Hello Dolly!

This was the second time I had ever been to Dollywood - the first being about 20 years ago so lots of things had changed.  There was so much to do and trying to coordinate 14 people around the park started out as a challenge but finally worked out.  Charleen, mom and I stayed in the kid area with 5 of the kids while Jeremy, Jason, dad, my cousin Jeff and his daughter Rachel headed off to ride the BIG rides.

I took the 2 little ones off to ride their rides which they loved.

Checking out their next ride

Since I was by myself with these 2, I had to ride the Lemon Cups - which is like the Teacups at Disney which if you are a reader of my blog you know I DO NOT LIKE these spinning things, but what I did for the kids.

One of Brody's favorite rides was River Battle.  This is where 8 people get on a river boat and squirt water at other boats.   Charleen and I were so hot we said we would take the kids on this ride.  What I didn't realize was that there were people on the sides spraying us with water.  This is where you really get wet.  I was pretty wet and so were the kids, but it definitely felt good.

While the big kids went to walk through some Adventure thing, the little kids did their own adventure.

 Here are the big kids.

Yes, my mom had to do this.  She was so excited.

Brody was not so sure about this part.

Love this picture.  He's not very happy about this.

He survived

Chaly was the only one who got a nap at the park.  This was at 7:00, she was done.

Since Chaly was in the stroller, Papa came through and let Trevor ride on his shoulders.

The injured Bald Eagles were being cared for with special attention

We arrived back to our condos and decided to just order pizza and let the kids swim in the pool - just a relaxing evening.

Here's my Aunt Yvonne, who is my Grandmother's sister.  Brody and Trevor call her Gan and they love her.  The funny thing is that she looks just like my Grandmother did.

Samantha and Trevor playing in the lazy river.

A beautiful sunset over the Smoky Mountains to end a great day.

A view from the top

We had decided to head to Dollywood on Friday but were going to take advantage of their get in after 3pm and come play the next day - all for the price of a 1 day ticket.  We thought this would allow us to beat the heat because let me just say that these mountains were HOT!!  I would have thought it wouldn't be that bad, but if it's going to be hot I want to be at the beach.  Anyway so we had to find something to do until we headed to the park at 3.

Trevor slept until 10 - yes 10:00.  I couldn't believe it.  Our sleeping arrangements were that Trevor and I slept together and Jason and Brody together since we all know that our 2 boys aren't ready to sleep together.  Trying to make a decision on what to do when you have 5 different families is quite a challenge.  We (just our family and mom's brother's family) finally decided to drive to Gatlinburg and ride the chair lift to the top of the mountain to see the sights.

Isn't this the sweetest picture - our view from out balcony

On our way up we saw a black bear in the creek and on the way down there were people fishing in that same spot - I don't think they would be doing that if they knew what we just saw there.

On our way up

Our view from the top

After the nice ride we grabbed a bite to eat at Johnny Rockets before heading to Dollywood for the evening.

The new Smoky Mountain Ranger hat papa bought the boys.

Trevor has been making some interesting faces lately.  He tries to act mad, but all you have to say is "don't smile" and he can't stay mad.  Such a crazy kid.

Our ketchup art

 All of our crazy family.

So a funny story.  We are walking into Johnny Rockets and I hear this waitress tell another waitress that this lady (as she points to my mom) looks just like her 6th grade science teacher.  I look at the girl and ask "were you from Callahan?"  Sure enough this waitress in Gatlinburg, TN had my mom when she was in 6th grade.  We always tease mom that she knows some student everywhere she goes.

We packed up for the short 10 min drive back to Pigeon Forge to head to Dollywood.  Thankfully the boys slept those 10 - 15 minutes, which was the only nap for the day - but it's better than nothing.

Go Cart Fever

So after dinner we headed to find a place to ride go carts.  Now if you have never been to Pigeon Forge you know there a just a few go cart places to choose from - talk about sensory overload on the main road.  Once we found a place that looked like it had enough stuff to entertain everyone we were ready to drive.  Trevor kept saying everytime we passed a place, "look at those rides".  He was so excited.

I LOVE to drive go carts and Jason might even say that I'm a little ruthless on the track - I don't give up and don't even know what the brake is :)  Well, with these carts we drove double on most of them, so Brody and Trevor could come along.  This was Trevor's first time riding go carts and he loved them!!

My mom's brother and his daughter's family also came to the reunion, which is really sad that they live 15 minutes from us and we don't see them that often.  They met us at the go cart track and we had a blast!!

Trevor and Chaly - too cute

All hooked in and ready to go

Even Papa got involved

The long bearded guy behind me is my crazy uncle.  He actually spun me out at this point.  I love Trevor's face in this picture.

Brody then took a turn to ride with Papa.

All safe after a crazy drive.

On our way to play putt putt, Papa found a couple of ducks to feed.

Putt putt with 4 small kids is quite an experience.  This was Brody & Trevor's first time and oh the "fun" of trying to corral Trevor and make sure he didn't swing the club at other things besides the ball.

Sweet cousins. 

So if doing all of that wasn't enough - it was now probably around 11:15, Brody wanted to ride the bumper boats.  Well, I sure wasn't going to ride and get wet so off he went by himself and he had a blast.  No tears and no mercy!!

Brody shooting Chaly and Jeremy and showing no mercy.  Brody kept squirting Jeremy and finally Jeremy shot back and Brody yelled "hey we're on the same team".  I guess it didn't work both ways :)

We closed up the park at midnight and I think the boys had a blast and of course they fell asleep in the car.  That was a very long fun day, but 2 more days of Tennessee fun to come!!