To Atlanta to See the Hales

 We just returned from our trip to see the Hale family, friends from our Seattle days. I once convinced Amy to miss a week of work to be a leader at YW camp. We laughed for six days straight that week over the hilarious things they said and did. Scott and Dan had similarly memorable experiences as home teachers together. The Hales are such good parents. Their humble examples inspire us. Their children are full of all sorts of endearing habits and adorable attributes. 

Scott is doing a post-doc there in immunology at Emory University so we went out into the chill one afternoon for a campus walk. I always forget to mention on these posts that our kids always act like we're pulling their teeth when we embark on these walks, but it should be noted that things improve as we go. There are always so many interesting things to look at on college campuses.

 I spotted ferns and roses growing by the business school. In December. That's amazing.

 These two deserve their own blog posts. They have enough personality and they provided so many laughable soundbites that I could write a volume of humorous narrative. For the sake of privacy I'll just leave this snapshot.

 Had the medical school not been closed I would have gone in to get a closer look at this mosaic of important people and events in the history of modern medicine. 

On Sunday afternoon after church and naps we plodded down the path of the university's nature preserve. 

 It was on this walk that I decided that every Sabbath (for the rest of my life) should involve a walk in the woods. More on that in another post.

On another day we hiked to the top of Stone Mountain. Somehow I forgot to get a shot of the Confederate Memorial carved into the impressive face of the mountain, but our kids will remember the walk to the top.

Among other things which I'll post about, we celebrated D's birthday on our visit to the H family's Atlanta home. Cake and ice cream is always so much more delicious with friends and we feel extra motivated to spring for the better ice cream.