places we have been to.
We left the house around 7:00 in the morning and headed west to Gatlingburg, TN. I had a Subway for us to stop at. Once we arrive in the Pigeion Forge area we went directly to our hotel (Holiday Inn). We have stayed there multiple years. We have some good memories at that hotel with the best memory being the pizza box game.
One the way to Gatlingburg Heather discussed the plan for the weekend. With 3 kids we need to pull together a plan so that we wouldn't wait too long at any location and that we didn't forget to do something they wanted to do.
After checking in the hotel we headed over to race go-carts. The weather was perfect for the go-cart racing.
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| Michael "This steering wheel isn't hooked up right" |
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| Daddy, will you drive really fast? |
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| Yessssss! |
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| Glad they put the cone there so no one would hit the fence. |
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| Drive that car, Girls! |
After racing, we were going to take the kids to play minature golf. We found this great course near the hotel that had a train you rode to the first hole.
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| A Train ride to play minature golf? What a great golf course! |
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| The golf pros. |
We started with the first hole. Kayla got to go first since she was the youngest. A group was letting us go first since we had a smaller group (they had about 7 playing). So Kayla had a large audidence for her first shot of her life. She got up there and hit it (using her own method). The ball rolled and then "plop" right into the hole. Kayla's first hit in minature golf was a hole in one! I got a 2 on that hole; Heather got a 3; Michael got a 4 and Josh got a 6. So this was a great hole for Kayla.
After this hole, Kayla would go the hole put the ball right next door to the hole and hit it in.
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| Hole in one coming! |
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| Theres the hole! |
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| Watch this shot as I continue walking |
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| After golf. We all had a pretty good score. |
After playing minture golf we headed back to the hotel to get changed. Time to go swimming! Once we got changed we headed down to the pool.
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| The pool at the hotel. |
The pool is not too large but it has a great waterfall. Michael does great swimming; Josh does a good job with Heather or I with him. We need to hold Kayla. There were 2 others in the pool, but basically we had the pool to ourselves. We swam for about an hour or so. After swimming we headed to the room to get changed back for dinner.
jWe had planned to eat at the Apple Barn. Our plan was to eat early so that we would beat the line. The line at the Aple Barn can get long.
We didn't want to wait a long time to eat. in fact we just walked in and was able to sit right down. We all were ready to sit down and relax a bit. The Apple Barn has a bird cage for birds. I took the kids to look at the birds. We could have just watched the birds the rest of the day.
We always love the apple barn. They have some special muffins that Heather and I really enjoy. To my surprise our kids really didn't like the muffins all that much. I had promised the kids a soft drink at dinner. When we got there we saw that the soft drinks at the Apple Barn were almost $2 for a kids cup. I told the kids I would get them their own 20 oz drink instead of a small drink at the Apple Barn. Michael was not too happy about having to wait to get this soda, but it made the most sense. After we were done eating we headed to the hotel to get our drinks from the soda machine. Once we got there they got to pick their own drink and push the button. It is funny the things they get so excited about.
Time to go to Gatlinburg and look at the Christmas lights. We got in the van and headed to Gatlinburg to look at the lights and walk down "the strip". Pigeon Forge has the 12 days of Christmas in lights down the street. We sang the song while we passed. (well to be honest, I sang the song while we drove down the street).
The lights in Gatlinburg are good, but we think they are not as good as they have been years ago.
The lights in Gatlinburg are good, but we think they are not as good as they were years ago. Heather and I went to Gatlinburg each year for the holidays when we were dating and when we were married.
We parked the car and walked down the strip. We wanted to make sure we stopped at the candy stores on the way down.
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| Herby was there! We love that movie! |
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| Mmmmm.... We love Candy! What is taffy? |
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| Let's both get on. Do you think it can hold us. |
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| I'm Riding a Pony |
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| We found Santa's Sleigh. |
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| "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells" - Kayla. Micheal "please stop singing". |
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| What a long day; but we sure had fun! |
Sunday morning we woke up and got ready for Church. We decided to go to Gatlinburg Church of Christ. Church started at 9:00. They had classes first; we decided to eat breakfast and head over to Church making for the worship service at 10:00. There is a pancake house that we have gone to each time we have gone to Gatlinburg ~
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| Breakfast time. |
The Log Cabin Pancake House. We didn't have to wait for a table. They found us a table near the window. After we ate we headed over the Church. It is a small world; the family that sat in front of us was also from Murfreesboro and they went to Cason Lane Church Christ and knew the Tracy's. At the announcements said he wanted to welcome the vistors and he asked for all visitors to raise their hands. All but about 50 of us out of 60 raised our hands. They have a great ministry in Gatlinburg! Basically they offer worship services for those that are visiting Gatlinburg for the weekend.
It is hard to go to Gatlinburg without going into the mountains and do some hikin'. After Church we headed to the mountains. We drove up highway 41 to NewFound Gap. We were planning to hike just a little while to get some fresh air and some excercise. While we were driving up there we could see where it had snowed a week before. There was some small snow men and packs of snow. The temperature dropped about 15 degrees as we drove up. It was 60 degrees when we left Gatlinburg and it was 45 when we got to the top. We took took the trail which led up the mountain.
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| Hikin'! 3 Good Little Hikers |
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| What was that? |
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| Heading back down the mountain |
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| Best Friends |
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| The real Kayla and Josh |
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| Miller Family |
After our short hike it was time to head back down the mountain. Then we were planning on heading back to Murfreesboro, but stop by the Christmas Store on the way back. We were heading down the mountain and all of a sudden the cars in front of us all pulled over. I decided to go ahead and pull over and see what everyone was stopping for. Everyone was looking in the woods and pointing. After a while we noticed it was a mommy bear and her cub. The baby was jumping around just like any little toddlers would do.
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| After visiting the Smokey's for years and years I have never seen an actual bear in the wild. |
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| Joining in with the freeky christmas decorations |
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| This Christmas decoration was kind of freaky |
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| Look! Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer is there. |
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
