Day 764

Day 11 of vacation!

This was a boring day. I drove...and drove. We started out in Alabama. We stopped in Meridian, Mississippi and at at the WORST Chili's ever....I wanted Chick-fil-a! It took 20 minutes for the waitress to even take our drink order. I won't go into it, but NEVER EVER go there! Then I drove some more. I was tired and ready to stop around Jackson, but we just switched drivers. Marc drove us to Vicksburg, Mississippi and we found a hotel. We chilled for a while. Then we ate dinner and went swimming. I worked with Caleb some without his lifejacket. He did better.

Here are the kids helping leave our hotel! I like Hannah's job.

This is Caleb at Cracker Barrel. He was a cute handful...at least everyone around us was laughing at him. I was a little more annoyed. This photo is of Caleb being dramatic. He said he was going to just die if he didn't get a drink right away. This is his dead face.

Day 11

Day 762

Day 9 of vacation-

We went back to Dollywood for the morning and early afternoon.

While Marc, Josh, and Samantha were riding this rollercoaster....

Hannah was doing this.....
and Caleb was doing this.....
This was fun! I rode this the day before, but I can't stand walking around wet, so I passed. Hannah missed it yesterday because she was asleep. She got to go on it today. She liked it! You basically have water gun fights with the other boats and spectators who are shooting water at you. You can also aim at targets. If you hit them they will either shoot back at you OR get the people on the other side of the boat wet. So fun!
We left early and went back to the cabin. Our LAST day in the cabin! It was the FIRST day we had clear skies! Check out this view!
Then it clouded up and rained...again!
We all sat out there and enjoyed the view for a while
A few posts back I mentioned a cancelled wild west show. We were kind of bummed about that. Never fear! I found something else to do! We made reservations for the Dixie Stampede. It was so much fun! Not sure how I felt about the no utensils thing, but I made it work.

We got dinner and a show. Each side of the arena was separated into the North and the South. Marc loved the fact that we were on the side of the North. Throughout the show there were different competitions and things like tiny pig races. Whichever side won would get a medal and flag. By the end of the night there were lots of medals and flags, BUT the south won. LOL This is something I would definitely do again if/when we go back!

Then we went back to the cabin and I got us packed up. Let me explain this last photo though. I was chilling on the bed. In the photo you can see into the living/dining area. See the couch? See the chairs? The little ledge next the chairs is the opening to the downstairs area. At the bottom of that ledge is the very bottom of the stairs. The kids would sometimes drop things down there....come to think of it, that is what Marc would do with his dirty laundry! LOL Anyway, it was about 11:30pm and I see Josh walk over there and drop a "bomb" to the lower floor. LOL Such is the life on vacation...... they were supposed to be asleep!

Day 761

Day 8 of vacation--

We spent this Day at Dollywood. Let me just say the heat was comparable to Sea World in August!!!! There were some temper issues at first. We bought our tickets at the cabin office because we could get a buy a day get a day pass. We left the tickets in the car, so Marc had to ride the train back to the car to get them. After that we had fun!

This photo was taken while we were waiting for Marc to get back with the tickets. I am not sure what is up with Samantha's attitude, but I am sure it has something to do with Caleb.

Hannah LOVED all the rides she could go on. There was one ride that went up and then dropped, then back up and dropped again. Hannah rode it and just laughed the whole time. The people in line for the ride were just laughing at her because it was so cute. I didn't get a picture of it because I was sitting on the ride right next to her. Such a sweet memory for me.
Hannah and Caleb also had a few rides they couldn't go on. Caleb was not very happy about this either. It meant they had time to do other things. I am not sure what this area was called, but you took those little disks and put them 'upstream' and they went through obstacles to get back to this area. They played this for a long time!

Hannah got to drive a car!!!! She loved it and kept waving at Caleb, Marc, Josh and Samantha when we saw them.
We were lucky to get to ride the train...I think. I say I think because all the rides after ours were cancelled. Something was up with the train. Our ride took 15 minutes longer than usual and we were delayed at the start...it felt 110*! It was a nice 5 mile ride though. The train is powered by coal and I had a layer of coal dust on my arm since I was on the outside.
This is at the beginning of our wait to start.
Chugga-chugga-choo-choo

Day 760

Day 7 of our vacation-

This is going to be a longer post because we had a full day. We went horseback riding bright and early. It was great and the kids had so much fun. We were worried because it looked like it was going to rain, but it held out....until we got in the car to leave. Hannah was in love with her horse (we were riding double). She even kept talking to it. Josh's horse was in front of me. It kept getting distracted wanting to eat...sounds a lot like Josh! HA!!! Samantha had a great horse and so did Caleb. Here are some photos....

