Today we went to "Helens" as Chloe would call it. We had a great time. For those that don't know, Helen is a little town where all the buildings look like an Alpine Village. Our first stop was to see the bears. We fed them and the kids LOVED this. The bears would wave and jump up and down. They climbed up on a wooden pole so they weren't really that far away. Then one of the workers got the big snake out and asked who wanted to hold it. The kids were a little scared at first but Ashlyn warmed up quickly. She held the 'tail' end of the snake. The whole thing weighs around 100 pounds. Ashlyn didn't want to leave the snake. She enjoyed that.
Then we walked up a few blocks to Helen. It was crowded because it is Octoberfest there. We stopped to eat at one of the German restaurants. It was pretty busy so we had to wait in line. While in line, we talked with a couple from Florida. They were mainly there for the hiking. They were probably around our age. So we finally sat down to eat. The couple ended up on the other side of the restaurant. However, when it came time to pay our tab, the waitress told us that it had been taken care of. We looked over and the couple was gone. We found this ironic because a few days earlier, Brandon had stopped in a small town for a bite to eat on his way home from a trip. The waitress was around 8 months pregnant. Brandon had overheard her telling someone else that she was picking up as many shifts as she could because her husband had recently lost his job and they didn't know what they were going to do. So Brandon left her a very large tip. Then, a few days later, our tab was taken care of. Funny how things work.
Also, as we were waiting in line at the German bakery, I noticed a girl with white eyelashes like Ashlyn. I hate when people draw attention to her or ask me questions, but I stopped the mom. She said that the girl has vitiligo. Then I pointed out Ashlyn's eyelashes and that she also has it. We've never run in to someone else with it let alone a little girl around her age. I'm part of a support group in Atlanta but they are mostly African Americans. So this was kind of neat. Ashlyn even commented at bedtime about God making someone else special just like her.
It was starting to rain in Helen so we took the kids on a horse drawn carriage ride around the town. Brandon and I joked that the last time we did that, was our wedding day. Next we drove over to a place called 'Goats on the Roof.' The goats are on the roof. You can feed them by a bunch of different means. The kids mined for gold and had ice cream. All in all, it was a great day trip.
On the way home, the kids fell asleep. THey woke up and were hungry. It was Chloe's turn to pick where we ate, and she chose Wendy's. We stopped at one close to downtown Lawrenceville. The cashier looked really familiar and when she started talking, it hit me who she was. It was a girl I had taught seven years ago. She is in her senior year of high school. How crazy!
