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Georgia Aquarium: Sleep Under the Sea!

As the evening crowd started to disappear and the noises faded, we began our ‘Sleep Under The Sea’ at the Georgia Aquarium!

Our wonderful tour guide, Jess, gave us a behind-the-scene tour of, not only all the popular exhibits, but the hidden, inside-systems it takes to run the largest aquarium in the Western Hemisphere.

Some of our favorite spots were: veterinary clinic, kitchen, the crane (used to bring in the whale sharks), security systems, filtration room and a top-view of Ocean Voyager’s 6.3 million gallons of water!

As our night tour wrapped-up, we were given our assigned sleeping area. I knew all of the possible sleeping spots probably had excellent views, but I WANTED TO CRY ‘was THRILLEDwhen our guide lead our family into the “Ocean Voyager” TUNNEL!

This is the only place in North America you can even SEE the largest type of fish in the world (whale shark), much less SLEEP with them swimming ABOVE you!

To say this was a ‘once in a lifetime experience’ would be an understatement! Looking up at God’s creation, surrounded by my family, was a moment I hope to never, ever forget!

We woke-up bright and early to get a head-start on MORE private, behind-the-scenes tours. We saw handlers interacting with the animals, scuba divers cleaning the tanks, whale sharks being fed and penguins eating fish out of a trainer’s hand.

As the general public started filling the building, our ‘official‘ time was over. But that didn’t mean we had to leave! As part of the admission, we were able to continue to enjoy the aquarium as long as we’d like the second day. My family decided to enjoy the 4-D theater experience, ‘Dolphin Tales’ show, walrus show and explore the aquarium once MORE!

Our family’s DNA must have traces of grease, because, without fail, everything we do seems to either begin or end with a trip to The Varsity. (Because of shared bathrooms and small, contained sleeping areas, we took the ‘safe’ route and choose to eat here AFTER our sleep-over party!)

Here’s a super short video of some of the ‘behind the scene’ tours we got to experience!

Many have asked how much an experience like this costs. My super, duper, sweet and thoughtful parents purchased this for us, but the website currently list this as $100.95 per person for non-members.

Although it IS a big investment, I can’t even begin to describe how INCREDIBLE it was! It would be an EXCELLENT birthday or Christmas present! Personally, I’d be willing to skip a few less expensive trips in exchange for something as AWESOME as this! In other words, find a EXCUSE ‘reason’ to GO!

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Underwater Fun

I tried to take underwater photos in our neighborhood pool. But, my photos were cluttered with random hair strands, murky water and unidentified toes from random kids.

So as I sat by my friend’s gorgeous, backyard pool, I only dreamed of taking photographs in her oasis- surrounded by colorful flowers and big, stringing lights.

I asked.
She said yes!
I tried to get Ross to wake-up, but he wanted to sleep in.
I took an insane amount of photos and HAD TO DELETE 99% OF THEM ALL ‘got a few’ that made me smile!

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National Parks Family Trip, Part 2!

Yes, it’s highly possible that I tried to squeeze in too much during our National Parks Family Trip. But now that we’re home and well-rested, I’m so thankful we got to experience so much of God’s beauty.

Here’s a few more from our trip…

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Katie

How FUN is it to look back on past sessions?!?! I just love seeing Katie’s older sessions compared to her SENIOR year!

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National Parks Family Trip

It’s not everyday a girl gets to experience three of her favorite things.
But this year, I had the JOY of squishing-together TRAVEL, GOD’S NATURAL BEAUTY and FAMILY!

Immediately after finding cheap flights to Salt Lake City, the ‘National Parks Family Trip’ planning began! Because the kids STARTED COMPLAINING weren’t quite as enthusiastic about hiking and more time on the road, we ended-up skipping a few iconic spots. Nevertheless, I still was so grateful for all the spots we DID get to experience together!

I’ll list our itinerary and favorite spots in the next post. But, for now, I wanted to share a few of my FAVORITE memories from one of my FAVORITE trips!

Here’s a few of my favorite memories…

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Jason

Hypothetically speaking, of course, if I were to have a nose-bleed just as I squatted down to take the first photo of a session, there’s NO ONE in the world I’d rather it happen with than my childhood-friend, Jason!

Living just a few minutes away, Jason was one of my closest buddies growing-up. I watched him love and care for all types of animals. My family even called on him to treat our animals.

So when I moved back to Georgia and Jason invited me to visit his Rescue Farm, I was THRILLED!

Inside his fences roam so many healthy animals, each with their own stories of rescue. Although one horse stands tall and strong now, there’s a horrible scar that’s a reminder of how his last owner slit his neck and left him for dead. There’s silly goats, expressive ducks, a huge pig, a few more horses, sweet rabbits and too many chickens to count!

All of these sweet critters are now safe and happy, thanks to Jason!

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