Dollywood - Part 2

After crashing the first night as a result of Dollywood we were going to go and spend the day at a local river park.I heard about this park when Stacy at The Crazy Cotherans vacationed in Cherokee and they spent a day there. It looked so cool and I couldn't wait to try it out. We got up and packed up a lunch, got all the kids ready and hit the road. We got about as far as Gatlinburg when it started raining - I was so sad! Of course the two older boys were complaining the entire time that they didn't want to go to the river - I think they actually said I'd rather die than go to a river so we headed home. Of course their opinions changed about it greatly the next day when we were on our way back to SC and they saw the river park - then it was the coolest thing ever and they wanted to stop.

So we headed back home in the rain and since we had our bathing suits on we hit the hot tub for a little while. Oh how I love me some hot tub!!

We took it easy the rest of the afternoon and played games around the cabin - Yahtzee to be exact because it is by far my favorite! Then we got dressed and headed out to find some rides for the kids and eat some dinner.

My boys live to ride go carts - in fact that was the only thing we had heard out of Caleb since we got there. He wanted to ride go carts!!!!! With all he had going on with his eating at the time I don't think there was much he wasn't going to get to do that he requested. They had some "kiddie" rides at this place too so we got tickets for the older ones and Caleb to ride go carts and for the little ones to ride a few of the other rides.
Lucas rode first on along with David and Caleb. Oh it was priceless!!!! - Caleb loved it and immediately wanted to do it again. Then Jacob got to ride by himself but because of his age he had to ride on a jr rookie track and the cars were very slow. We went and got him another ticket to ride on a faster track with his grandfather on the next one.

I love this picture with both of them in there. Everytime they get on a track they ALWAYS have to race each other.

                                           This "kiddie" ride looks innocent enough, right?

                                                                                   NOT

Do you see Caleb's face - and on top of that look at the girl behind us! I have no clue why they call them "kiddie" rides. It was insane! Allie was horrified - the entire time she was on it she kept crying and saying MaMa - DaDa - No No No. It was horrible! It was all I could do to hang on to her and Caleb across from us at the same time. Nothing kiddie about that ride. When you looked around you saw all the actual "small kids" were mortified!

Then Jacob's track which was much too small for him! Jacob is all about dirt bikes and go carts and he's pretty good so technically he could move up but he's not quite tall enough.

                                                           He's trying to spin him out :)

                                                  All of them on the elevated track.

                                         Yet another "kiddie" ride. Once again not so kiddie.

              It jerked us around the corner so fast the first time I thought it was going to throw us out.

Then I just knew Caleb was going to hit his head on the metal bar when we were going around corners.

See this guys face :) Yep - that's my man! Life is never boring with him around - he always keeps you on your toes.

Look at Allie's face though - this one was a little faster and jerky but at least she wasn't horrified - she had the time of her life on this one.

The last day I wanted to go back the scenic route. My parents left when we did but went straight home and we wanted to go into downtown Gatlinburg to get the kids airbrushed shirts and walk around for a bit. I also wanted to stop at one of the picture taking areas to get a picture of the kids together (you know another attempt) - that was interesting :)

I actually photomerged this picture - it's the first time I've tried it. I took Caleb's face from another picture taken just before it and put it on this one so that they are all actually looking at me. Otherwise I wouldn't have had one with them all looking in my direction. I think I'm going to try and do Lucas too since his eyes are so squinted.

Gatlinburg - Part 1

I have gotten so behind with blogging since our vacation it's pitiful! After going through our eating fiasco with Caleb and dealing with that it seemed I didn't have any energy left for anything else. So this week things are finally getting back to normal and thank goodness, because I have tons to do before we leave for a long weekend at the beach on Friday morning. Since I know you all are on pins and needles waiting for pictures from our Gatlinburg trip I will happily oblige :)

We left on Thursday morning to head to my dad's house and meet he and my mom and head to TN. We finally got to the cabin after almost driving up the mountain on the skinniest gravel road you've ever seen. We couldn't figure out whose gps to follow because both of them were telling us to go different ways. We decided we would follow theirs and see where it took us - a whole lot of nowhere is where we ended up. So we turned around and took ours and ended right up at the check in office - whoo! That night we did a whole lot of nothing - got unpacked and settled and ready for the next TIRING day.

                                                        Nendny with Lucas and Jacob

               All the kids (David included) waiting for the repair technician to bring new pool sticks

The next morning we were treated to my dad's famous biscuits and gravy and then we headed out to Dollywood.

I don't think I am EVER going to get a decent picture of my four children together again. I have almost given up - NOT! It's so aggravating.

                                                Lucas and Jacob on the lumberjack lift.

                                                          Caleb and Daddy on the lift.

