Well, I found the pictures, and Jason did NOT disappoint. He took some real beauties this year. We have typically gone up north with Jason's family for a vacation, but this year we ventured down to Gatlinburg Tennessee. I have not been there since high school, and Jason not since he was in single digits! We had so much fun exploring Great Smoky Mountain National Park and the beauty there!
Downtown Gatlinburg left much to be desired. Instead of some quaint little country town (like I pictured it to be), it was quite a commercialized town now. The first time Jason I drove down there, we looked at each other and said "I hate it!". Bryce did like seeing the giant Optimus Prime at one of the Ripley's Stores. We did enjoy going to the Aquarium while we there as well. It was a bit pricey, but it was really incredible with a shark tank over top (think Jaws!) that you got to ride a slow moving escalator under.
This is Grotto Falls. Our kids were real troopers hiking nearly 2 1/2 miles the first two days we were there. This was a great vacation for our little explorer, Bryce, as you will soon see by the pics. He loved climbing all over the rocks and up and down and over!!
The big boys (Jason and his brother) were not left out, either, climbing up to this log.
We watched a stingray show at the aquarium where we got to see a scuba diver feed the stingrays. We even got to see a proposal during the show....not really my first choice for a marriage proposal, but cute nonetheless.
This was SO funny, Ruthie's common pose right now is hands on her hips. When the scuba diver mimicked her, we all got a good laugh!
Here's all the cousins (minus Drew) together waiting to climb up to Clingman's Dome.
On Wednesday we took quite an excursion down to the North Carolina side of the park. What looked pretty doable on the map turned out to be quite the adventure. We saw some more pretty waterfalls, though, so we had fun!!
On the way home, we saw this massive Elk right by the side of the road.
On Thursday, we took the kids into Pigeon Forge and daddy and Papa enjoyed taking the kids on some gocarts...
The trip was LONG! I grew up riding in the car all the time, so I'm not sure if it's the pregnancy or what, but it was not my favorite. We split it up over 2 days going down, but did the entire trip in one day coming home....14 hours total in the car with stops. Ugh. The kids were real troopers and good travelers, so I was thankful for that! We really had a great time and I just love exploring new places (or ones I don't remember real well). We were thankful for the time together as a family!!
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