Surprise Getaway...

Hello friends!  It's been a while since I've visited with all of you.  I have been trying to keep up with reading all of your blogs and commenting, but have neglected to update my blog.  We've been pretty busy here.  Getting in the swing of things with our "new schedule" with school which by the way is going great.  Darbee loves it!  They seem to keep them super busy and for that I am thankful.  She comes home everyday with stories about what they do.

Friday was a fun day.  I picked Darbee Rae up from school and headed to hubby's work to pick him up.  He took 1/2 a day off from work so we could go to the Yellow Daisy Festival at Stone Mountain Park.  We have gone for the past few years and it's always fun.  Were there a lot of prim booths?  NO!

There were two booths that had a tiny bit of prim.  BUMMER!  We bought nothing but food!  We had some yummy homemade fudge and sweet nuts.  I was pretty disappointed, but we had fun anyway.

As we were getting in the car leaving the park to come home, hubby says, "We should ride up to North Georgia and spend the night."  I just half laughed and brushed him off.  We had nothing with us!  BUT...he was serious!  Have I ever been on an adventure like that?  No...but was it fun?  YES!  

We headed about 1 1/2 hours up the interstate to Cleveland, GA.  It is so pretty up there.  It is very close to Helen, GA which is where we ended up.  We checked in to a hotel and went out for an evening of fun.

There was a neat corn maze right up the road and we decided to check it out.

It was such a neat place.

I've never been to a corn maze...trust me it was quite an experience!

There was a petting zoo, an inflatable slide and jump house, a huge movie screen for movies under the stars and a giant corn bin.

The corn bin was Darbee's favorite!  It was really fun...I joined in on the fun with her!  (SMILE)

Look at this place...It was so pretty!

It was in the heart of the north GA mountains.

We entered the corn maze with a small postcard sized map and no idea of how to get out.

It was so hard!  We never found all of the checkpoints.  Darbee tired of it quickly and didn't like the idea of being "lost."  We were happy to finally find our way back to get OUT!

It was fun although I don't really care to do another one!

We headed to WalMart to buy a few essentials and then back to our hotel for the night.

Darbee had a great time playing in the room.

On Saturday, we planned a full day of fun.

Darbee woke up with a sore throat but didn't feel bad, so we made the most of it.

We headed to the NEATEST place called Goats On The Roof.

If you are ever in Helen, GA, you MUST go.  

Trust me...it's neat.  Darbee Rae had to show her babies too!

She made sure they didn't miss a thing!

There were literally tons of goats living on the roof of the two stores.  There bridges connecting the two and little pathways that the goats walked on.  They followed you everywhere you walked only they were on the roof!

They also had panning for gold.  This was a first for Darbee and I must say she LOVED it!

She found lots of cool rocks and some very pretty ones!

She also found several pieces of "gold!"

She enjoyed riding the bike to feed the goats too. 

This was the neatest thing!  You pedaled the food up to the goats.  

They were so funny.  They knew the food was coming and all gathered near the top of the tracj,

Yes...she had to do this several times!

See the goat watching me?

They ran across the swinging bridge.

We spent quite a bit of time here.  It was definitely a fun memory made.

Darbee wanted to check out the water in Helen, so we did just that.

It was COLD!

We walked up the streets and visited several neat stores.

One of the weirdest things was the street people!

We spent FOREVER watching this character trying to figure out if he was real or not.

What do you think?

You put money in his bucket and he played a little tune on the banjo.
It was the same tune every time, same body motions, same expressions...everything.  

NOTHING ever changes.  I wish I could have got it on video. 

His hands looked fake, but his face looked real.  BUT...it was so hard to tell!  He never moved his legs or anything!  It was crazy!

We sat in the coffee shop to take a break and Darbee Rae had to watch him some more and still try to figure out if he was real.

Another street person we encountered was this guy...

I called him the bird man...Darbee called him a pirate. :)

He shared his birds with her.

She didn't know whether to run or laugh or cry!

As we were headed back to our car, Darbee was walking a little ahead of us.  She stopped and started digging thru her purse.  I had no idea what she was doing, so I stopped and watched.

She was very serious and working hard to look for something.

What was she doing?

Haha...she had to see it one more time!  

She was sharing some of her "own" money with the "man" and wanted to watch him play once again.

She was so cute!  She stood there all by herself and took it all in.

We stopped by an old grist mill that was still in operation and enjoyed touring it and shopping in the country store.

One of our last stops was one that Darbee Rae was so excited about.

Babyland!  She has recently become attached to her baby dolls so we knew she would be in heaven here.

We were lucky enough to be there to witness two "births" of new babies!

Darbee quickly picked out her special new baby doll and was immediately attached to her.

We had to take her home.

She was able to name her....Lacey Renae.

I have no idea where that name came from.

Then she headed into the adoption room to finalize her adoption!

She really didn't know what to think!

It was so cute.

I remember doing this as a kid.  Brought back so many memories.

Taking her oath to be a good mommy.

My happy little "new mommy."

Yes...we had a fun time.

Thanks to hubby for the fun surprise!

By the afternoon, Darbee started running a fever.  Luckily we have a new after hours pediatric clinic here that has just opened.

We were able to make it home before it closed and get her seen about....it was strep!  Ugh...

Luckily, we caught it in time before it got too bad.  

She is feeling much better.

Sorry for such a long post and so many pictures....just documenting memories!

Be sure to check back soon.

I have a great fall giveaway coming up!