Our Smoky Mountain Vacation

We went with Memur, Pepaw, Daddy Jack and Uncle Drew to Gatlinburg for a week for vacation this year. It was so much fun! The cabin we stayed in was on TOP of a mountain and had gorgeous views from the deck and living room. The drive was a little scary to get there, but it was worth it!

The cabin was very nice! It had plenty of room for all of us to lounge around and plenty of room for the kids to play. The boys even had 2 sets of bunk beds in their room, which was very exciting for Wyatt! This meant they both got to sleep on the top bunk! The deck was HUGE and there was a patio on the first floor as well. Both views were awesome!

We did so much in the week and I took so many pictures....I actually managed to sort through most of them and narrow this post down to only 31 pictures :)

On Monday we visited Cades Cove and on the drive up, we stopped at a creek beside the road to let the kids play.

They loved playing in the water and wanted to go all in instead of just wading. Mommy should have planned better and brought clothes for that. Sorry guys!

While at Cades Cove, we saw a mommy bear and her cub. The cub was making its way to the road (where we were!) and the mommy would stand up to find him. It was the neatest thing!!

The baby bear actually came right in front of our van, crossed the road and here he is in the ditch on the other side of the road as we drove by. So cool!!

On our way out of the main loop, Trent saw another mommy bear and 3 cubs. There was a traffic jam so we couldn't see them, and it was too dark for the pictures to turn out, but he said it was neat!

On Tuesday, we played in the pool and visited Dollywood that night. The cabin had a neighborhood pool and the boys loved it! It was 2 levels with a waterfall in between. There were rock formations all around and even under the water. Will and Wyatt loved jumping off the rocks even though Will was quick to tell you that the sign said "no jumping or climbing on rocks".

The boys clearly obeyed the rules :)

Even Weston got to try out swimming. He didn't like it too much! The water was FREEZING!

Wednesday, we spent the ENTIRE day at Dollywood. We stayed open to close and the boys were EXHAUSTED....well, the adults were probably more tired than the boys, but we all had a great time!

There were so many great rides there! Will rode several big ones but the biggest roller coasters, he was an inch too short to ride. The adult favorite, Mystery Mine. VERY COOL! They also had a great "country fair" section for the kids. Wyatt enjoyed the rides in this section. He even liked the Farris wheel!

We all got to ride an actual coal burning train which was pretty neat. Kind of messy with the coal ash, but neat to ride a real train on a real track!

Thursday was kind of recovery from the past 2 days! The grown-up boys went golfing (Trent's first time ever!) and me, Memur, Daddy Jack and the 3 little boys went shopping. Not such a great idea with 100 degree heat in an overly crowded outlet mall with 3 little kiddos. We spent most of the time in traffic! The boys enjoyed golfing together and they all said Trent played surprisingly well for his first time!

Friday was our hiking adventure by day and then to the aquarium at night.
Memur and Daddy Jack weren't too interested in hiking 4 miles up a mountain, so they enjoyed the air conditioned cabin on this day! The rest of us suckers sweatted our patooties off!

I really tried to get Trent to carry Wyatt in the backpack carrier, but he said, "oh, we won't need that...he's too big for it...". Wrong! We (well, actually Drew and Trent), carried Wyatt most of the time!

We hiked Henwallow Falls trail. It was 4.4 miles round trip and fairly easy, but not so much when you add 3 kids to the mix. We took our time and enjoyed the very pretty scenery.

The trail followed a creek a good portion of the way and crossed it a couple of times. This provided some "cool off" time.

Weston did great! He just hung around the whole time in the sunggly. I actually fed him when we got to the waterfall. Tip: if you ever want to clear people out of a crowded waterfall area, start breastfeeding the baby. It works like a charm! (sorry for the TMI Uncle Mike...but I was covered up!)

This was kind of weird. Drew went off the trail in the woods to find some old home sites that were supposed to be there. He didn't find any home sites, but he did find this. The only gravestone out in the middle of the woods....not in a cemetery area...weird huh!?!

The boys would run up ahead and play on the rocks, etc. This is just too cute!

We finally made it to the top and they were so excited...or relieved?!

The waterfall was gorgeous!! Very tall. I couldn't get the whole thing in a picture! This portion was probably between 1/4 and 1/2 of the falls.

Aren't they cute little adventurers!

I keep telling Trent to wear something besides his blue rag and ratty old flame shirt to go hiking. It seems like every hiking picture I have of him looks like this!

These 2 muscle men decided to climb up some rocks beside the falls to find a cave.

They made it but the boys were so sad that they couldn't go along. :( (see the sad faces at the bottom of the picture)

Then Will talks Trent into letting him climb it.....yes....my sweet little 5 year old climbed this scary rock. I have no pictures of him getting down because I couldn't watch. I could barely watch him going up!

After we returned safely from our mountain adventure, we went into Gatlinburg to see the aquarium. It was great! We got to see everything from seahorses to sharks!

They have a tunnel that you walk under and the sharks swim above you. Pretty cool! This was an odd looking shark. It had a saw nose!

dudun...dudun...dudun....

The boys liked to play in the "pop through" tanks. They got to "pop through" into the penguin tank as well!

It was a long but fun day! whew!

Of course we ate very well too! We had a couple of great grill out meals at the cabin with stakes and Terry's pork chops (Trent and Pepaw got up close and personal with a couple of copperhead snakes!) and we ate at the Log Cabin Pancake House, Bubba Gump's Shrimp and Old Mill Cafe.....mmmmm I love Gatlinburg food!

Great trip, great food and great times!!