Tennessee

We finally arrived home from our vacation last night and I am still exhausted!!! We have been in Tennessee for about 6 days. We arrived on Friday afternoon and checked into our cabin which is on the Pigeon River. Saturday we stayed at the cabin and let the kids play in the river. Sunday we went to church - I am sure we gave the Primary President a scare as she saw 10 extra children in Sacrament mtg - lucky for her we only stayed for the first hr of church. We then drove to Clingman's Dome and hiked up hill 1/2 mile to see the view and then hiked back down, total of 1 mile. The kids did so good. Monday we took our kids to Dollywood and surprisingly they did very well. We arrived and made a plan for the day. We had packed swimsuits for the water rides and Dreamland Forest water play place. The kids hardly complained the whole day. We had such a great time that we decided to get Jared and Aidan season passes (I already had mine from a previous visit, and the little boys were free) and we decided to go again on Wed. Tuesday we went to Ober Gatlinberg and rode the alpine slides - everyone enjoyed this ride - we all wanted to ride again but it is a little expensive. We then all went back to the cabin and enjoyed helping the kids float on the inner tubes for a section of the river. They had such a blast and did this for 2 hours. Wednesday we packed everything up from the cabin and headed to Dollywood again. We rode the rides we didn't get to on Mon and stayed for about 4 more hours. The kids had such a good time. We left about 4:15pm, right in the middle of a huge rain storm - my favorite :-) hardly - and headed home. We bathed, ate and went to bed. Unfortunately the boys are not as exhausted as we are, they woke up at 6:30am - all 3 of them. Eli however decided he was tired and is currently in his 4th hour of sleep for his nap - this is very rare. We realized this year that our vacations will only get easier - the boys were very well behaved and we feel confident about taking them places. So there you have it - our trip to Tennessee. Here are some pictures:
Clingman's Dome
Adley wanted a picture by himself
7 of the 10 grandkids
Aidan, Me & Adley on a water ride
Adley & Jared on roller coaster
(Adley was not afraid of any ride - Aidan on the other hand is not pictured on many rides b/c he was afraid)

Shooting Star - it takes you up about 25 ft and drops you down and then back up, etc. Adley smiled the whole time. Aidan watched.
Eli playing with big lego blocks
Eli and Jared at water play place
This was Adleys favorite part of the day
Aidan playing in the water
Alpine slides - Me and Adley
Jared & AidanFloating the river - Aidan
Adley
Adley with his 'light saber'

Comments

Andrea and Blake said…
that looks like SO much fun, too bad there aren't cooler places by us to do things like that! Especially that green... Adley is hilarious wanting a picture by himself! My daughter is currently screaming because she doesn't want to take a nap. I wish she would sleep 4 hours like Eli. Lucky...
June 12, 2008 at 2:46 PM
Jenni said…
Looks like you guys had a lot of fun. Such a beautiful place. Someday we want to come out and visit you! It gives me hope to hear you say it gets easier as the kids get older to go on vacation.
June 13, 2008 at 1:51 PM
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