Helen, GA Vacation 11/10-11/12

For years Dave has been talking about wanting us all to take a mini vacation to this little German town in Georgia called Helen. There really hasn't been any extra time in our schedule, but with both kids having Veteran's day off from school we decided to take advantage of the little break from our routine. We left on Thursday right after school and stayed through Saturday afternoon since I needed to be back for my Sunday morning job. Here are a few pictures from our mini vacation.

Since we arrived so late on Thursday night, the fun really started Friday morning. Grammy and Papa drove up to meet us and we all spent the day together. First up, Babyland General Hospital. Savannah loved seeing all of the dolls and we even got to witness a doll being born and help name the baby. Savannah contributed the middle name and another little girl chose Macy as the first name; the newborn cabbage patch kid was Macy Grace! Here is a picture with Savannah holding her.

Savannah and Macy Grace

Next we drove to downtown Helen where we walked around a lot, took a few pictures (until my battery died), and had lunch.

This picture makes me smile. The kids were SO excited about seeing Grammy and Papa. See the excitement on their faces as they walk with Papa?!


After a long day of walking around, we decided to head to Anna Ruby Falls for some hiking. Well, lets just say that Preston didn't quite make it. He fell asleep on the 10 minute drive and I just couldn't wake him up. So, I stayed in the van with him and he slept the entire time everyone else was hiking!!

We then said goodbye to Grammy and Papa and headed to the hotel . . which by the way Savannah's first response when we arrived on Thursday was "this is a dream come true" said as she danced and twirled around. Really, Savannah? Wonder what she'll think when we do Disney if the little hotel in Helen, GA is a dream come true? We figured out later that she probably can't ever remember staying in a hotel since we've always stayed in a house or condo on vacation with them. Anyway, back to our vacation . . . we let the kids go for a swim in the indoor pool and then it was off to bed.

Saturday we woke up and decided to head to the Goofy Rooster corn maze. Little did we know how much fun it would be and just how many things there would be to do there! First up was the huge corn maze. The maze was a big clue game with hidden clues to find throughout the maze. If you found the clues and determined what happened to the farmer then we all got candy of our choice so that was quite the motivation!! It took us 40 minutes just to find our way through the maze (without a map) and then we realized we missed 3 clues. We headed back in for another 20 minutes to make sure we solved the mystery.


Here are the kids before going into the maze

Our own peanut!!

Savannah on one of the 3 bridges in the corn maze

Preston on the bridge, wondering what's below!

After the corn maze we went on a long hay ride up the mountain, let the kids ride the barrel train, had a picnic lunch, and then wrapped up the morning with some playground time. They were exhausted!!!

It was a fun weekend and a nice adventure for our family. Now that they are older and travel somewhat easier I'm looking forward to a few more weekend getaways!