Gatlinburg 2009

Well, we could not wait for this much needed vacation and it is already over :( The car ride was nearly perfect. We stopped at The cracker barrel and ate some lunch. We arrived at Pigeon Forge at about 5:30 and treated everyone to dinner that night. Justin and Josh attempted the 1 lb burger! (not recommended) anyway, we settled down pretty easy that night. The kids just crawled in bed like they had lived there their whole lives. We got going Friday morning pretty early and hit the Five Oaks Mall where we usually stock up on clothes and shoes for the year. We also HAD to go to the Disney Store to get Anna a new princess dress and Eli a cute little Dumbo outfit since his favorite book is Dumbo. Gotta have the matching outfit.. right? We met Dan and the girls and granny and pa ,along with everyone else for lunch at the brewery. Great place I might add. We took the kids swimming Friday night and a quick dip of the toes in the hot tub. We ate dinner that night at the Old Mill. Delicious food. We also fed the ducks while there. The kids liked swimming ,more than anything! We bought Anna and Ezra some swimmies and Anna Claire did very well on her swimming. She could practically do it by herself. Ezra on the other hand was scared to death. He loved the swimming but had to be clung tightly to me or Justin. We woke up Saturday morning with the intention of me, Shelly, Anna Claire and Cole going to Color Me Mine to paint a piece like we do every year. That is something Shelly and I wait on ALLLLLLL YEEEAAAARRR LLLOOONNG. You know where this story is going... the place was closed down!The darned economy got the store. Hey, i can handle paying 4.00 a gallon for gas but don't take my painting store away! We were so disappointed!So we just ate breakfast in the lobby and headed out to make the best of the day. We did a few activities and ate dinner at No way Jose`'s that night. we went back to the hotel after dinner to just let the kids swim as long as they wanted. they enjoyed swimming until about an hour in and a little girl threw up in the pool, then got out and threw up two more times on the concrete and then jumped back in. ugh so needless to say we left. Sunday we woke up and headed to Elkmont campground to enjoy the views and to take pictures of the kids. We took a long scenic drive and met everyone for lunch at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. not a very good meal for the price but we had fun. We then walked the strip a little and went into a few small shops that 3 kids and 2 parents could barely fit in so we met everyone at a small theme park. After Danielle, Katy, Emily, Joyce and Brian bungee jumping, Justin and i decided we would try... WOW...the hardest thing i have ever done was step over that ledge! It was an adrenaline rush to say the least. We ate dinner that night at the Brewery for our Valentine's celebration. Joyce and Daniel kept the kids and we had a very nice meal. Anna got a stomach virus that night so when we picked the kids up we headed home. ROUGH DRIVE HOME! We arrived at home at about 2am. We had a great trip! We had so much fun with our family. Looking back on this blog it seems like the only thing I wrote about was us eatinG! LOL