4th of July on the 3rd

We were invited to go to Stone Mountain with some church friends for the 4th of July fireworks and laser show. The show is going on Friday, Saturday AND Sunday evenings this weekend. We were glad we decided to go to the Friday show. We didn't have to worry about being out late and trying to get up early for church. And boy, were we out late! The show ended around 10:30. We got to the van at 10:50 and waited about 10 minutes before getting in line to get out of the park. It was after midnight when we got home.

We'd been to Stone Mountain several times, but we had never stayed for the laser show. We were warned about some Southern...uh, propaganda in the laser show and it wasn't a joke. There was no doubt we were in the South. It's supposed to be the world's longest running laser show and it was pretty good. But the fireworks were fan-tabulous!

My beautiful Abbi

My handsome boys

The Evans Girls

The Evans Men

I asked Abbi to take a picture of Jon and I. Just as she was pushing the button, 6 year-old Ethan walked by and we both started laughing. Ethan's mom, Dana, stopped just in time. Since my camera has such a long delay, Abbi got this shot right after Ethan passed and right before Dana was about to. I love it!

Above - Caleb and Ethan wrestling around. We got to the park shortly after 5:00 and the show didn't start until 9:30, so the kids got pretty restless waiting. At one point the kids made up a human ring-toss game with the glow-sticks Caroline brought for everyone.
Below - the kids found a cool rock wall to climb on.
The four moms thought it would be great to gather the kids for a photo. This is probably the best shot we got (thanks, Natalie). It was quite comical trying to get them all to be still and focus.

A Visit from Justin & Tonya

Jon's brother, Justin and his wife, Tonya came for a visit this month. We had so much fun with them going bowling (where I beat Justin by 1 point!), playing miniature golf (where Jon beat Tonya by 1 point!), visiting the town of Helen, seeing movies, eating out, etc. One of the fun 'touristy' things we did was visit the World of Coca Cola. We had never been there before and it was actually a pretty neat tour...well worth the money! Here we all are with the Coca Cola bear.

Above - listening to inspirational Coke stories.

They had the world's largest collection of Coke memorabilia.

I couldn't even take pictures of it all.

There were many neat things made out of Coke cans and bottle caps.

And lots of Coke art.

You end the tour in the Tasting Room where you can try over 60 soft drinks from around the world...just stay away from Beverly!

After the World of Coca Cola, we headed over to Stone Mountain. Justin and Tonya had never been there before. It was a hot, sticky day, but we made the most of it. We took the SkyRide up to the top of the mountain where I let the twins loose with my camera. I didn't look at their pictures until just now when I downloaded them...I thought these two were particularly clever. Doesn't it look like they're climbing up the mountain-side?
The view from the top!
There is so much to do at Stone Mountain, it was hard to choose. One thing we did was take a 5 mile train ride around the mountain. Fun! It was nice to take a break and sit down for a while. And the breeze felt good, too!
Tonya and I
While the boys went to see Journey to the Center of the Earth, Tonya and I took Abbi to see the new American Girl movie, Kit Kitteredge. I know it's hard to tell in the picture below if Abbi was excited, but trust me...she was!

Here we are waiting for the much-anticipated movie to start.