For our Shurtliff family vacation this year, we opted to head to a part of the country that we haven't seen before and also has cooler weather. We ended up in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.
Love this picture!
High
points of the trip:
- Staying up late the first night and talking
- Game time—we played One Night Werewolf the most
- Dollywood amusement park and Splash Country waterpark were a lot of fun
- WonderWorks Science museum
- Caleb orchestrated a foosball tournament
- No one got sick!
- No one got lost, and we were all kept safe.
Low
points of the trip:
- The drive—between bathroom stops and Austin crying off and on, it was rough. We opted to drive straight through on the way home instead of breaking it up in two days. Though it made for a long day, it was nice to get it done and over with. Plus the kids were mostly asleep by 9pm.
- The squeaky bed. It was awful! Both Matt and I were scared to make any movements throughout the night in order not to wake up each other or Austin, who slept in our room in a pack n’ play.
View from our cabin
Our cabin was 3 stories with 3 bedrooms on the top floor plus an open area with some arcade games, the main floor had the dining area + master bedroom, and the bottom floor had 4 bedrooms--two with queen beds and 2 with bunk beds. All the kids minus toddlers/babies slept on the bottom floor.
We
missed Ariane and Zane’s family this year, who couldn’t join us last-minute
because they drove to Florida to adopt their newest member of their family: Benson William.
However,
Lindsey decided on a whim to join us. Because everything was so up in the air about
where they would be living this summer for Derrick’s internship, they didn’t plan on
coming this year. Lindsey changed her mind the morning of, packed, and decided to come
with just the kids. Derrick helped her drive a large portion, then rented a car
and went back.
Sunday
Everyone
arrived around 5:30 pm (check-in was at 4). Kara and Clayton make BBQ pork
sandwiches. There was a big debate about who should get which room. Every room
had a king bed and was very spacious, so in the end it didn’t seem to matter
who got which room. However, we failed to perform the “squeaky bed test” and
thus slept uncomfortably for the rest of the week. We stayed up that night playing
Code Names and then talking until 1:30 am (which was only 12:30 Texas time). I
love being together with my family!
Monday
We
spent a full day at Dollywood. We left at 9:30 in the morning and didn’t get
home until 7:30 pm. It was a really fun amusement park with plenty to do to fill
the day. We didn’t stop for any of the shows, and still didn’t get all the
rides done in one day. (Taking turns riding rides and an hour lightning delay
contributed to that.) We got pizza for dinner that night and had an earlier
night after such a long day.
Bryson's favorite ride: Fire Chaser Express
This was a pretty fast rollercoaster that went backwards for half of the ride. He is becoming more brave!
Austin's first ride!
Bryson was so excited about this one: Shooting Star
On Wednesday, we went to Splash Country at Dollywood. This water park is very comparable to the one near our home except it has more options that are 36” so Bryson could do more rides. (He is 41 1/2" and most rides are 42".) We were there from 10-3 and then finished up the day at Dollywood catching a few rides we had missed the first time. The amusement park was less crowded than on Monday, and we were able to ride a lot of rides in the 3 hours we were there. We had a late dinner of spaghetti that night and played many rounds of One Night Werewolf.
Morgan and Austin hanging out together
Austin loves Novalee
Back at Dollywood on the River Rampage
From this picture you can tell that it had been a long day! We were headed out and Bryson wasn't happy about it.
Kara sacrificed and took Austin home with her after Splash Country so that he and Novalee could take naps back at the cabin. It was so nice of her. After they woke up, they had a lot of fun playing with each other.
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