Home SWEET Home

Boy am I happy to be back home. We left Friday morning and headed to the beautiful Smokey Mountains. We went earlier this year (we always go down there for my birthday 9/22), so we could get the fall shopping for the kids over with. BAD IDEA, it was WAAAAY too crowded. I think everyone from Kentucky and Tennessee was in Pigeon Forge/ Gatlinburg area this lovely Labor Day weekend. And the weather was crazy...Saturday it was too hot, Sunday it rained ALL day but it was really nice for about 2hrs then started raining again. The TRAFFIC leaving on Monday morning was like the news announced aliens were about to attack Gatlinburg and to evacuate as soon as possible. Luckily we had our GPS and was able to find an alternate route back home. I hate to admit it but on my last few trips I haven't been taking hardly any pictures. Ray complains that I take way too many, which I disagree, so it has stopped me from taking out my camera every few seconds to snap pictures. So as I go on about our weekend, I'm sorry I don't have a lot of cute pictures, but I DO have a few.
This is picture of Anderson and Callie sleeping on the way home...they were so tired.



Well back to Friday. After we finally arrived in Pigeon Forge, TN we met up with my family and ate dinner at the 'Wood Grill' (formally known as: The Great American Buffet).











Anderson pigged out and Callie didn't eat anything but some ice cream. Then she talked her Poppy into taking her to "that" which was a place (didn't catch them name) where they had some kiddy rides. It took her a little while before she finally decided to ride, after all it was her bed time, and I was about to put her on the dag on rides weather she wanted too or not because it cost us $23 for 7 tickets and the kiddy rides took one ticket each. YEAH, crazy I know, but we promised her and we couldn't take that back because we wanted her to have some fun.




Callie LOVED the swings. I think she rode it three times straight in a row until I finally convinced her to go ride something else.




Anderson also got to enjoy riding a little bit. Now I know what he can do while his sister rides the bigger kiddy rides.

Callie really liked this ride too. I wasn't too sure about it when SHE decided to ride it because I know I would have gotten sick, but not her. She was bored until the guy who worked the ride got my OK to spin her a little. Then she was smiling from ear to ear.




Then to top off her night, she only had two tickets left, she rode this swinging boat. Which I started to think was going to put her asleep.



Then it was back to the cabin, which on the way Anderson and Callie fell asleep. Even though it was only 10 or so, I was pooped and went straight to bed.






On Saturday, Anderson woke up at 6:45am. Which this was one morning I didn't complain too much. Anderson and I stepped outside, so he wouldn't wake everyone else up, to watch the sun rise with the beautiful Smokey Mountains as it's canvas. It was so beautiful.


Then once everyone else decided to roll out of bed, 9:30am....


....I went and jumped in the shower. Once everyone was ready, we headed out to Pigeon Forge for some lunch. To be honest, I don't remember where we ate. Then we went to Tanger Outlet Mall, where Ray left me to shop for the kids since it was way too hot and crowed that it was better for the kids to go back to the cabin to take naps and play. So after I shopped at Oshkosh, two BIG bag fulls, and at the Bass shop for Callie some really cute shoes, I hitched a ride back to the cabin with my parents. We were ALL the way back to the cabin before my parents, including my little brother and sister, decided what we were going to do for dinner. We loaded the kids up to go eat at the Alamo, which was the BEST meal of the whole trip. We need one of those restaurants here, I would eat there every night if it wasn't so dag on expensive. Then back to the cabin we went because it was raining.




Sunday we hung out at the cabin until around 2 or so then we headed off to Gatlinburg, which took us 3 hours to get there thanks to traffic. Once we got there we walked the strip a bit, Mom and Dad bought Anderson and Callie stuffed animals at some store that is a knock off of Build-A-Bear, then it was time to find a place to eat because Anderson was getting fussy where he was hungry. So we turned and walked back up the strip where we ate at Calhoun's ( I think that's how you spell it). It was good, Callie ate really good and Anderson fell asleep after eating a little bit of mashed potatoes. Then the best part of the trip, we took Callie up 'Tallest Mountain'. Let me explain, Callie LOVES Dora and on one of her DVDs Dora and Boots have to go to 'Tallest Mountain' to save Map. So it was a fun game to play with Callie. We headed to the Sky Lift and UP UP UP 'Tallest Mountain' we went. She LOVED it! I remember at one point going up I said "Where are we going?" Callie said "Tallest Mountain" as she did the little Dora dance in her dad's lap. When we got to the top where they take the picture, I thought we were supposed to look up at the guy telling us something (I couldn't hear what he was saying), and in the picture it looks like we are looking up at the stars. LOL.



I think Callie enjoyed the trip back down better because she could she Gatlinburg all lit up. I took some pictures, which freaked me out because I was afraid I was going to drop my camera. And let me just say, I'M SCARED TO DEATH OF HEIGHTS and I did this ONLY because I knew Callie would like it. It's funny what LOVE will make you do.










Monday traffic leaving Pigeon Forge was HORRIBLE!!! When I saw how crazy it was I started to think we would NEVER get home. But we arrived home at 7:30pm. I then cooked dinner and then put the kids to bed, after they played of course. It was a long weekend but at times relaxing and other times stressful but isn't EVERY vacation/trip that way when you have kids?