Perfect Sunset

It all started with an email I received on Tuesday Apr 6th.
Jess:
while I was walking around monitoring my kids…i came up with the BEST idea.

I know it’s going to be a long week for both of us, so I want us to have something to look forward to….so do me a favor? keep your plans for Friday night free. the whole night. I got a lil something up my sleeve.

We both knew that Friday didn’t really have any thing going on, and Jess could sense that I was feeling a bit of the gloom monster. So she cooked up this crazy idea. She wouldn’t tell me, but she did send me several hints though out the week. Actually, they were “sniperhints”.

Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 10:49 AM

Plans are in the works…there’s so much to do,
our date is gonna rock; I can’t wait for the view!

Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 12:59 PM

Timing is crucial, I cannot tell a lie,
5:30 is the time to be ready by!

Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 1:50 PM

These details are getting much harder to hide…
wouldn’t you love it if our date was outside??

Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 7:58 AM

Thanks for an awesome start to the day,
and our secret date is only two days away!

Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 10:47 AM

There’s one thing I’m confident to bet…
alcohol on Friday you’ll probably regret!

Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 12:55 PM

One last thing, to prevent the blues,
wear comfy clothes, especially your shoes!

Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 10:44 AM

There isn’t a lot that’s left to be said…
in the bag please put the blanket that’s red

By this time I was super intrigued as to what she had planned. My initial thoughts were of Stone Mountain, but then it kinda swayed from that. While getting ready for the date on Friday night, I put on my shorts, a t-shirt, and my shoes. She said that I should probably wear something a bit more exercisey. So I switched over to my running shorts and shirt. This threw me off even more. I was thinking that maybe some sort of bootcamp or race or something.

As it turns out, it was a hike up Stone Mountain, followed by a light dinner while watching the sun set, then a hike back down. I was STOKED when I found out. I had only ever been up there once and that was this past winter. Back then it was way too cold and we had Chase so staying up past sunset was ill advised. This time however, the weather was perfect and we got to watch the whole thing.

It was a great experience. We found a cozy spot, sat out our food, enjoyed the chatter of other people around us, shared some good laughs, etc. It was just a great date. One that I won’t soon forget (or hopefully ever).

After the sun set, we decided to start heading back down. However, either the uber Gatorade or the crisp air or something made us decide that it would be a good idea to run down and see how fast we could go. It was actually a ton of fun. I had a backpack so it was a bit wonky for me, but we zoomed along, jumping from rock to rock, darting here and there between the trees and slow people. Of course we had to stop and/or slow down every now and then, but for the most part it was rush running down the side of a mountain. I can’t wait to go back and do it again.

So that was that. A date that didn’t involve excessive quantities of drinking or dancing or being up until the ass crack of dawn. No exuberant  amount of money was spent on a dinner and waiter. It was simply two people enjoying the company of the other person and a huge piece of granite. I’m eager to hike back up and improve the pace on both the up and down. I love Jess for coming up with the perfect date. I will certainly have my work cut out for me to top this one.

For anyone that cares to join us, we have a parking season pass so we’ll be going back quite often.

Our family adventure begins

A few weeks ago Jess and I decided it would be nice to take Chase to Stone Mountain to see all the Christmas decorations, the laser show, the Atlanta skyline at sunset, and the building of the Snow Mountain area. Despite living in Georgia my entire life, I have never been on top of Stone Mountain. I know…it is a shock to me too! We packed up the camera, got bundled up, made a quick stop to get a snack, and we were on our way.

The park was NOT crowded at all. Then again it was a Monday afternoon and people still had to work I reckon. We walked around for a bit, checked out the Snow Mountain area, snapped a few photos, then decided to take the sky bucket thing to the top. I was pretty excited. I mean, it’s the top of Stone Mountain! I had heard how beautiful the city was from up there, but I never imagined it would’ve been as beautiful as it was on that day.

Got'cha!

