Babies' First Hike

Today marked an important day in the little lives of Eva and Carolyn.  They climbed a mountain!




Little Carolyn




Little Eva

The setting was Stone Mountain, a few miles east of Atlanta. Stone Mountain is best-known for a carving, finally finished in the 1970s, of three heroes of the Confederacy -- Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson -- earning it the informal nickname "the Confederate Disneyland." The bad news is that Robert E. Lee looks a lot like Abraham Lincoln:


From left: Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln/Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson

Also, Stone Mountain is known for some old graffiti carved into the granite, much of it dating back to over 100 years ago. In other words, Stone Mountain was a pretty classy place even before the "Lasershow Spectacular in Mountainvision Presented by Humana."

After exiting onto Jefferson Davis Drive, cruising past Stonewall Jackson Drive, and finally taking a right on Robert E. Lee Boulevard, we made it to the base of the mountain.  Emilee had been talking a big game about how this would be an easy hike. But it turned out to be fairly rigorous -- a 700-foot rise in elevation over the course of a mile.






View of Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead from the top of Stone Mountain


Carolyn braving the steep mountainside

Everybody on the hike was very impressed by Eva and Carolyn.  Of course, the babies didn't do any actual climbing -- or anything other than sleeping and occasionally making little cooing noises.  David and Emilee did all the legwork, and Eva and Carolyn were along for the ride in their baby bjorns:

Coincidentally, these pictures were taken by a Nigerian gentleman, who alleged that his Aunt has seven sets of twins, and that we would be able to find her story on the internet. (We couldn't find a trace of this alleged woman on the internet, FYI.)





We spotted a few other babies and children on the hike, including another set of identical twins, but Eva and Carolyn were the youngest, by far, on the mountain today.  Upon finishing the hike, we received a "Climber's Certificate" granting each of us lifetime membership into the Stone Mountain Climbers Club.



The nice lady in the information center was extremely excited about Eva and Carolyn - I think they made her day.

This day also marked a couple of other milestones: first diaper change in the back seat of the car, and the shocking realization that we really need to pack more than 4 diapers on even short trips. Yeah, that's right, we almost went through our stash of diapers before we even started the hike.

We look forward to taking Eva and Carolyn on more hikes!