Smoky Mountain Vacation - Part 3

Welcome to day 3 of our vacation!

Remember how I said it was cold? Well...when we woke up on Tuesday morning there was definitely snow.

Jillian thought that Elsa from Frozen had paid us a visit and that's why there was snow on the ground. I let her go with that (see what I did there?). They even asked if they could build a snowman (okay, seriously, last Frozen reference).

We definitely took our time getting ready that morning because we wanted it to warm up before we headed into town.

Our first order of business was the super delicious cinnamon bread from the Donut Friar. Remember how I mentioned them yesterday? Oh my word, they are delicious!

The cinnamon bread is this crazy combination of traditional cinnamon bread, monkey bread and a cinnamon roll. Yeah, sit on that for a minute.  We consumed the entire loaf that week and bought another one for home. In case you were wondering, they ship. That was a bit of information I did not need to know.

After it warmed up a little bit, and I really mean a little bit, we headed into town and went mini golfing. Our plan was to go to Hillbilly Golf, but it was closed, so we headed over to Firehouse Golf. Aaron was in heaven with all of the fire trucks and fire fighter themed holes.

It was a very chilly 18 holes and I'm pretty sure my finger tips were frozen by the end of it. The kiddos had a great time though, so it was worth the battling the bitter cold.

My genius plan after this was to shop, you know so we could warm up. We found a great popcorn place that had...wait for it...Butterfinger popcorn.

God bless America, y'all.

The kiddos also had a chance to try something truly Southern at the popcorn shop...Moon Pies. Aaron naturally had the chocolate and Jillian (who doesn't like chocolate and is somehow my daughter) opted for the banana.

Not surprisingly, Jillian did not finish hers and Aaron ate all but one bit of his. I made the sacrifice that only a mother can make and ate the last bite of his Moon Pie so it would not go to waste.

After some relaxing time, we headed out for the big surprise of the day, Dixie Stampede!

I got the idea for this outing from my assistant, Amy. She told me that when she was kid her family went to Pigeon Forge and this was her best memory of the trip. Specifically, she loved drinking out of the beautiful plastic boot. I knew we had to do it.

The kiddos were sold the moment we walked in. The boots were a hit (and you bet you I had a Shirley Temple in mine) and so were the flags. The kids barely ate during the show because they were too busy watching all of the horses and riders.

Naturally, they had to have their own cowboy hats after the show. Jillian's, in true Miss Dolly fashion, has a rhinestone tiara and lights up.

We even had a chance to get an up close look at the horses that were used in the show. Aaron especially loved Joker, so we had to snap a photo with him.

The kids did not stop talking the entire ride home and even reenacted the whole show once we got back to the cabin. I would guess that our trip there was a success!

Check back on Friday for more fun from our vacation!