Hooray for Dollywood!!!!

We took off this past week for Pigeon Forge/ Gatlinburg TN. We got to take Grandpa with us this time, so that was an added bit of fun, and thankfully, and extra set of hands and eyes. We started off with the drive to Knoxville where we dropped off Chinook with Don and Heather. Then we headed on up to Gatlinburg to check into our hotel. I was SO surprised by the commercialization up there. I was expecting something equivalent to Park City. This area was closer to Vegas then Park City. We ended up in some pretty crazy traffic, but got to the "Dixie Stampede" in time to get a great place to sit and watch the first show.

Here they are waiting for the show to start. It was a bit of a wait, but worth it when these funny fellows came out and started playing....

They were great. It was so fun to listen to their music and clap along. The one used to travel with Dolly, but now has this gig. :-) They were funny and very good singers. We all (except Alex) enjoyed this little performance. I don't know what his problem was, but he was determined to not enjoy this particular part of the evening. We then moved into the main show. It was very good. Singing, dancing, horse riding, stunt riding, racing, competitions, games. There was something for everyone. Liza declared it better then Medieval times "cuz it's like medieval times and a musical all in one." They didn't allow pictures during the show, but they did allow pictures and autographs after.
Here we are with our "north" flags. The kids had the performers sign them, so that was fun.
I remember being a tweeny and loving watching the teenage boy performers. ( I even remember that one boy that performed was named Sterling. ) But could my little girl be that old??? Well she is.. she carefully gathered all the BOY performers autographs after the show. LOL!! Too funny. She's not boy crazy or anything. Man she is too young for that stuff.
Tori of course gathered the beautiful ladies autographs and Brent chatted up the other performers. It was cool to see them all up close and chat with them. The food was good, and they served us WAY too much food. It was great fun tho.

Our first Full day we headed to Dollywood. (And thank goodness we did, cuz we all got totally burnt on day 2 at the water park. ) Dollywood was quite spread out, but a ton of fun. The park itself was beautifully clean and full of lovely shade. I spent a lot of time watching Katie, as she was FAR too little for a lot of the rides. Tori made it on a few, and Alex and Liza had a ball.

There were so many beautiful places that even Tori was finding spots and recommending that her photo be taken in these places. She would say "See, mom, you should have brought your big camera." Too funny. She has a good eye.
These little cars were so cool.. very fun little ride.
Katie loved the merry go round and went on it twice. (would have done more I am sure, had time permitted.)
The big kids got in tons of rides and had a ball. Alex got the poop scared out of him in the "mine". I went on that one, and it was quite scary. Liza said she didn't like it, but about 2 hours later she was asking to go back. There were a few big roller coasters like that one, and they enjoyed them all with their roller coaster loving daddy.
Brent held his stomach long enough to endure the Flying Elephants with Tori. He doesn't fair well in circles. I think even my little Tori is growing out of these little rides.
We all went on a Train ride up the smokies... it was kind of short, but took us up to look about a bit. It was very beautiful up there, but they're nothing like the Rocky mountains. I would love to see them in the Fall... the colors must be stunning.
Tori ended up being a bit more brave then Alex this year. I think that the mine roller coaster did him in for the whole day. He didn't want to get on another ride after that one. :-( He went on the train and the merry go round and something else small... but that was it for him.
Here Tori is going on one of her favorites. She is a bit of a wild card like Liza when it comes to rides. They'll have fun growing up together. :-)
And My Katie pie. She was so good all day. I have pictures on my cel phone of her on the rides, but I don't know if I can get them onto the computer. She rode on the elephants, bee's, pigs and ducks. They were just cute little round and round rides with music.. just her style. She LOVED it.
Just me and my girls. I love this picture! I think the boys were at the magic shop, so it was just us gals w/ grandpa. Walking back at the end of the day on our aching feet.
Had to snap a photo of Tori in front of "Victoria's Fine Food and Drink" :-) This was a LONG day, and we had very sore feet. I encouraged everyone to wear running shoes. All my kiddies who were walking were in running shoes, as was I . Then we went on a ride that got our feet wet. Oh DEAR!!! Big mistake! Next time wear comfortable sandals. When we got in the car and the shoes went off and the sox flew, there were some pretty shriveled up and sad looking feet. Oh were they sore... have you ever soaked in the tub too long and had your feet hurt from doing so... yeah, we had that times 20... the kids were such troopers tho. Dinner at Wendy's and then back to the hotel to get some shut eye for the big day tomorrow.

