Vacation…

We had so much fun on our vacation, however I felt that it ended WAY to soon! We spent 4 nights/5 days in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge Tennessee. We rented a nice place nestled way up in the trees. The place we rented had a hot tub on the deck, which we set really low so the kids could take a quick dip in it and I could soak my feet in it. It was great! We also had a HUGE jacuzzi that the kids enjoyed “swimming” in every night and I enjoyed soaking in! Life was great!

When we first arrived on Friday we needed out of the vehicle BAD, so we stopped off at Wonder Works. The kids had a blast trying out all of the fun things there and we thought it was neat just watching them and enjoying the time we all had together. We also got tickets for the Hoot n Holler Dinner show while we were there, so after checking into our cabin we came back to town and had a great dinner and show! The boys laughed their little butts off as Scraps entertained us. It was a great time. Photo below is of us playing at Wonder Works (don’t mind my fat swollen feet or the fact that I am a mess after the LONG drive in the car! But do look at that nice Paulina Carcach handbag I am carrying!)…

We were really tired after our first day there and I think we were all out that night as soon as our heads hit our pillows. The cabin we rented was great though! It had 2 arcade games as well as a pool table, a bunch of board games and puzzles, several cable televisions, and so much more! They even left us this little treat when we arrived!

We tried to cram as much into the couple of days that we were there as we could. We went to the Dixie Stampede for supper one night, which was great! I highly recommend it if you have not been there. The food is great, you get a ton of it, and the show is so neat! The kids had a good time there! (Pic is from before the show started, so the seats were not yet full. You weren’t allowed to take pics once the show had started, so this is the best I could get.)

We ate at a lot of great restaurants while we were there. If you haven’t already eaten at The Old Mill in Pigeon Forge you really should at least once! It was great! We also ate at Cherokee Grill in Gatlinburg, which was a nice change to the “Southern style” food we had been eating most of the time we were down there. At the Grill we had steaks and ribs and other yummy foods. But our new Favorite restaurant that I feel I MUST tell everyone about is called Mama’s Farmhouse. It is off of the strip in Pigeon Forge and is on a side road, so you don’t see it right away, but boy am I glad we found it! You don’t order a meal when you are there. They have something already prepared for the day and they just keep serving you. I believe you get 2-3 meats, 5 or 6 sides, dessert, rolls, muffins and drinks. They are very reasonable when it comes to price too! And the food was the best we have had in a LONG time! Below is a photo of the restaurant…

We visited the Ripleys Aquarium in Gatlinburg the day before we left. We were really hoping we would have time to fit it in, but with the busy schedule I had planned for us I wasn’t sure. I am glad we were able to fit it in because we all enjoyed it quite well! Here are a few photos from the Aquarium…

Another place that I highly recommend that we almost didn’t go to was the Circle G Ranch. This is not in Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge, but is in a small town not far from Pigeon Forge. We drove a little ways out in the country to find this place,but it was so worth the drive! The kids had a blast feeding all of the animals. It is a drive-through safari that has a ton of different animals (some you may have not even seen before) and you just drive your car through the property and the animals approach you and you feed them right out of your windows! Here are some photos of some of the animals we saw there…

The camels did not walk up to our vehicles. They were always behind a fence of some sort, however I do believe they give camel rides, and we were able to pet the camels at the end of our drive when we stopped for the small petting zoo.

This guy LOVED being fed! When we first got there we rolled the window down all of the way and he stuck his head all the way into the vehicle and was eating right out of the bucket that was sitting in my oldest son’s lap! It was pretty funny!

Some of the animals were a little bit more intimidating and we didn’t roll the windows down all the way for them. How would you feel if the next two animals were approaching your vehicle?

These were pretty intimidating. We sort of just threw food out the window to them so they wouldn’t stick their heads in the window. Their horns could seriously do some damage! However, they are all tame animals, but I still wasn’t taking my chances! ha ha!

The boys loved the Momma and baby pigs. I didn’t see the babies at first and the boys were yelling at me to get my camera out because they wanted a pic of the baby pigs to show their friends!

I think the best part about the safari was when a zebra approached our vehicle and ate right out of our hands! How often do you even get to see a zebra, let alone feed one!?

We also had tickets for Dollywood for 2 full days, however we weren’t real impressed with Dollywood and only spent one day there. The Nascar Speedpark was a lot of fun for the older boys, but my youngest was tired and cranky while we were there. We were really hoping that we could play golf while the older ones and Daddy rode in the race cars, but the golf was being worked on and we weren’t able to play. Maybe next time! It was still a lot of fun though, and the boys really enjoyed themselves.

Of course I have to post a few pics of the views we were seeing. It really is so beautiful there!

I must not forget that we saw live bears! We went to a shopping center called 3 Bears located on the strip in Pigeon Forge. The boys had been dying to see a bear the whole time we were down there. They would wake up every morning and run out the door to the deck to see if there were any bears playing down below. They never got to see a bear…that is until the day we left to go home! We were driving out of the drive and just turned the corner from our cabin and there was a big black bear standing in the road! I wish I would have had my camera out, but I really wasn’t expecting that! I did get a pic, but it’s not a very good pic because he had already run up into the trees and was a little ways away from us. However, I can share pics of the live bears that we saw at 3 Bears…

These bears were behind some sort of glass. They were fun to watch though and we did get to slide food down a tube and watch them eat!

All in all the vacation was a blast and we can’t wait to go back! The next time we go we are going to make sure we have at least a week, if not longer.

Now to get ready for the new baby! Not much longer…43 days and counting! Have you put in your guess of the baby’s sex, weight and birthdate yet? If not, click on the apron at the top of the page and tell us what your guess is. You never know, you might just win a super cute apron! 🙂

*I just went in and added links to the places that we visited  just in case anyone is interested. I was not paid by any of these companies. This is free advertisement for them. I am just posting about my vacation and all of the fun things that we did. Enjoy! 🙂