Wow! How much can we cram into one week of vacation. Talk about variety. The best part of the whole trip was getting to see our sisters who live on the east coast. We flew out to Tennessee and my sister, Julie, drove to meet us from Virginia, and Stephanie, Kevin's sister drove over to meet us from North Carolina. What a treat!
We enjoyed our time with Julie's family so much! It has been a few years since we have seen them, and as Jonah approached Jadeyn, Jadeyn asked: do you remember me? Jonah looked at him hesitantly and kind of nodded his head. Within three minutes, they were inseparable! Best buddies! Julie's girls are growing up so fast and are all beautiful and delightful girls to get to know again. We treated ourselves to some good old southern food at the Old Mill Restaurant on our first night together. Hush puppies and all the great fixins.
Ripley's Aquarium - - We so enjoyed wandering through this amazing aquarium. Jadeyn was in heaven because he even got to see cuttlefish!!!! This aquarium has one of the longest underwater shark tunnels that was pretty amazing! Jadeyn fell in love with the stingrays again and chose a stingray stuffed animal for his sovenier for this trip. The cutest thing was listening to Jadeyn and Jonah name him. They chose Seymourgan. Seymour because he came from the sea and morgan because Jadeyn got him when he was with his Morgan cousins! So sweet!
Hatfield & McCoy Dinner Show! Oh my, what fun! We were seated and red and white checked tables and our food was served by Cousin Katy in cast iron pans and drinks in mason jars. The show was a riot and kept us laughing the whole time. It was quite hard for us not to speak with a heavy southern hick accent afterwards!!!
Such a fun time with Julie!!! We wish it could have been longer, but seeing everyone again rekindles all the great friendships between cousins!Dollywood
Yup!!! Add a sweet amusement park into the mix!!!! Dollywood was a surprise to us. Jadeyn was tall enough to do all the rides that he wanted to and join us in all the fun. I will just jump right into the highlight: Lightning Rod!!! This coaster has been up and down with soft openings and we weren't certain if it would indeed be open for our arrival. We kept our eyes on in and jumped into line any time we saw a possibility that it would be running. We were so thrilled to be able to ride it three times while there! It quickly jumped to the top of Jadeyn's favorite coasters of all time! This wooden launch coaster takes your breath away and doesn't give it back until the ride is over. It was way faster then we had anticipated and it rocked!!!! Wow!!
We had lunch at Miss Lillian's Chicken House and were completely entertained by the crazy Lillian as she meandered through the tables singing and teasing people. She dangled the little rubber chicken over Jadeyn's head and gave him "chicken blessings!" So funny!
We loved the bald eagle enclosure filled with so many rescued eagles and so many other magnificent birds. Jadeyn got to give a dollar to the raven to donate to the enclosure!
Staying at Dollywood's Dreammore Hotel was quite nice. Beautiful facility and we felt right at home! 
Great Smokey Mountain National Park
Ready for the next adventure of the trip!? Another incredible national park! Wow! The Great Smokies are named for the blue smokey appearance that hovers over them like a cloud. It is caused by the reparations of the huge quantity of trees and plants that cover these mountains. And wow! They were beautiful! We hiked our little feet off covering 30 miles in three days and then biked 11 more on our last day! We tried to see as much of the park as we could in the little time we had!
Kevin's sister Stephanie and her family were able to join us from North Carolina and that just topped the trip off with so much fun. Jadeyn fit right in with Kamden and Kody and we had such a great time catching up with Stephanie and Mike.
I will prepare you for picture overload and will summarize briefly because there is no way I can do this beautiful park the justice it deserves without going on for page after page!
Chimney Tops Trail - Ready for a work out? This trail started at a 40 degree angle and just kept going at that rate for the entire two miles up! There were stretches of 200 stairs without a stop! Wow! But what a hike and what a beautiful place!
A paved one mile path that promised a beautiful overlook, but wouldn't you know it? The clouds came in as we were nearing the overlook tower! We saw a lovely view of white clouds, but had a lot of fun!
Along the way there were plenty of waterfalls and weeping rocks to find precious little salamanders.
Once at the top, the clouds swiftly moved in obscuring our view of what would have been a wide expanse of the mountains. It created a ghostly feel as we walked among the cabins and old log lodge. Kinda creepy to look through the trees and see the slight silhouette of an empty rocking chair on a porch!
At the end of the hike, we rewarded our tired feet with a dip in the river!
Great Smokey Oprey - Wow, what a variety show. Everything from dancing to magic, comedy to fiddle playing. We were entertained every second! I wish I could record every act that was on stage and remember them along with all the jokes and funny stuff that was said! So fun!
Grotto Falls Trail
Hillbilly Golf! One thing that blew us away at Gatlinberg was the incredible amount of entertainment. It was like a mini Vegas/Branson/Carnival! We couldn't get away without trying out HillBilly Golf. We took a tram up a 300 foot steep hillside and played our rounds among outhouses, stills, farm equipment, etc as we gradually made our way back down the hill. So fun!
On our final day of GSMNP, we decided to bike an 11 mile loop. During the week, this road can get so busy that it can take a car three hours to make it around, so twice a week, they close it off to cars, and open it up for a leisurely bike ride with scattered really tough long hills! Beautiful day, lovely meadows surrounded by the green covered hills and we even got to see a little bear!
Here are some random pictures that I just couldn't leave out!
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