The weekend before school started for the kids my mom and dad reserved us a room in a Condo in the Smoky Mountains for 3 nights. It was amazing! The condo had everything that could have wanted and made it easy for us not to spend too much money entertaining ourselves elsewhere. It had 2 outdoor pools, 1 indoor pool, 2 hot tubs, 2 kiddie pools, 1 sauna, daily activities for the kids, splash park, miniature golf, talking parrot, snacks in the afternoon, fully stocked kitchenette, wii, game room, trolley tours and more that I can't even think of right now.
We started out the weekend just hanging out and checkin' out the local scene in Pigeon Forge and Sevierville by touring on the trolley. The kids loved the trolley and there weren't very many people in the trolley. Riding down main street in Pigeon Forge was like seeing vegas meets disneyland meets hillbillies! It was literally mini golf and go carts, mini golf and go carts, weird crazy attraction, mini golf and go carts for 3 miles! Here are some of the things we saw!
Here is the view from our condo. There were mountains!
Riding the trolley and taking up all of the seats!
In front of the Hatfield and McCoys Dinner Show house. It is really awesome looking. It reminded me of Disneyland because of the awesome construction!
Braken is rinding the bell, even though the sign clearly states "If'n u ring da bell... UL'E be a DEAD RINGER!"
Rich and the kids chillin on the Tennessee front porch bench.
Here is another one of the crazy attractions...A lifesize Titanic Ship! We didn't go inside but it was kindof cool, they had maids and the cool staircase and the horns and everything!
This is a cool amusement park called Wonder works. It has rides and lots of cool things, again we didn't go into it because we are trying to save any and all money so that we can go home for Christmas and Jailyn's baptism this year.
King Kong hangs out on the side of these huge building and scares everyone who drives by.
We also went into Bass Pro Shop to see the wildlife and the kids were so excited to see everything.
We did splurge on one thing and it was totally worth it. We went to the Lumberjack Feud Dinner Show. We thought it was going to be a lot like the Bar-J Wranglers up in Jackson Hole, WY and it was kind of. The really cool thing was that they told the historical story of Pigeon Forge while making a real contest out of it. There are actual ESPN lumberjack competitors who use there skills to beat the others. They are amazingly skilled and quick at what they do. They had 100 ft high logs that these guys scaled up and down in less than 5 seconds. Amazing!
Here is Jailyn dancing on the stage before the show started.
After each contest the competitors give out a "cookie" or piece of wood to someone in the audience. Mr. B got this awesome cookie and kept trying to eat it. We had it autographed by some of our team members.
Here is the sheriff and the kids.
The next day we drove into the Smoky Mountain park and decided to take the kids on a hike. We hiked a total of 4 miles that day without strollers and the kids did amazing. We hiked 1.5 miles up to a waterfall that was so beautiful and looked like a picture from a jungle. The kids played in it for a while and then we headed back down the 1.5 mile trail. The trail was fairly nice except for it dropped off on one side and had signs reminding us that they have more deaths from falling than any other accident in the park. We sat down to eat lunch on the side of the trail on the way down to eat our lunchables and were enjoying each others company when we heard this sliding nose and looked over to see Jailyn gripping the edge of the trail with her hands and pulling herself back up to the trail. She had finished lunch and was bored with sitting and was just wondering around when she slipped off the edge. I nearly had a heart attack right there! Thank the Lord (see I really am from Tennessee) that she was safe! Here are some pics of our hike to the waterfall.
We also went on a 1/2 mile hike up to Clingmans Dome. This hike was much harder than the hike to the waterfalls because it was uphill the entire way. It was like a paved Logan Temple hill! There were a lot of people who would start and have to quit before making it much of the way up. They also had bench's every 50 yards for people to rest on.
We made it and the kids were exhausted when we got to the top of the hill and then they saw that we had to hike up a swirling tower to get to the top of the Dome. Once we got there it was breathtaking! The views were beautiful and it was really nice to see mountains again, even though they are much more green and bushy than the mountains we are used to.
Rich and the kids resting on a rock before the hike up the hill.
If you look closely you can see Rich and the kids in the dome.
The views
The kids peeking over the edge.
Rich and Braken giving me a heart attack again!
Daddy and Braken photo shoot!
We saw a bear in a tree on the side of the road and as we were driving by this is the best pic we got of him. Can you find him?
1 comments:
What a fun trip for you family! It looks like a lot of fun there. I'm glad you splurged on the lumberjack show, looks like it was worth it!!
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