Hannah got a new purple cowboy hat...for the few of you who did not know, purple is her favorite color.

Josh also bought himself a hat.
sigh....these two.
This is at the beginning of the ride. We rode past a 100 year old cabin. They know it was that old because whoever built it used newspaper as insulation. It was cool.


Marc kept bragging that his horse didn't stop to eat all the grass along the way....well, it had its face covered. They needed to keep bugs away from its eyes. I won't pretend to know why though.
Caleb fed his horse a treat
So did Samantha
After our ride we went back to our cabin to relax for a while. The plan was to go back to the stables for a Wild West Dinner Show, but they had severe thunderstorms there and had to cancel it. I went for a run...I had to conquer all the hills around our cabin and I swear they felt like mini mountains!!! I actually did it!!!! Then we went swimming while we figured out what to do next. As we were leaving the cabin we saw this HUGE bear. It was right next to the car. I was a little freaked because it was right next to the pool...we had just been there AND I had just ran by there! While we were at the pool my car was parked to the right of the sign. A little cool, yet scary! It was actually the second bear we saw that day.
We decided to go to the Aquarium. It is supposed to be the best. It was cool.

Can you find the coral fish in this picture?

Some kind of crab...I was trying to keep up with everyone so I didn't read the signs.

This was a very cool looking jellyfish. I was actually quite proud of myself because no one else around could get a good picture of it (they were using the flash).

We got to see the octopus move...that was a first for us.

When we got back to the cabin we played a family game of Yahtzee. I love the look of anticipation on Hannah's face.

Day 759

Day 6 of vacation-

Today we hiked. We went to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and hiked to some waterfalls. The first one we went to was Cataract Falls near the welcome center. It was a nice easy stroll.

Here are Caleb and Hannah waiting to go.

Josh, Samantha, and Hannah looking at a tree.
This is Cataract Falls.
A stream we got to cross on our way there.
Hannah "found something"...this time it was a spider.

After we finished we got in the car and drove over to another area. This time we were going to hike to Laurel Falls. It was supposed to be somewhat paved and stroller friendly. It was about a mile and a half UP the mountain just to get there. At the beginning of our walk there was a sign about a bear attack. Just passed that was another sign about steep drop offs. It warned parents to hold on to their kids because people have fallen to their death in the past. Deep breath.... We started up...and up....and up. Baby girl has sure gotten heavy!!!! Marc has a death grip on Caleb...he will be holding hands the WHOLE way up and down. Good thing I am a water lover and packed lots of water because Tennessee was having a rare heatwave! We made it to the top and it was sooooooo worth it! I wanted to do more, but knew only one other family member would be able to do more.

Here is Caleb at some point half way up the mountain. You can see where Marc was holding his shirt...Caleb sometimes prefers that over holding hands.

Another view from halfway up. I had to stop and take a deep breath. There was a HUGE drop off right there.

First glimpse of the falls.
A salamander
The lower half of the falls. Marc and Josh were able to go down there.
That water was very cold and refreshing after the long, hard, walk up.

Caleb had a good time and then got angry at me because he was wearing pants. LOL
Leave it to Samantha to fall!
Hannah loved it too!
I took this picture at the same time as I was telling Caleb to get down and not climb the rocks.


A view on the way back down.
There wasn't any parking left in the area and we had to park pretty far down the road. We sent Marc to get the car while we waited. Then we saw a blue caterpillar with one brown eye.
This picture is from Marc's phone. I think it was during the first walk to the falls.
Me and Hannah at Laurel Falls.
After our adventurous morning, we went back to the cabin and got cleaned up for dinner. It rained a little nearly every day we were there. This is a photo of it raining on one part of the mountains.
Marc, Josh, and Samantha at Hard Rock Cafe.