On Spring Break, we took a very restful trip to Pigeon Forge, TN. I forgot the charger for my camera so please forgive the bad quality of these pics, they were taken with my phone. We arrived on Saturday, March 31st and that evening we just ate dinner, unpacked, rented movies ("Hop", "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close", and "Happy Feet 2"), and went to the grocery to stock up on what we would need for the week.
Our second day there, Sunday, we lounged all day....watched movies, played games, and ordered pizza for dinner. Oh, and I read the third book of the Hunger Games trilogy.
Monday (April 2nd) was my birthday! So, we shopped at the outlets, played at the arcade, had dinner at The Chop House, and ended the day by playing mini-golf. It was truly a wonderful birthday, made even better by phone calls and Facebook birthday wishes from my friends and family!
On Tuesday, we left the cabin EARLY (by vacation standards anyway) around 7:30am and drove to Bryson City, North Carolina to ride a train through the mountains. It was a two hour drive each way to the train depot and back home and the train ride itself lasted from 9:30am-3pm! We Josh had lunch on the train. The boys had hot dogs but the bun was as hard as a rock so Ethan ate just the hot dog and Landen refused to eat any of it. Neither of them even wanted to touch the carrot sticks and after one bite I knew why...they tasted old. I had ordered a salad but they put blue cheese all over it and the dressing was peppercorn and SPICY! So, Josh was the only one who ate and he had honey glazed pork chop. It all tasted and looked like room service food, even the dessert. I mean how can you mess up chocolate pudding??
Anyway, Ethan enjoyed the train ride (of course) and we did get to see gorgeous views in the mountains BUT Landen was bored so he was into everything. He launched one of his Hot Wheels at the lady across the isle from us....luckily, she was a sweetheart! All in all the train ride was over-priced, long, and at times boring. By the time it was over we were tired and hungry and to make it even better it poured down rain right as we were getting off the train. They are supposed to have one of the "best model train museums in the U.S". so we took the boys into that but it wasn't impressive at all. We have been to model train shows in Nashville, TN that were much better. Ethan couldn't find anything at the gift shop that suited him so we had a minor melt down there and when I went to change Landen's diaper in the restroom that you had to go outside (into the pouring rain) for there was no changing table, empty cabinet, ....nothing! So, I ended up having to change him in his stroller backed into a stall! Yeah, that wasn't fun....he is too big for that. Anyway, we survived it and Ethan can now say he has ridden a train through the mountains...moving on!
Wednesday, we just kind of took it easy. Slept in, had breakfast, played Monopoly with Ethan, went to the park where we practiced baseball and played on the playground, made a quick stop by TJ Maxx while the boys napped with Josh in the truck, got dinner, and went back to cabin where we played Uno Attack and the guys played Wii while I read Bloom by Kelle Hampton. It was such a good book...I laughed out loud and cried a lot while reading it. I had been waiting for it to come out for several months now and had pre-ordered it from Barnes & Noble for the Nook.
On Thursday, we headed to the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg. We hadn't been in five years or so and the boys really had fun!
Friday, we swam at an indoor pool (it had turned of chilly on Thursday), played more games, and watched "We Bought a Zoo". We also packed everything up so that we could head home first thing Saturday morning. Our ride home didn't start out too well...we left the cabin and planned to drop off the movie we had rented and stop by McDonald's before getting on the interstate. We pulled into McDonald's parking lot and Landen vomited all over himself, his pillow and blanket, and the car seat. We had given him his antibiotic (for an upper respiratory infection) before we left and then he drank a full cup of milk between the cabin and McDonald's....yeah, it WASN'T pleasant! And from now on we will ALWAYS feed him before he takes an antibiotic...not plan to let him eat in the next 15 minutes after taking it. I spent 30 minutes cleaning him and his car seat up. I had to change his clothes and put a clean blanket in his car seat until we could get home where I could wash it. He was fine the rest of the day, thankfully. As soon as we got into town, we headed straight to the ballpark for Ethan's practice and then to pick up our chihuahua at my grandmother's after that. We had a great trip but MAN, were we glad to be home FINALLY at 5pm that evening!
