Part 1: Family Weekend

The hubby and I joined our oldest son and his family in Gatlinburg for a fun family vacation, Sept. 29 – Oct 1. With four grandbabies, ages 2 to 11, and their parents, there was plenty of adventure!

For dinner on arrival, Riean and Casey wanted to take us to Dick’s for dinner where they’d gone when they were married and loved the atmosphere. Talk about a hoot! The waitress said “Welcome to Dick’s, our specialty is “sarcasm, sass, and putting the F U in fun!”

She said she’d tone it down for the kids and she was still hilarious! The kids loved it and the food was wonderful. I had an amazing steak and there were lots of laughs, especially reading the hats of the other diners!

After dinner, we took in a couple 7D interactive movies and a haunted house. The big brothers were too afraid to go through Ripley’s Haunted House, so the 6-year-old youngest brother went with Poppy and Daddy and came thru like a champ they said. Those of us who didn’t do the haunted house watched a clown, shooting rollercoaster ride and Aladdin flying on his magic carpet. It’s amazing how watching these interactive rides can make you feel like you’re actually participating in the activity! Of course, we couldn’t leave without souvenirs… the first of many… but the kids were happy and that was the reason for the trip!

Back at the house, a “swim” in the hot tub and a good night’s sleep was had by all in preparation for the next day’s event.

Breakfast at the pancake place and Riean’s nonchalant reminder that it was his birthday – 32nd which I am still having a hard time believing – started the day, which was spent at Dollywood. Had an incident in the parking lot in which my daughter-in-law said I was being a Karen, but I say the Karen was the other guy who wanted to take two spots to get his family settled before letting us park, which was holding up the vehicles behind us. They kept asking how come I didn’t just park somewhere else and didn’t seem to understand I went where the parking attendant told me. I was not a Southern belle and will admit my inner redneck came out. C’est la vie.

Once in the park, everything was beautiful… and calm. The crowd wasn’t bad at all and the decor had changed over to their Harvest Festival theme. Tons of pumpkins, beautifully carved, lined the streets to set the mood for the upcoming holiday season. The second-oldest grandson was extremely accommodating, posing for Nannie and feeding her obsession of pics of her grandbabies. Not sure I got a picture of the 11-year-old smiling in any mandated photos, but plenty of smiles in the action shots! Laughter, tears, meltdowns, souvenirs, and plenty of memories were made and Nannie has the pictures to prove it!

Dinner was at Shoney’s that night where they only took cash, ’cause even though we had a necessity-stocked house at our disposal, number one son wasn’t “entertaining the idea of cooking while on vacation!” That night after more “swimming” EVERYONE passed out from the fun of the day!

Day 2 was spent at Wonderworks with grands, while mom and dad checked out the Titanic Museum. Four grandchildren reminded Nannie and poppy kids are exhausting! Had an extremely proud moment watching #2 grandson climb not once but twice to the top of the rock climbing wall to ring the buzzer. Later, after a few hours at Smoky Mountain Knife Works, we walked away with two guns, three knives, a pack of WWII love letters and a Spanish-American War-era document, plus packs of Pokemon cards. Then shopping at the outlet store for work tennies for the daughter-in-law, a change of clothing to correct an unfortunate accident, and a wonderful Mexican dinner at No Way Jose’s, brought an end to day two.

It was a great weekend, and one I will always cherish but one that also reminded Nannie and Poppy we don’t really miss those days! FOUR KIDS! LOL… Mom and Dad said their next vacation will be when Amara graduates!

Next adventure… Europe… hopefully!