Vacation in Pigeon Forge

We spent a long weekend in Pigeon Forge, TN last week! I'd heard from several families at school that it was a fun, family-friendly place to vacation, so we decided to check it out. Dan's parents joined us, which made the trip even more fun!  

After a 9-hour drive and checking into our rental house, our first stop was the Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster. It was AWESOME! They built the track up and down the mountain and lit it up at night. Emma and Hallie sat in front of Dan and I on our cars, and Dan's mom and dad rode solo. They pulled your car to the top of the mountain and then you had a fast, curvy downhill journey to the bottom.  There was a brake on the car so you could slow down if you wanted to. 

It was a great way to kick off our trip, and the girls couldn't wait to ride more roller coasters!

We spent our first day touring Pigeon Forge's restaurants and shops on the main strip. We ate brunch at Farmhouse Restaurant, and the girls got a kick out of their giant rooster.

We visited The Three Bears gift shop, which of course was full of bear decor.

They also had three live bears in a habitat behind the store!

We visited the gem mining shop next, which had gorgeous gems and stones of every size and color.

Hallie found a unicorn horn-shaped stone

We also stopped by Pigeon Forge's year-round Christmas Village 

That night, we enjoyed the Pirate's Voyage dinner show. They served a big, tasty meal while we watched two pirate captains and crews compete against each other with diving, trampoline, and rope stunts. There were some mermaids who made appearances and they even had live sea lions, dogs, and birds that performed tricks.

Another exciting event happened that night at bedtime - Emma lost her 3rd tooth! The Tooth Fairy had to do some extra flying to deliver her dollar in Tennessee. Heh!

Our 2nd day of vacation was spent at Dollywood!

The iconic Dollywood train. We rode it, and I would not really recommend it unless you enjoy having ash blown all over you and want to listen to a very loud train whistle for 15 minutes. The views of the park were nice, once you cried the ashes out of your eyes.

Emma was fearless and wanted to ride all the roller coasters!

Hallie rode some of the bigger rides, but she preferred the calmer rides. 

We took a break to watch Dollywood's wild bird show and have some lunch

But otherwise, we were riding fun rides!

We loved the butterfly theme at Dollywood. They had super creative carved pumpkins on display throughout the park.

My beautiful girls

By the evening, both girls were understandably tired. They tried to share the stroller that we brought for Hallie, but it was clearly not worth the pain.

It was worth staying at Dollywood until nighttime to see the Halloween decorations lit up. Their decorations were kid-friendly, which we appreciated.

They did a nighttime light show at the Wildwood Tree and played a recording of Dolly Parton telling the legend of the tree. We stayed until the park closed and had a blast, although it was the longest time any of us had ever worn our masks, and we were ready to breathe freely again!

On our 3rd day at Pigeon Forge, we ate lunch at the Old Mill Restaurant. While we were waiting to be seated, we walked down to the water so the girls could play.

We also got a pretty view of the mill.

We decided to ride the Rocky Top Alpine Coaster that afternoon because we'd enjoyed our first alpine coaster so much. We didn't like Rocky Top nearly as much as the Smoky Mountain coaster. Instead of taking you to the top and letting you fly down, it was a stop-and-go experience the whole ride. Plus, they decorated the path with grotesque Halloween mannequins, which really upset Emma. I'm so glad we rode it in the daylight instead of at night! But we loved watching Dan's mom conquer her fears and ride TWO roller coasters on our trip! Dan says he's never seen her ride anything like that before!

We drove 45 minutes to the beautiful Cades Cove Loop in Smoky Mountain National Park that afternoon. It's apparently one of the best places to see wild animals.

As soon as we entered the national park, there were friendly horses waiting to greet us. So of course we stopped to say hi and feed them some apple slices.  We drove the loop slowly and saw a dozen deer in the woods and meadows, but unfortunately didn't see any other animals that evening. But the scenery along the drive was beautiful.

We ended our day at The Island at Pigeon Forge where we ate dinner, watched the water fountain light show, took the girls shopping to choose souvenirs, and let them try trampoline bungee jumping!

Hallie got some good air on the trampoline bungee jumping ride!

Emma really put effort into jumping high and it looked like she was going to bounce off the ceiling!

We had the best vacation, and would definitely like to re-visit Pigeon Forge!

End of Summer Fun

The girls and I have a traditional "Mommy and Me Day" each year before school starts. We go somewhere fun for them to play, shop for a special toy, and only eat foods and desserts that they love.  Emma and I have been doing this since the summer she started K-4. Now that Hallie's starting K-4, she gets to join us!

Our play area of choice was Funville!  It's a huge themed indoor playground with obstacle courses, climbing structures, slides, and a room full of soft balls and machines that blow them into the air and around you.  They have a seating area for the adults with free wifi and good food, so it's a win-win!