We never took hardly any photos at the water park... In fact this was the only one with people in it. It was a great day, despite the fact that Alex showed up in shorts and a T shirt and no bathing suit! He had his suit on in the Hotel room, I slathered him with sunscreen and sent him on his way. I must have told him to get dressed, Like I did to the girls, cuz he did, he took off his suit, left it on the floor and got dressed and headed for the pool. I don't know who he thought was bringing his suit. Luckily I had a pair of shorts packed so he swam in those all day. WE all left the hotel in the morning slathered in spf 30. We reapplied at 1 or 2 and all got burned. :-( Some more then others. Again, Katie and I hung out while the troops rode the big slides. The thing that I really liked about splash country was that they would let katie go down the middle sized body slides on my lap. It was nice cuz she got to enjoy with out being afraid, and they would let Tori go down these little slides w/ a life jacket on. Katie doesn't like spraying water, so a lot of this place was not fun to her, so we were limited to one area and the lazy river. She had a ball anyway. Tori did too.. there was really something for everyone. Brent and my Dad had very sore legs at the end of the day from climbing stairs... I was just fine.. I guess that is the up side to being on Katie duty. :-) Next time we go, she should be big enough for more stuff.

I am so glad that we stayed in Gatlinburg. The drive up to Gatlinburg from Pigeon Forge was beautiful, and I thoroughly enjoyed it each and every time we drove it. Traffic was a little crazy at times, as we were there during high tourist time... but I've heard that it's almost always tourist time round here.

We walked down the strip in Gatlinburg and went to the Hard Rock Cafe. Brent has been to a lot of Hard Rocks and usually buys a shirt or a pin from each place. He has quite a collection. We always take a picture too.
The wait at 9:00pm for Hard Rock was over an hour so we walked up the street and waited a mere 30 minutes for a table at "No way Jose" s place. It was pretty yummy stuff.
While we waited Tennessee painted us yet another lovely sunset.
The kids asked me to take a picture of it, they love the beautiful colors that these sunsets create.
We got home quite late this night as all the shops along this strip are open till 11pm and 12 am. The Candy Store was open till 11:30!! It's kind of crazy to shop that late at night. We discovered the "Ole Smokey Candy Kitchen." Which smelled just like the Candy Factory from my childhood days. Oh it was such a throw back to go in there! I actually left and walked back in 3 times, just so I could smell it again and again. The people working there were SO incredibly friendly, it was such a fun night.

The next morning we headed to the Ripleys Aquarium. I had to drag 5 lazy bodies out of bed to get everything done that we wanted to get done. They were all really sleepy and tired, but there was much to do. The place that we stayed at offered a breakfast buffet every morning. It wasn't the best food in the world, but it was a step up from prepackaged continental breakfast, so we enjoyed it anyway. Alex in particular LOVED having such a big breakfast every morning. I've never seen that kid eat so much in all his life.
Here, we are at the aquarium... Liza is "talking" to the fish.. See her little fish cheeks. :-) Silly girl.
The fish were unreal and the size and magnitude of this Aquarium was so incredible. It was such a neat little stop.
They have a moving walkway that shuttles you through a tunnel that runs through the shark tank. This was just SOOO cool. We loved it! It was a really really long look around too.
They had a spot where you could touch horseshoe crabs, and also a place to touch sting rays.
Liza liked these stops the most, as she has always enjoyed places where she could touch and interact with things. The Stingrays had it figured out though. They knew just how far away to swim so that the kids couldn't reach em.
They had these cool tanks where the kids could go up inside and have a look around.
They had a whole section on the Dangers of the Ocean... Uhg, I never was fond of lakes and oceans, now I am even less fond of them... Yipes, there is a lot of stuff in that water that i DIDN'T know about, and probably shouldn't have ever learned about.
Check out this giant crab!!! Crazy critter. Tori suggested that we catch one and cook him up for dinner. :-)
After the Aquarium and some lunch we headed to the Ripleys Believe it or Not Museum. It was really cool. There was SO much to look at in there. I would defiantly go back to it. The kids thought it was really cool too. It held our attention almost as long as the Aquarium did.
Then it rained..... The sky held it in until we were at our last venue, and then boy did it rain!!! We HAD to get headed home, and opted to not wait it out. "we'll just run to the car" , we thought. The car was in a garage, so it won't be we there either. Yeah, we were drenched to the bone. Everyone had to change clothes, in some cases, even underwear had to be changed. You could wring out the clothes that we were wearing. By the time we got back on the road after the clothes change... the rain had stopped. Humph, should have waited it out, but that wouldn't have been nearly as run as running down the street (all 7 of us) in the rain. Katie was so funny... when i pulled her out of her stroller to dress her in dry clothes, she stopped me and made me wait as she pulled a little stuffed dog out of her shorts pant leg. He was dry as a bone. She had carefully hidden him away, and hovered over him so that he didn't get wet. LOL Too funny.

After a long drive to Knoxville we were greeted by the Marets who had some yummy Pizza to share with us. It was nice to take a few minutes and have some dinner with them. Brent and Don got to meet one and other, and my dad got to see Don again. It was so nice. Chinook had a wonderful time at their house, and enjoyed playing with their 3 dogs. I got to go on my favorite ride of the whole trip. Don took me out for a ride on his bike!! I can't believe that NO ONE got a picture!!! It was SOOOO fun to go out. I love motorcycles! I've never been on such a nice long ride, it was the perfect night, it was a little cool, still light and it felt amazing! We headed home, much to late, but it was worth it.

We had a wonderful time on our little vacation. We are plum tuckered out now though. So glad we went.