Will and I have not really been on a vacation since we went with my family to Arizona in 2009. We celebrated my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. We have done a few weekends away here and there, but his school/work schedule prevented us from taking much more time than that. Now that he has graduated, and Kristen is here, we knew we were due (way past due) for a vacation. Kristen had never been on a vacation before, and was unbelievably excited. We looked at several places to go, and eventually decided that Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg was the perfect distance away, and had all the things we were looking to do. So here's a rundown of our trip:
Sunday: After church, we loaded up the van, grabbed some lunch and took off. We grabbed some dinner, checked into our cabin, unpacked, put K to bed, and Will and I immediately headed to the hot tub (don't worry- I only soaked my feet and legs, and I had a timer set for 20 minutes so I wouldn't hurt Sam.)
Monday: K slept in until 11:15- what?!- we had to wake her up! Crazy. Will and I played pool while we waited for her to wake up/decided how long we should let her sleep, and then we all headed to the aquarium. The aquarium down there is awesome, and you should definitely check it out if you go. K's favorite part was the mermaids who swam with the stingrays.
Tuesday: K wanted a pool day- so that's what we did. Our cabin had access to a pool, and it was so peaceful. In fact, for most of the day, we were the only people at the pool. Heaven. We went back to our cabin for lunch, and had a watermelon seed spitting contest off of our balcony (normally I wouldn't encourage such manners, but hey, it was vacay!) That night, we took K to play putt-putt. They had several really cool courses, and Will picked one that had a lost treasure theme. You ride a train to the 1st hole, and then the holes are located inside volcanoes, on mountains, etc. Very cool. We ended the night with some ice cream.
Wednesday: We went for a hike (ok, more of a walk with it being so hot, me being preggo, and it being K's 1st time) in the Smoky Mountains. We loved the beautiful views and the hike ended at a waterfall. Beautiful. Then, we ate a picnic lunch in the park.
Thursday: We had the rest of the days planned before we left, but Thursday was still up in the air. We really wanted to go to Dollywood, but we weren't sure if K could handle it. She gets very easily overstimulated, and also doesn't have much stamina for long days (a few hours at the zoo is usually enough to have her passed out for the rest of the evening.) As the week went on, we realized that Dollywood was just not going to be a possibility so we started looking into other options. We ended up going to the Knoxville Zoo (Knoxville is about 30-40 minutes away), and we had a blast! It was basically empty and it was a nice break from all of the herds of tourists around Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge. That night, we went out to eat to get BBQ. Sam hadn't been moving much that week, and I was starting to get a little bit concerned, but as soon as I started eating the ribs that I ordered, he was moving all over the place! It was like he was jumping for joy! So funny.
Friday: We checked out of our cabin (sadly), and went to get pancakes. Oh my goodness y'all. You have to go to Flap Jacks and get their sticky bun pancakes. I was in heaven (Sam enjoyed those too!) Then, we took K to a place where you could "mine" your own rocks, gemstones, etc. K has a rock collection at home, so we thought she would enjoy that. We actually found some real gemstones, and we are trying to decide if we should have them cut, polished, and set in jewelry. I have to admit that this was Will's idea, and I was a bit skeptical, but I should have trusted him. We had a great time!
After we did that, it was time to head back home...
All in all, I don't think we could have asked for a better 1st family vacation. I think we went the perfect distance, (we were just starting to get the "are we there yet?" questions) stayed the perfect length of time (we were all starting to get a little tired towards the end), and staying outside of the city in a cabin provided the perfect escape to all the hustle and bustle.
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