The place we stayed in was perfect for the different families (good booking, Aunt B!) and allowed us to contain the kiddos on a separate floor. The view was phenomenal. J's favorite thing, by far, was the air hockey table. He challenged everyone to games and the little guy was darn good. We also had a hot tub and took a few dips after uncle J lowered the temperature for us. The kids ate plenty of "garbage" and I think they're still coming down off the sugar high.
Our first day was spent hitting all of the dinosaur exhibits in Pigeon Forge. The boys were in absolute heaven, especially since they scored a dino painting set and other dino souvenirs. I'm not sure at which point this started, but I know that M was goofing around saying that the short-armed dinosaurs "just needed a hug," which has become a new funny family saying. We took a Jurassic river ride to end the day and to say that V was not a fan is a huge understatement. We naively assumed it would be looking at a few dinosaur exhibits via boat. Yeah, not so much. It was more like a dinosaur haunted house meant to make you pee your pants. I did my best to cover her head and ears, but she is still afraid of any of J's moving dino toys. Parents of the year we are not.
Zip lining was a huge hit with C. We all assumed that he would be a little afraid once we got up there, but boy were we wrong. He asked to go first and did not hesitate for a second. Everyone was impressed and we're definitely going to explore putting a little one in the backyard.
While the rest of the clan was zipping through the forest, Grammy and I were shopping in downtown with J and V. I was almost misty walking into the Ole' Smokey Candy Kitchen, so many good memories there. The kids were thrilled to get some taffy and suckers, but mama was so happy to experience it again with her own kids. A small toy store with a window display of rolling animals and other classics mystified Jake for a good 30 minutes. This is a momentous amount of time for he-who-never-stops-moving. Grammy was so impressed that she bought them a mechanical hampster and a popper gun. Both were big hits (and still are two months later).
M and I took the kids on a morning hike to Rainbow Falls. We greatly overestimated the kids ability to hike up the side of a mountain in 90 degree heat for nearly 2 miles, so we never actually saw the falls. Came close, but no dice. At one point, M had V in the backpack and J on his shoulders because Mama was exhausted from carrying J. Fellow hikers just marveled how he could do it. By the end of the hike, J was asleep atop M's shoulders and V was asleep in my backpack on mine. C probably did the best of all of us. The hike was definitely too long for our little hikers given the steep uphill, but we still had a good time.
We spent one afternoon tubing. The water was freezing at first, but after a few minutes in the sun, it warmed up nicely. J really took a while to get accustomed to the whole concept, which was surprising to me considering how much that kid loves water and rocks. We got to see our money's worth from C's swimming lessons - he swam a good portion of the trip! M's tube broke towards the end, so we gave him a ton of grief, especially since earlier in the trip he had made fun of a girl who had the same thing happen. Karma sucks.
I think my favorite part of the trip was the evening we spent at the Dixie Stampede. We had a ticket mixup and ended up with even better seats than we had reserved and some free flags for the kids. Initially, I was concerned that the kids wouldn't sit through it, but they loved it. They were cheering and hollering right along with the crowd.
The last day we had a family photo shoot. It was egregiously hot and the AC was broken so, I thought it would be a fabulous idea to extend the torture of the kids by stuffing them into leather lederhosen and a wool hat. Yes, I am so smart. Even with the brige of chocolate donuts, J was not having it. V, however, was happy for her chocolately goodness and posed with crumbs and all.
There was nothing relaxing about this vacation, but it was so nice to spend time time with the entire extended family and the kids had a blast wiping out M and me.
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