Labor Day Weekend

Since Memorial Day Weekend, we had been planning another dual family trip with the Parliers. This time we decided on Pigeon Forge for our getaway. We rented a 2 bedroom villa in Sevierville with pool access. Holly, David, and the boys got there first then we arrived two hours later. We were all hungry and, not wanting to cook, we looked for a place to eat. Not far away was Damon's. It was good and we were secluded from the rest of the guests (thankfully) since our crew is usually pretty rambunctious. The highlight of the evening was the horses in a nearby field and the beautiful sunset.

The next day we headed to Gatlinburg to visit the aquarium. This was Lydia's first ever trip and it was clearly the best money we have every spent: 4 rolls of quarters, 3 rolls of dimes, 2 rolls of nickels, and several rolls of pennies. (We had been saving for a while.)

 

This is where my camera proceeded to die and I had forgotten the battery charger. The following pictures are from my phone. Not as good of quality, but it preserves the moments.

Crawling through the penguin tunnel.

Looks of awe...

Wyatt woke Lydia up from her extensive nap.

After a lengthy family nap,we tried to swim, but the pool was very cold. There was a smaller pool that was built like a hot tub that was warmer, but not really big enough to enjoy. That evening we attempted to go mini golfing. The 'men' really wanted to keep score and be competitive...they learned real quick their efforts were lost. We had a good time watching the kids swing their putters and toss their balls into the holes. It was especially interesting at hole 13 when Lydia decided she needed to "Go poopy, Mommy." Needless to say, we zig-zagged through that whole course trying to make our way back to the beginning the quickest way possible.

Afterwards, we wanted Marble Slab so we proceeded to get in the thickest traffic I have ever seen. (The Parliers were not as accommodating as were and headed back to the rental.) It took us at least fifteen minutes to go 2 miles, but we made it. Then we waited another 20 minutes inside. It was worth it, but we had a tired girl on our hands. OH, and our key card wouldn't work when we got back to the resort so we had to wait fffoooorrrreeeevvvveeerrrr to get back in and then wait some more to get in our villa since Holly and David were already there putting their kids to sleep. Note: do not put those in the same pocket as cell phones or keyless entries.

Sunday morning, Holly and I got to shop for a quick minute at the outlets while the rest of the crew went swimming again. After lunch and another nap, we rode around trying to find something to do in the drizzling rain. We ended up at the Shoe Dept. Lydia was in heaven! She loved trying on all the shoes, no matter the size. It was extremely cute. Then we headed to Olive Garden for dinner (and a lengthy wait which we passed in the car watching Ice Age). Dinner was excellent as expected then we headed back relax for our last evening. On the way home we stopped at IHOP where we all stuffed ourselves heavily with omelets and pancakes galore. A fun time was had by all!