Our Vacation

I got a few emails asking where I went on vacation and if I had pics.  You bet I do!  My mother and father in law have a timeshare condo in Sevierville, Tennessee. Growing up we spent nearly every summer in the Blue Ridge Mountains camping out.  I've been up there every season but at Christmastime.  When my mother in law suggested this trip last January I was super excited. Our family, my sister in law and her family and my in laws all stayed in a 4 room condo.  There was a total of 12 of us.

We left early Saturday morning and arrived just a little after dark - it was over a 6 hour trip for us.  We stayed at Wilderness At The Smokies.  This place was the bomb!  It had an indoor water park that stays 80 degrees year round.  When we got there Santa was in the lobby and the kids (except for my niece Whitney who doesn't do the whole Santa thing because he freaks her out) got their pics taken with T-Ma and Da (that's what the grandkids call them.)  Santa then actually went and swam with all the kids in the park - how cool is that?  But we were too pooped to go so we went to our room and ordered pizza.

 On Sunday, we spent the whole day in the water park.

And the kiddos were some kind of tired.

When it got dark we went out to see the Christmas lights in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.  For dinner we ate at the Cracker Barrel.  Conner loves the wooden peg games. 

On Monday we headed out to go snow tubing at Ober Gatlinburg, but it wasn't cold enough for the fake snow to stick.  :o(  So, we decided to go to the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg instead. I was UBER excited that we got a 90% discount on admission with our Military ID's.

After spending a few hours at the aquarium we walked around Gatlinburg and ended up playing arcade games and chowing down on the world's best sausage dogs at Fannie Farkles.  Our plan was to head over the mountain to see some Elk that come down the mountain to a river that we had heard about, but no one could actually tell us how to get there.  It was getting mighty close to dark so we decided to try and make it to Cade's Cove.  We got there too late to actually drive the loop, but we did see some wildlife right at the gate.  Seeing a huge buck out in the field was pure torture for my hubby who's an avid hunter. 

After admiring the wildlife and scenery we headed back into town and ate at No Way Jose's Cantina.  They had the BEST Fajitas.

Tuesday morning was heading home time.  We stopped in at the Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant to eat breakfast where I found a new favorite - Apple Fritters.  I was some kind of glad that I could buy the mix to make it at home.  Oh, and the Apple Butter they make is to die for!  I'm sad to say that it tasted WAY better than mine.

Except for Tuesday we ate breakfast in the condo.  When we go on vacation we budget for lunches and dinner out, but breakfast is easy to do in your room.  We also brought our own snacks.