Easter in Atlanta...

Instead of sleeping in, we attended an Easter Service at Buckhead Church with John and Lara. Frankly, I think it might be the Disneyland of churches with seats for 3,000 (there were five Easter services so the numbers are staggering), amazing facilities for each stage of childhood and ushers that wear “Guest Services” shirts. The preacher, Andy Stanley, wasn’t physically there, but a life-size video of him was which actually creeped me out. The music was great and the sermon was very interesting. Afterwards, Jimmy scored us a tour backstage to see the control room for all of the video operations, which rivaled those at TV stations.

We spent the afternoon back at John and Lara’s. The girls were very excited about dying Easter eggs for the first time in years.

Ashlynn enjoyed reading to Jacob.

My first pet was a rat, so I thought it was cute that the boys had two rats.

Dinner at John and Lara’s...

After the aquarium, we went out for pizza to a funky place that covers the tables in butcher block paper instead of using plates. Later, we went to John and Lara’s for a BBQ dinner. It was no surprise that their house would be nice as Lara is an interior designer.

Johnny gets shy when there’s a camera around.

It was great to see Johnny and Veronica performing together. It was especially nice that they didn’t spend the entire evening on electronic devices.

New Levels of Advertising...

As is normal in most US amusement parks, the Georgia Aquarium sold naming rights to the different sections of the place. I was especially amused at the lengths that Georgia Pacific went to inform the public about their products. Wonder who thought it was a good idea to compare the length of a baby beluga whale to toilet paper?

At least the plate scenario isn’t as big of a stretch, but including the napkin is ridiculous.

This sounds like a word problem in a math class.

For the first time we saw advertising incorporated into a car’s computer. Never tested it to see if we’d pressed on the ad if it would have given us directions to the nearest Outback.

Georgia Aquarium...

The last time we were in Atlanta was in 1998, so downtown looked very different. We met up with John, Lara, Justice, Joseph and Jacob to go to the Georgia Aquarium, which was the world’s largest aquarium until it was surpassed in mid-2014 by an aquarium in China.

Although the setting was nice, I was not impressed with the dolphin show; humans singing and dancing made it more of a theatrical show than an animal show.

The fish tanks were impressive and it was cool to see whale sharks swimming above us in the underwater tunnel.

Rocky Horror Picture Show...

While Susan wasn’t impressed with the idea of us seeing such a show during Easter, that didn’t stop us from making Veronica’s wish come true: to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight on the big screen.

The actors went all out for the performance with some impressive props. The audience wasn’t allowed to throw rice or bread like when I was in high school, but that didn’t have a big impact. Unfortunately, I wished the gay MC would quit with his raunchy commentary as it interrupted too much of the movie’s dialog.

Our girls had seen the movie before, so knew what to expect; Johnny seemed pretty shocked while Jimmy clearly thought it was hilarious.

Cousins...

Our next stop was Atlanta to stay with Jim and Susan for Easter weekend. We were thrilled that Debbie came up with the boys for the weekend. The cousins hadn’t seen each other in nearly three years, but quickly bonded over music.

Johnny’s quite good on the guitar.

Jimmy’s laugh was infectious as ever!

It was so strange having Johnny drive us around as he’s 10 months younger than Veronica. There were a few close calls, but overall he makes a good designated driver.

Visiting Northwestern University...

Veronica was very excited about visiting Northwestern University as she’d already ranked it as her top choice before we’d even arrived. After visiting all seven colleges, Northwestern was still at the top of her list and she’s since decided that she will apply for Early Decision.

The views of Lake Michigan were gorgeous!

While Veronica took an environmental science class, Jimmy and I visited Block Museum of Art, which is on campus. Afterwards, we visited with a professor for a tour of his labs. After 1.5 hours of barely understanding a word, I begged off to join Ashlynn at the hotel; how impressive that a professor would take two hours of his time to talk with a prospective student about research opportunities.

I was originally nervous about the idea of Veronica going to college in Chicago because of the high crime rate, but fell in love with the school and the charming college town of Evanston. We felt it was safe enough that Ashlynn went to a movie and shopping by herself.