This is mostly just for my records, so I can look back and remember the trip. But you are all welcome to read it. It’s just talking about how our trip went and what we did. It’s a LONG post and very detailed.
We went to Pigeon Forge, TN last weekend (June 18-20). Our plans were originally for the 18-22, but I didn’t have a job at the time it was planned so… We had to cut it short. :-( Anywho…
Friday- I woke up at 6am. Sweet Pea woke up shortly after me. I was getting out of the shower and I heard her start fussing. Mr. Right worked that night, so he was on his way home. I finished packing and loaded up everything I could at the time. Mr. Right got home and took a shower and helped finish loading everything up. We pulled out of the drive way at 8:10 (I wanted to leave at 8, but 10 minutes late isn’t bad!) We had several errands to run before we could get going, so we drove to town and actually left at 9am. Sweet Pea did pretty good on the ride up. She got fussy a few times, but that was to be expected. She usually starts fussing after being in her car seat for an hour, so I think she did pretty well for being in the car as long as she did. We drove all the way to Cleveland, TN (just above Chattanooga) and stopped for lunch. She was able to get out and stretch her legs for a little bit there. Then we pretty much drove the rest of the way to Pigeon Forge. She started getting really fussy about the time we got to “the mountains” and I thought we were never going to get to the cabin!!! I was so relieved when we did though. She was so happy to just get out and run around! Mr. Right and I left her with the grandparents and we went to the outlet mall. He needed some new tennis shoes and I wanted to get some scrubs for work. He found a really good deal on some New Balance and I don’t even want to talk about the scrubs… Seriously??? It’s just cotton!!!! Anywho… I felt horrible for leaving her at the cabin, but I knew she would have thrown a fit if she had to get back in the car seat. She was having a blast entertaining everybody! When we got back, Mr. Right started grilling food for everyone. We all just hung out around the house. We finally ate supper at 9 or 10. It was still light outside… That’s one thing about summer time that I don’t like… It messes me all up!! Mr. Right and I claimed a room with a king size bed. It was soooooo nice! We had to put Sweet Pea in the bed with us to get her to sleep and then I put her in her pack and play. She slept all night. I was worried about her not sleeping well being in a different place, but she did great.
Saturday- We got up bright and early… literally!! It was like 6 or 7 eastern time when we got up!! I wanted to get up early because this was our only full day up there. So, I wanted to make the most of it! We all had breakfast and headed to Gatlinburg. Me, Mr. Right, Sweet Pea, Maw Maw, Danielle, Alice, Randy, Heather, and Michael were all together. The others went and did their own thing. We walked around Gatlinburg and looked in all the cute shops. We stopped at Blaine’s for lunch and so we could cool off. We discovered that Sweet Pea does not like grilled cheese. And she started drinking out of a straw this past weekend too! The waitresses at the restaurant just loved her!! They kept coming by and talking to her and telling us how pretty she was. Well duh!!! (Haha! Just kidding… kinda ;-) Anyway. We started walking back to the vehicles and the sky got really black!!! We made it back before it started raining. Whew!! Sweet Pea was passed out before we could even get out of the parking deck. She was exhausted! We went back to the cabin to get ready to go to the Dixie Stampede. We were under the impression that the show started at 4pm, and it didn’t start until 6pm…. So…… we walked around the gift shop and let Sweet Pea look at the horses (yes, the real horses) for a while. We got the baby leash out and let her run around too. They have a pre-show that Sweet Pea loved!!! They sang and played instruments and she just sat back and took it all in! She was soooo good! The guys (Mr. Right, Eric (his brother), Randy (his uncle), and Alan (his cousin)) acted a fool during the pre-show. The performers sang Good Ole Rocky Top and they were yelling ROLL TIDE… And then they sang Sweet Home Alabama and they were yelling ROLL TIDE ROLL throughout it also. They were clapping off beat to the music… Everyone was looking over at our table. It was hilarious. I guess it’s one of those situations where you just have to be there… If you only knew the bunch I married in to… Haha!! Anyway. The Dixie Stampede was really cute! The food was good. The entertainment was good. Sweet Pea enjoyed it also, but she was getting tired of having to sit in one spot. Jerome (Mr. Right’s uncle) was sitting next to me and when Dolly Parton came on the screen he started yelling THAT’S DOLLY PARTON! THAT’S DOLLY!! I was rolling! He just cracks me up! Good times! We left there and went back to the cabin. We went to The Track because Mr. Right wanted to ride go carts. Somehow, we all ended up playing putt putt golf and he never got to ride the go carts… Everyone seemed to be in a hurry to get back home… I mean I know it wasn’t exactly early, but it would have only taken a few minutes to let him ride go carts. I don’t know… I was getting really frustrated at that point because I knew he really wanted to do that and it was Father’s Day weekend so I wanted him to be able to do something he enjoyed… So, I told him we could do that before we left on Sunday.
