The Richardsons: Atlanta

On Thursday, January 2, we said goodbye to family in Florida and hello to our best friends in Atlanta! We'd been looking forward to this trip for months and we were so excited to be there, even if the weather was forecasted to be much colder than we had prepared for! We left our good cold weather gear in Memphis, but luckily I was gifted some warm hats, gloves and scarves, which all got great use!

We stayed in a nice hotel in Midtown, near Quinn and Erika's apartment. They came to meet us after they got off work and we had settled in. We went to a cozy Italian restaurant called Osteria, where Paul got mushroom pizza (probably his two favorite foods). We went to their place afterward and were reunited with our old friend Stamps and met their new pup Basil. Paul immediately loved the doggies/puppies and giggled when Stamps licked his face.

Just playing in the drawer in our room.

Stamps!

The cats stay in a special room while we are in Pensacola so we don't get to spend much time with them. I think that is why Phoebe let Paul spin her around in the chair so many times!

This is a little out of order, but Friday we met up with Abbye and Billy (yay!) and went to the Georgia Aquarium, which was awesome and deserves its own post! So that will be next.

Saturday was very cold, but we all put our walking shoes on, bundled up and headed out for a walking tour of Midtown, starting from Quinn and Erika's apartment in Ansley Park. It is a beautiful neighborhood, and it wasn't long until we got to Piedmont Park. From there, we hopped onto the Beltline, a pedestrian/bicycle path through Atlanta. Paul was in the Ergo on Michael, and took a little nap during this part. We walked for what felt like (and probably was?) hours. Before heading back, we did a walk-through of Trader Joe's -- samples, please! -- and had Philly cheese steaks for lunch.

The walk begins!

Stamps was fascinated by the ice.

I felt like paparazzi but we don't get to see each other much and I felt it was my duty to document it!

Piedmont Park

I love this picture of Erika, Abbye and I!

Paul, Michael, Quinn, Billy and Stamps

There was so much cool art to see on the Beltline.

To give you an idea, this is probably 12' high, it's along the inside of the tunnel we're walking through in the previous picture.

Basil!

"Hands!" - Paul. I let him borrow my new gloves (Thanks, Dad!) so he wouldn't get too cold.

By the time we got back to Piedmont Park, Paul was losing it and wanted to walk himself. It had been a three-hour adventure! He was entitled to complain a little. We got back to their apartment and spent the afternoon relaxing before making dinner, like old times. Right after dinner, we bundled up again and headed out with Cafe Intermezzo as our destination. On the way, we passed an amazing fountain that had frozen over! It was incredible!

Paul and Abbye

Playing Madden like old times.

Playing peek-a-boo!

Paul was exhausted but while we waited for our cheesecake and hot chocolate, I found a funny cat video on YouTube to entertain him. It worked like a charm! He was laughing so loud! Every time it finished, he would say, "'Gain! 'Gain!"

I got white chocolate raspberry and Michael got marble and we shared a butterscotch hot chocolate and it was all amazing! And very, very rich. Paul fell asleep immediately in the stroller on the walk back and didn't wake up when I put him in his car seat, took him out, changed him into PJ's, nursed him, put him to bed. He was exhausted. And so were we!

Deliciously amazing treats from Cafe Intermezzo! Perfect way to end the day!

Michael got this one on Sunday morning.

Sunday morning we met everyone for breakfast at the Flying Biscuit. It was a rough morning -- we were sad to say goodbye to our friends, cold, tired and starting to worry about the weather forecast for Memphis (ice, snow).

We walked by the fountain on our way to meet everyone for breakfast Sunday morning. It was even more frozen! This was our first taste of the "polar vortex" and wow, was it cold!