Guess who’s back? No, it’s not Shady – it’s me. 😉 I’m moving at a snail’s pace and trying to come to grips with the fact that my week of sleeping in and eating whatever I want is over. Some of you guessed where we were going when I gave the clue that our spring break adventures would involve Dolly Parton, black bears, and pancakes. All of you hillbillies can give yourselves a pat on the back because you were right; we spent last week in the Smoky Mountains. More specifically we stayed in this sweet little cabin in Pigeon Forge, TN just a few miles from Gatlinburg.
For those of you non-hillbilly types Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are right in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. The best way I can describe it is to say it’s just good old fashioned southern style family fun. Our little cabin in the woods kind of reminded me of the one in Cheaper by the Dozen 2 – you’ve seen that movie right? The inside was very cabin-y – lots of pine.
My favorite part was the view.
We spent the week hiking.
Someone had to turn her foot out so you would know which boots are girl boots.
Yes, even I hiked. Shut your mouth. Don’t act so shocked.
I was surprised myself at how much I enjoyed hiking in the great outdoors. My version of enjoying nature usually involves a beach towel and Hawaiian Tropic, so this was a change for me.
These three are good hiking company.
Oh yeah, and our team won! We may have scared some black bears with all the screaming and jumping up and down going on in our cabin last Monday night. 😉
All the hiking we did made me feel a little less guilty about all the food I ate.
The Pancake Pantry in Gatlinburg, TN has the best pancakes!
If you’ve never had a Peach Nehi I feel sorry for you. Oh my…….once it hits your lips. 😉
Besides hiking and eating, we also visited Dollywood. Yes, Dolly Parton has her own amusement park.
The kids had fun!
There are lots of things to do in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. We did all sorts of things from go carts and bumper boats to visiting a few of the other attractions like Wonder Works (which was too crowded to enjoy) and Ripley’s Believe it or Not. My personal favorite was visiting Parrot Mountain.
It was a beautiful garden-like bird park. My mom has 2 parrots so my kids are very interested in birds and are completely fearless when it comes to handling them.
The hub made two new friends.
The most popular person in the place was my little guy. I love everything about this picture – the birds, the guitar tattoo, the sunglasses on the head, the smirk with cutie little dimple showing…….these are the moments I’ll remember all my life.
The gardens at Parrot Mountain were just beautiful.
I had lots of fun playing with my camera.
This was one of my favorite spots in the park.
All in all we had a great spring break. What we enjoyed most was just spending time together.
The girl is really in to posing right now. Cracks me up!
The boy wants nothing to do with picture time. He runs when he sees my “big black camera” coming towards him.
I know this was a long one. If I could, I’d give you a peach Nehi for making it to the end. 😉 I just figured you wouldn’t want me to drag out the trip recap. You’re probably so sick of my family at this point! Tomorrow we’ll be back to the regularly scheduled show. How was your Easter? Did you just get back from spring break or did your spring break just start? I kind of wish ours was after Easter rather than before. Maybe I just wish it was 2 weeks long like Christmas break. Now that would be awesome!
Looks like you had a great vacation with your kids! I actually enjoy the posts where bloggers share about their kids/family, makes the blogger seem more real and like you know more about them than just there pretty house and projects. Thanks for sharing!