We had a great time visiting the Smoky Mountains, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg ... but I'm happy to be home!
We went down on a Saturday ... and there is no sign welcoming you to Tennessee ... not that we could see anyhow. Spent the 1st day pretty much at the cabin. Well we had to go to the local Kroger to get groceries after we unpacked, but that was pretty much it for the first day. After spending the whole day in the van driving down there everyone was happy to get out of it! :)
Sunday we also spent mostly at the cabin. Kids enjoyed the game room ... they had pool, air hockey, ping pong, foosball, darts, and a tv/dvd in the game room. While outside we had a dog come to visit us. His name was Buddy (it was on his tag). The younger boys had fun with him.
Later that evening we visited Knife Works and our youngest 2 finally got their first knife ... a sort of swiss army knife. They've already been wittling with them!
Monday we drove around in the park & up the mountain. We stopped by the creek & all the boys got out to check out the creek for a bit. After leaving that little area we came up on a mama bear with her cub crossing the road! We were excited!!! It was our first bear in the wild ... and there was a baby!!! It was awesome. Didn't think to take pictures until it was too late though. We got to enjoy the moment though and that's better than having a picture to share :)
Tuesday we spent time in Pigeon Forge going to shops. Then all the boys went to Wonder Works (thanks to Nick who actually took the little ones - he can be such a great brother sometimes!). That gave Mike and I several hours to spend together. That was nice for us cause we got to look at some of the shops (like the Christmas Place ... that was such a great store ... if I had a million dollars I could spend it there!), visit the Apple Barn, and eat lunch together. So all of our boys had a good time & we did too! :) Had a new stray dog show up ... no collar, she was hungry, and her fur matted pretty bad. We felt sorry for her!
Wednesday we drove up to Cade's Cove. It's in the Smoky Mountain National Park. That was interesting! We seen 12 more bears! Some turkeys & deer (no elk ... and I really wanted to see some of those). Then all the little buildings & such from the late 1800's and early 1900's.
Thursday the older boys spent their day in Gatlinburg going to all those little shops & looking around. The younger boys, Mike and I spent our day in Cherokee, NC. We drove around the city looking at all the sites & painted bears. Then went to the Cherokee Museum (which tied in nicely with the unit we just did on the Cherokee before we went on vacation). The boys ended up getting an arrowhead necklace each and some tatoos. We ended our day with packing up our stuff cause we had to be out of there by 10 AM the next day, and it was our last night to relax in the hot tub ... which was one of my favorite things!
Friday we packed up the van, checked out & let them know about the dog, dropped off our trash, and then went to a HUGE Flea Market!!! I was sore, hurting, and so tired after that. They had a lot of really neat stuff but it's just too big.
Here are some pictures of our trip (you can click on the picture viewer to be taken to a page where you can see them bigger):
Well that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed hearing a bit about our trip.
We loved Wonder Works when we were there last year. I can't believe you saw bears at Cades Cove my hubby and I have been there 4 times and have never got to see a bear. I am so jealous!
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