The girls spent at least 3-4 hours in Funville that day. We followed it up with a trip to 5 Below to choose toys, and Barnes and Noble to find great sticker books.  We ate Chick-Fil-A for lunch and I let them choose a special dessert. I will miss these days when it costs less than $100 to make all their dreams come true! 

The girls loved their sticker books and worked on them most of the afternoon.

A friend from church organized a playdate at the beach the day before the girls started school. About 8 moms showed up with their kids, and it was a blast!

We babysat some friends from church, Matthew and Luciana, one evening. They love playing together.

We read "Wacky Wednesday" by Dr. Seuss this summer for the first time. One Wednesday morning, Hallie woke up early and had the great idea of creating Wacky Wednesday at our house to surprise Emma.  She was really good at putting everyday objects in wacky places and Emma was so surprised when she woke up!

The girls spent another afternoon playing "spa day."  They did face painting (with washable markers), because of course all spas offer face painting.

Hallie's sunshine

Emma's butterfly

Then they soaked their hands and feet, wrapped their hair in towels and put cucumber slices on their eyes. 

So relaxing!

Dan's busy again outside of work. His job at StoneBridge School always keeps him active during the week, but this spring, our worship pastor at Colonial Baptist Church asked him to play bass with the worship team regularly.  He's been playing every other week all summer.  It took a few weeks for his hockey league to open back up, but he's also playing ice hockey twice a week again.

A view of the worship team (Dan is sitting down in a black shirt on the right side of the stage) during our outdoor church service

The school needed some new cubbies (wooden lockers) for the elementary school, and Dan asked his dad to help build them. It was more work than they anticipated, but they turned out great!

School began at the end of August. Hallie is starting Pre-K4 with Mrs. Baines (right) and Mrs. Edwards (left).  (They do wear masks at school, but I asked them to remove their masks for a quick photo so we could actually see their faces!)

Emma is a grown-up 2nd grader in Mrs. Learn's class.  

In mid-September, we had the opportunity to camp at Sherando Lake in northern Virginia with Dan's brother, Tim, our sister-in-law, Dawn, and their five boys.  They organize a homeschool co-op camping trip each year, and a family wasn't able to make it, so we paid for their camping site and joined them.

We borrowed our neighbor's 6-man tent. Last year, we used our own 4-man tent and were a little bit too cozy!

As soon as we arrived at Sherando Lake, Emma and Hallie changed into their swimsuits and played in the creek with their cousins, Josiah and Micah. 

Josiah was the leader

Hallie was determined not to fall behind! But after a few slips on the wet rocks and falls into the (shallow) water, she decided she'd had enough.

So she joined Micah at the playground and left the creek to the bigger kids!

I'm not going to lie, sleeping in a camping tent as a family gives us about the same amount and quality of sleep as when we had a newborn sleeping in our room. The girls slept like exhausted kids who traveled and played all day. Dan and I were up and down with every single noise inside or outside the tent.

But there's nothing in the world like waking up to this view in the morning!

We took a short hike and fed some geese breadcrumbs for breakfast

It warmed up later that morning, and the homeschool co-op had an informal church service. Afterwards, the high schoolers (and Dan and Tim) played ultimate frisbee for several hours.

Even though it was a little too chilly for it, we went to the lake to play that afternoon.  The Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center generously arranged to have all their kayaks and canoes brought to the lake so we could use them. 

Dan and Emma kayaking

Such a beautiful place! All four of us kayaked to a small island in the center of the lake.

The girls and I on the island. It was windy and cold in our wet clothes, so we didn't last too long.

Hallie got to ride with Dan on the way back.

Since we had all gotten chilly while sleeping the previous night and it was supposed to drop into the 30s during the second night, we decided to stay at the campsite until bedtime and then drive the 3 hours home to our own beds.  We did the same thing last year. We are such fair-weather campers! Hah! Or maybe we just need to buy more gear for the not-so-perfect conditions that are bound to happen.

The girls crashed out on the way home and we all slept great that night!

In other news, we had our front yard tree removed this week. We had a couple of companies give us quotes for trimming the tree back vs. removing it entirely.  There wasn't enough of a price difference to convince us to keep it, knowing that it would require more maintenance again later on.  Our ultimate goal is to have a simple, flat yard of grass that requires minimal maintenance. We haven't gotten started on the grass yet, but it's the next step after we hire someone to level the yard for us.

Before

After - we have a brand-new view of the neighborhood!

Today, Emma had her first horseback riding lesson! She's such an animal lover, and she was incredibly excited about it when we told her!

Learning how to groom her horse, Oreo.

By the end of the lesson, she looked like a natural!

So far, work, the school year, and the fall season are going well. We're thankful!