren't sure he was 100% yet. We called my grandparents to see if we could stay with them for the night. They said that would be fine, and that evening they were going to Garrett's birthday party at Aunt Lori and Uncle Steve's house (where we were originally supposed to be staying).
I was hoping to steal away for a little bit just long enough to give Garrett his present and say hi to my family, but... My incredibly wonderful husband said he would stay with James and I could go with my grandparents to the party for Garrett to take him his present, spend time with my extended family, and meet Bayleigh Grace who was just one month old! I was so excited! It was great to see everyone, especially Bayleigh! She was so tiny and cute! (I definitely had the "baby bug" at this point!) I loved holding her! Of course, I loved seeing and catching up with Heather in person, too. Here are some other pictures from the party:
Garrett loves Thomas the Train, so he had a Thomas party, and he loved his cake that had an actual Thomas that moved around the track! It was pretty cool!
He loved the Thomas shirt we'd found him that actually made noise! In fact, he loved it so much, that he started taking his other shirt off so he could put his new Thomas shirt on! (Heather has told me that he's been known to take this shirt out of the dirty clothes to try to wear it, too!)
Heather had the coolest thing someone invented for breastfeeding moms called a "Hooter Hider." (I cracked up when she told me the name of it!) A friend of hers had given it to her as a shower gift and it's cool because it has a little part on top that bows out so the mom can see the baby, but no one else can. (Very helpful for the beginning when mom and baby are learning how this works.) While Heather was feeding Bailey, Garrett came up and wanted to kiss Bailey on the head, so he pulled out the top part that already had a little gap and kissed her on the head. It was really funny!
My grandparents, Uncle Steve & Aunt Lori, Eric, Heather, Garrett, & Bayleigh
Poor Bayleigh! She was so tired... so here she is all swaddled up and ready for bed! I love this picture of Heather with Bayleigh. =o)
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