Lucas was convinced he was going to ride the roller coasters while we were there and since he had never ridden one before we knew it was going to be interesting. Well as soon as we got there that was the first thing we headed for - little pooped chickened out. So David and I stood in line like fools while our parents were with all 4 of our kids just so we could ride a roller coaster. I asked him several times how insane we looked but it was fun!! Then we did a few more rides and Lucas finally decided he wanted to ride one - he picked the Tennessee tornado for his first time and got David and his Nendny to go with him. I think she was more horrified than he was :) After that there was no stopping him - he wanted to go on every roller coaster in the park.

Lucas' very first time on a roller coaster. If you look closely you can see him - 4th from the back on this side closest to you.

      This river boat was fun but don't let it fool you. You think oh it's a relaxing boat - you got soaked!!!!

Especially when you had people like my dad outside gunning for you :) You could shoot water from the viewing decks to those riding the boats.

We headed over to some of the kiddie rides so Allie and Caleb could play and they got to drive cars ride the little roller coaster on their side. But first another photo op.

                                             See - I tell ya I wonder if it will ever happen.

  Allie and Daddy on the ferris wheel - I stayed down - I hate ferris wheels and David said she wasn't such a fan of them when it stopped at the top.

                                                                     Nendny and Lucas.

Caleb driving his own car :) The red all over his face is red slushee - I was trying to get anything in him he would take especially liquids that day!

                                                                     Allie in her zone :)

We had a fabulous day and tons of fun - at the end we were all so exhausted I am surprised we made it to the car in one piece. We left the cabin at 1030 that morning and left the parking lot at 745 that night.

Sunday-Santasland

We had plans on our way out on Sunday to stop through the mountains in several different spots to sight see and let the kids look around. Apparently there were other plans meant for us though because as soon as we started loading the car up to leave the cabin it started raining. We got stuck in traffic and combined with the rain quickly made what should have been less than an hour trip right at two hours just to get to Cherokee. Once we got there the rain had stopped so we decided we would visit a small amusement park called Santasland. There was a small zoo there and several rides...a lot of it was geared towards the smaller kids but Lucas kept himself busy also with his favorite..the Rudicoaster. We spent several hours there and were waiting on the paddleboats for our final ride when it started pouring down rain. We took cue that it was time to head home so we rain our way with 4 kids mind you through the rain and packed it up for the day.


The first thing we saw when we walked in were Santa's reindeer and you could feed them. There was tons of food left on the floor in the barn so my kids were resourceful and started picking it up :) Guess they knew not to ask for money for deer food since Lucas just got done telling me the night before that I was cheap. I was shocked that Caleb actually left the deer eat out of his hand!


This is a set of bear cubs that they have there. They change the bears out every couple of years and this year they have a boy and a girl. They are about seven and a half months old and we were able to see them bottle feed them...they were so adorable and looked so snuggly!!! If you've seen on the news in the last few days that Bob Barker is speaking on behalf of Peta about bears at several exhibits in Cherokee this is one of them..I didn't know until we got home but found it interesting that we had just visited. I really didn't see anything harsh happening..the babies were on grass and hay and seemed happy...one of them was just laying at the gate waiting to be let in for his bottle and once in was trying to chew his way back into the open area. The older bears(1.5 years old)were in a smaller cage I believe although I couldn't see it all but they said that they would be sending them to a zoo soon so they would have more room.


I like this picture of all three of the boys..they were looking in a pond that was filled with ducks.


This was the first ride that Caleb rode and I had to physically pick him up,carry him in there and put him in the car. He said he wanted to ride but when it came time he got scared...after it started you couldn't wipe the smile off his face and he was driving the car like crazy...it was priceless!!!!!


When I took this picture I thought it was Allie's first carousel ride but I just realized that I was wrong. She first rode it at Gattitown with her Nendny one day at lunchtime. She was very wary at first when David put her on here but quickly grew excited and once it was over she didn't want to get off. What is it with kids...they're scared until you force them to do it and then once they try it all you hear is how much they wanna do it again?


This was another one that Caleb was nervous about too...I shoved him in the middle of Lucas and Jacob to make sure he wouldn't fall out and they had a blast. Love that I was able to get them all in the picture even with David and Allie.





This was another ride we got on that stopped at the very tip top..what is it with me getting on things and then they like to stop in the middle of the ride. I'm beginning to think I'm not very fond of heights.




This is the coolest thing ever! They have a lake or pond there that you are able to take paddleboats out on..this was what we were waiting on when it started pouring down rain. In the pond they have rainbow trout that you can feed and they follow all the boats around all day long waiting on food so they get fed constantly apparently. Since we didn't make it on the boats we stood out in the rain for a few minutes and fed them...I have never in my life seen anything like this. Seriously I laughed out loud and was amazed at them. When you threw food in you have never seen so many fish in one small area in your entire life. They were on top of each other trying to get to the food.....not exaggerating but there were at least 200 fish in the very small area that we were in just throwing some food in..flopping on top of each other every which way they possibly could. Never laid eyes on anything like this before...astonishing!