Chase pretty much took off running as soon as we got up there. Jess and I just took our time and enjoyed the view. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. Yeah it was cold and the wind was kickin just a bit, but the sky was perfect and the view was amazing. There were a good deal of people up there, but not too many where we couldn’t just sit down in a nice cozy spot and enjoy it all. Chase had fun jumping over puddles, climbing on trees and rocks. However, he got a little ambitions and slid off the side of a big on. Luckily, Jess was there to catch him. Using her Super Mom abilities, she pulled him to safety! To celebrate, we decided it would be a grand idea to walk down instead of take the lift.

I had always wondered what it was like walking up/down the mountain. I mean…where did it go? How steep was it? Were there steps or was it just huge rocks you had to navigate around? Would there be bears or timberwolves? Perhaps there was a great chasm that one could fall victim to if you stepped in the wrong spot! Unfortunately there was no such thing, instead it was a gentle walk down a steep graded rocky mountain. Don’t get me wrong though, the walk down, far outweighed the ride up.

The sun never sets on happiness

Neither one of us were really prepared for the mountain excursion we had just embarked on, but we weren’t going to let some mountain get in the way of our fun. So we took off and every once and a while would stop, take it all in, enjoy the view, holler at Chase for going to fast, slip on a slippery rock, or race each other to the next tree before realizing we were running down a mountain…and there were slippery rocks all around. About half way down we paused at a clearing and watch the last few moments of the sun set. It was beautiful to see the sun just slowly move out of view before saying goodbye and dipping just below the horizon. It was definitely one of the best sunsets I’ve witnessed.

Once we got to the bottom we realized we were now standing in a random parking lot on the other side of the mountain. The train was no where in sight and there didn’t appear to be any easy way to get back to where we started. Never fear, Jess and I are not one to let a little diversion stop us from having a good time. So we pulled out our map and decided on the best course of action, which was simply to walk back around to the front of the park. Chase was tuckered out from all the scurrying around, but that was nothing a quick piggy back ride couldn’t alleviate. We finally made it back to the front and were all set to walk around the shops, get some hot chocolate, and fill our bellies with what ever wonders the great people of Stone Mountain Park could come up with. Unfortunately, the only thing they could come up with was an additional $26 PER PERSON to just walk into a shop. Wait…what?! Yeah. In order to walk around the “towne” we had to pay MORE money. If we wanted to go into a shop and buy a glass blown ornament of a fat Santa snoozing in a chair or a snow globe of Stone Mountain it would cost us about $80. Even if we DIDN’T buy anything, it would still cost us. We couldn’t even walk around the village and look at the lights!

So rather than hang around any more, we chose to pack up the kiddo and head on back home. After a stop by Garcia’s for some delicious Mexican food, we got home, got warmed up and settled in for a long winter nap. Well, more like a few hours, but still.

And there you have it. Our first trip to Stone Mountain. I have to say that it is an adventure that I’ll not soon (or hopefully ever) forget. There were so many “ahhhhh” moments that I can’t even begin to recount them all. Despite the fact that we had to walk around the mountain to get back where we started and the steep price to pay for some extra fun, we found our way. We got back to where we needed to be. We made our own adventure. We made the trip ours.

Bacon/Ranch Balls
Regular sausage ball mix (the bisquick kind)
add chopped up bacon (pretty small)
ranch dressing mix (powder kind)
*these may need to be cooked a few extra minutes

BBQ Balls
Regular sausage ball mix
add your fav. bbq sauce
we added extra chopped up white cheddar cheese and spices

MexiBalls
Regular sausage ball mix
extra texmex cheeses
LOTS of chopped japs. yummmm….

Maple Balls
Regular sausage ball mix
maple syrup (go on and get the good kind, it’s worth it)
brown sugar

They were great!! I don’t really have exact measurements or cooking times, but you can free ‘ball’ it! (tehehee) The idea is, think of some awesome things that YOU would like and go great with sausage. Cook them until they look “done”. I promise you’ve never ‘sausage’ a great finger food for the holiday! {disclaimer: that corny but funny joke was brought to you by SniperBen}.
*editor’s note: somehow i don’t have a pic of the epic balls! doh…