Sunday- We got up bright and early… yet again. :-) Had breakfast. I’m not sure who, but someone got the bright idea to go to Cade’s Cove. If you don’t know what it is go here. It is pretty much a big huge ONE WAY and ONE LANE loop… You drive or ride a bike. Everyone is going so slow because of the scenery (mountains, wildlife, etc…). It is almost 12 miles to go around it. There are old churches and old cabins that you can get out and look at and go inside. There are old cemeteries you can walk around. It’s actually pretty neat if you like old stuff like that. Anyway… it takes a good while to get through this thing. I have been to Cade’s Cove one time back in 2002. It’s been soooo long ago though and I didn’t remember how long it took to drive through it. So… I didn’t object to going there when it was mentioned. Well… when we got there and started driving in, I saw the 11.8 miles sign and I thought “Great… it’s lunch time, Sweet Pea hasn’t eaten, we are going to be in here forever because you can’t pass people, we are going to be in the car for this whole time AND the drive home later today…. Just wonderful!” But… I didn’t say anything because there was no going back at that point. One way in… one way out… Thankfully, I had some food for her in the car. So, she ended up eating in her car seat at about 1:30 or 2. Mr. Right and Papaw Ike were in the back with her so they kept her entertained the whole time. So, considering it took us about an hour to get from the cabin to Cade’s Cove. Then the hour or two that we were in Cade’s Cove. Then the drive back to Pigeon Forge from Cade’s Cove…. she had already been in the car for way too long!! I was dreading the drive home (darn me having to go to work!) Anyway. Oh… I just have to include this because it was really scary and funny at the same time. It’s one of those situations where you laugh at it after the fact and think, “only and idiot could let that happen!” We took the scenic route back to Pigeon Forge. I wanted to stop off and take a picture of one of the lookouts over Gatlinburg. I pulled off, got out of the truck, and as I was waving at Alice driving by, I hear Kay yell, “Hey! We’re moving!!” I look back and the truck is rolling forward!!!!!!! I ran back, jumped in the truck, and hit the brake really quick! Thank God it wasn’t the gas pedal!!! Oh. My. Gosh. That was one of the scariest moments of my life. I had forgot to put the truck in park before I hopped out. Mr. Right had hopped out too, so Kay, Ike and Sweet Pea were still in the truck. I mean, there was a curb there, so it would have stopped when it hit it, but still…. My thoughts were, “We are on top of a MOUNTAIN looking over Gatlinburg, my child is in the car, and it’s rolling!!!” Wow. Anyway. So, after I stopped shaking and snapped a few pictures, we headed back to Pigeon Forge where we went to eat at the Applewood Farmhouse Grill. The youngin’s (everybody in the van that couldn’t wait for us old folks) were already there. They had already been seated and didn’t even get a table big enough for all of us… They ate and left (except Heather) while we were still eating. (I’m not sure what their big hurry was…?) So… Heather walked Sweet Pea outside while we finished eating and let her stretch her legs before our long ride home. We finished up, and took Kay and Ike back to the cabin. Sweet Pea was asleep before we got there, so we just ran in and used the restroom and hit the road. It was close to 6pm when we left (I was hoping to leave at 5pm). Mr. Right was driving. Sweet Pea woke up about 30 minutes after we left. She started fussing immediately, so I climbed in the back seat with her. We read books, sang, watched Youtube videos on the iPhone, played games on the iPhone, played peek a boo, played with toys, ate goldfish, took pictures… anything and everything to keep her from fussing!! I was exhausted from trying to entertain her! We had to stop a couple of times for diaper changes. She finally fell asleep around Gadsden and it was getting dark outside. We got home around 10:30pm. We made really good time coming home. My goal was to be home before midnight so I could get at least 6 hours of sleep before my first day of work. And we did good.
So… That was our first big family vacation. We had fun. I’m still a little pissed off because Mr. Right didn’t get to do the one thing he wanted to on Father’s Day (ride go carts (yes I’m married to a big kid! Ha!))… I really wanted to take Sweet Pea to the aquarium, but we didn’t get to do that either. I wish we could have stayed longer so we could have done more things, but oh well… We can always go back another time. But it won’t be any time soon!!!!
A few things I learned on this vacation: Next vacation I will have an agenda! I think we stood around talking about what everyone wanted to do more than we did anything. So, next time I will have a list of all the things we want to do and we will do them regardless... Everyone will be more than welcome to join us if they want to, but we are going to do what we want to. Just because we are all on vacation together doesn’t mean we have to be together ever second… I know there are going to be things that others want to do that I/we might not like… So, next time I will have our (my little family of three) days planned out and we can do things at our own pace. Because not having any kind of organization or schedule was driving me crazy up there!!
Oh, and I will never go back to Cade’s Cove again. I have been twice in my life and I enjoyed it, but you couldn’t pay me to go back there again. I’m just sayin’…
Pictures to come in the next post…
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