Smoky Mountain - Part 5

Thursday we spent our day in Gatlinburg. We rode the trolley into town and went to the Ripley's aquarium.

It was okay. I'm spoiled though, I grew up with the Shedd, so everything else pales in comparison. They did have really cool tubes that the kiddos could pop up in so it looked like they were in there with fish.

After our visit to the aquarium, we went back into town to check out some of the shops and maybe stop by my favorite place in the entire world...Pancake Pantry. This time we had lunch and I will tell you it's just as delicious as breakfast. 

Only one more day left in our vacation! Check back tomorrow for more :)

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!

Smoky Mountain Vacation - Part 2

Our first real day in the mountains was definitely a busy (and cold!) one. We actually had a chance to look around our home away from home and do a little exploring. Our cabin was really amazing and truly had an astonishing view. (We rented through American Patriot Getaways, you should check them out, they are amazing!)

We started our day at the Pancake Pantry. I heard about this place from our info packet that we received about Gatlinburg. I was sold the second I looked at their menu and they didn't disappoint. Fair warning though, you will need to get there early. The line was around the building when we left (thankfully we beat the rush!).

Scott just had the eggs and bacon (which came with three pancakes), Aaron had chocolate chip pancakes, Jill had bears in the snow (bear shaped pancakes with powdered sugar) and I had the Austrian Apple Walnut Crepes.

O.M.G.

I know the photo I snapped is blurry, but for real, look at that amazing plate of deliciousness. And yes, that's real whipped cream on top!

After breakfast we explored the Village (and found the Donut Friar, more on that tomorrow!) and then headed out to get groceries for the week. The awesome thing about renting a cabin is that we had a full kitchen complete with dishes, pots and pans.

I knew we weren't going to eat in every night, but I wanted the option to eat some of our meals in (you know, for when we were totally spent and just needed to decompress).  I will say this about shopping, the Walmart outside of Pigeon Forge is everything you think a Walmart in Tennessee would be. More people randomly talked to me than I was comfortable with.

After shopping we headed out for a hike, I mean after all, did you see those crepes I had for breakfast? We found a great trail that was 1.7 miles for the kiddos to try. I wasn't sure how the kiddos would do hiking, but they did amazing and totally loved it! They each found a big stick and loved exploring everything around them.

After the 1.7 trail we headed over to see Rainbow Falls. This trail was 2.7 miles, which at first we were like, "Yeah! Let's do this!" After an hour of hiking we asked a family that was heading back down the mountain how much further, they laughed and told us another hour and a half. We turned around at that point. There was no way we were going to last another hour and a half.

The kiddos were asleep before we even pulled out of the parking lot. I don't blame them.

For dinner we headed out to Bennett's BBQ, it was recommended to us by my friend Michelle's sister-in-law. It was a fantastic recommendation and the BBQ was SO good! We definitely want to eat there again.

Our first day was definitely a great one filled with lots of fresh mountain air. Stay tuned for more on our vacation!

Smoky Mountain Vacation - Part 1

We just got back from one of the most amazing family vacations. It was a great week away with lots of memories made.

Our trip did start on a sad note though, my wonderful Aunt Eunice passed away on Friday, March 21. My Aunt was such a fantastic woman with the most infectious laugh.

We left early that Saturday morning to head to South Carolina for the funeral. This was the kiddos first road trip and we had no idea what we had in store.

The trip up was pretty good. Scott and I split the drive up a little and made it in no time. The funniest thing that happened the entire trip was our first pit stop. Jillian went into the bathroom (which was pretty gross), took one look around and said, "This is disgusting, I will hold it." We stopped again, she went into a much cleaner bathroom, sighed and said, "Oh, this is much better!" There is no doubt that she is my daughter.

We made pretty good time and actually arrived the same time as my parents, sister and two of my brothers.  We all had rooms on the same floor, all next door to each other. The Hyatt Place shall never be the same.

Even though the circumstances were not favorable, it is always great seeing family. We were able to spend some time with my cousins and my other Aunt.

Tay Tay even brought road trip presents for the kiddos. You know, like any good Aunt, she brought them Pez. She also brought Cheez-It's because you cannot have a road trip without Cheez-It's.

We attended the wake on Saturday evening and this was the first wake the kiddos have been to. That realization hit me on the drive up. I wasn't sure how they were going to handle everything, but I came armed with coloring books and crayons.

The kiddos did really well and handled everything wonderfully. They had a few questions about my Aunt (it was open casket) and then they hung out with my brothers (one of them even taught them a secret handshake).

We all had a chance to meet the priest that would performing the service and he was pretty fantastic. I think he was the perfect person for my Aunt. We even learned about a new gin, New Amsterdam (if you ask my Mom it's Blue Amsterdam).

The service on Sunday was perfect for my Aunt. My brother Kevin gave the eulogy and perfectly summarized my Aunt.

I was really proud of the kiddos, they were fabulous the entire time and really handled the situation fantastically.

After lunch (which my cousins friends made and it was so great) we headed North towards the cabin we were renting in Gatlinburg.

We finally made it to the cabin around 10 p.m. and let me tell you, driving those mountain roads at night is quite the experience. I'm pretty sure I white knuckled it the entire drive.

All four of us pretty much passed out and didn't do any kind of exploring. I would however like to thank both my sister and my niece for sending me pictures that referenced The Shining, because nothing says, "home sweet cabin in the middle of nowhere" quite like Jack Nicholson in The Shining.

Stay tuned for more about our vacation!