The Great Smoky Mountains

We have enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing weekend away with friends. It's been great! We headed to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, Friday afternoon...it's about 1 hour and 1/2 away from our house. We got home Sunday night...and we hated to come back home because we had so much fun, but it was nice to be back at home in our comfy beds.
The cabin we stayed in wasn't the original one that Jamey and Tracie had tried to get...the one they wanted was booked, so we got this one instead. When we booked it, as we were looking at the pictures online, we were afraid it was going to be a little small. But, when we got there....WE LOVED IT!!! It was perfect. It was decorated beautifully and the views were gorgeous!
I miss it already =-(
We have been looking forward to this trip for over a month now....I can't believe it's already come and gone. Time goes by too stinkin fast!!!
Here's a picture of our cozy cabin.
It was called "High Bear Nation" Get it?? Hibernation....

Here you go....I'll give you a little tour.... =-)Jamey and Tracie's bedroom Our bedroom downstairs Rec room
Here we all are in the living room...Jamey is in the process of building us a fire.. and here it is....so nice and cozy on a cold winter night.
We would sit up, talking and watching tv, while enjoying the fire until the wee hours of the morning. Blake playing with the VERY POPULAR helicopter... Rest and relaxation...just what the doctor ordered... Me and our little princess...Sydnee.....we all just love her so much!! The next morning we got up and went to Dollywood for the day. Here's our Dollywood group picture...notice we all aren't looking the same way. The guy from Dollywood was taking our picture with his camera and I gave another guy from Dollywood my camera to take a picture also......so we all were looking at my camera except for Mason, Blake and Sydnee. Oh well....it still turned out pretty good. I do this because I refuse to pay $12 for a 5x7 picture!! Yep..I'm a cheapo!! Jarrett was ready to have some fun....we get to really enjoy Jarrett when we are out and about with The McKay's because they don't have any children Jarrett's age. Blake is hanging out with Mason the whole time.....so we really get to focus on Jarrett =-) It works out really well. Oh my goodness!! Blake is so silly!! We loved this hat. Blake loves watching this "big wheel" turn. I used to come to Dollywood alot...when it was Silver Dollar City.....with my Mom and Daddy, way back in the day. I remember looking at this when I was a little girl....it's always been there.Me and Tracie were laughing at Michael and Jamey. She said "You should get a picture of that!!", so I did.
"Can you hear me now??" ha..ha..ha Jarrett, Blake and one of the Dollywood Train conductors. We were waiting for the train to pass by..... Jarrett and Blake LOVE the train. This is another fond memory I have. This train is another thing that's ALWAYS been there. We usually ride it every time we take a trip to Dollywood. This past Summer.....Jarrett, Blake and Michael got to ride up front with the engineer.
They ALL thought that was awesome! We are a bunch of suckers for the games. We go around to a few of them...but, we always make sure that Blake plays the, winner every time game. It is so cute to see his little eyes light up when we actually wins. It's a big ego booster!! ha..ha..ha
Although in that picture it looks like Michael is doing the fishing!!! Blake with his prize. It the donkey from Shrek. He was soooo proud, he carried it around ALL day long. He even slept with it that night. Mason played and won a donkey too Jarrett throwing a football, trying to make it through a tire.... and he does it AGAIN!!! He plays this just about every time we go and he has won the past 4 times in a row.
It's not easy to do......
Jarrett's got some skills! =-) We also watched the show "Babes In Toyland" it was great!
We have watched it about 5/6 times over the years. This was Jamey, Tracie, Mason and Sydnee's first time seeing it. They really liked it. Near the end of the show...the family takes a hot air balloon ride to get back to their home from Toyland. In this picture they are going right over top of us....while bubbles and confetti fell on us. The kids loved that part. Here we are again =-) Here's Mason and Blake....we are getting ready to ride the train.....they are sooo excited.
Can you tell??!!
Notice he still is hanging on to his donkey.....that's too cute! Riding the train at Christmas time is so nice. We always ride it at night...that's the best time during Christmas. They have Christmas music playing all through out the train, we sing, enjoy looking at all the lights and have a great time. Jamey and Sydnee riding on the train Here we are making our way to go see the "Parade of Lights" Tracie and Me =-) We watched "The Carol of the Trees" on our way. It was BEAUTIFUL! The trees lit up in so many different colors and they were also syncronized to Christmas music, at the end they shot off fireworks. This tree is gorgeous! I have never gotten a good picture of this tree until this year. I would get nothing but a big blue blur!
I love my camera!!!!! Dollywood is lit up everywhere! It is beautiful!
Oh...Did I mention it was beautiful??? Here's the "Parade of Lights". There's Santa....he's leading the parade...

This Christmas tree was soooo pretty and it was huge!
If you come to Dollywood feeling like a scrooge....good luck leaving that way!!! I would say it's near to impossible!!
We are going to squeeze in one more trip to see the lights again, the weekend before Christmas...that's our plan anyway. This is what happens to 3 boys when you spend an entire day at Dollywood. They are completely worn out. We all cracked up at the 3 of them....it was so funny that they all fell asleep the same way. =-)Here's the whole crew on Sunday morning....packed up and getting ready to leave.
Now this was fun! I would hit the self-timer on the camera then run over and sit down before the camera snapped the picture. We had a few of these pictures.....this is the best one.

Yum-Yum CHOCOLATE CAKE!! Is your mouth watering yet???!!!!!

After we left the cabin we shopped for a while at The Tanger Outlet...then we headed to The Apple Barn. If you have ever eaten at The Apple Barn, you know they give you a sinful amount of food to eat....and oh my goodness, everything is absolutely delicious!!!!
That chocolate cake was my desert after eating like a pig and being completely full!
I still managed to eat every last crumb of this yummy cake. =-) tee-hee-hee I took these pictures of Blake and Jarrett outside of The Apple Barn after we finished eating. I thought they turned out pretty good...if I do say so myself.
I have been studying my instruction manual.;-)

Jamey, Tracie, Mason and Sydneeand us...
After we left The Apple Barn, Tracie, Sydnee and I went and shopped some more while the guys went to the arcade.
Tracie and I got some pretty good deals at the outlets. It really wasn't too crowded either so that made shopping even better. I saw alot of people from Kingsport....it seemed we weren't the only ones with the idea of going to Pigeon Forge this weekend.
We had a wonderful weekend.....with wonderful friends =-)
Like I have said before, we are so blessed to have lots of wonderful friends!!
It's just wonderful!! Oh and have a WONDERFUL day!!! ha..ha..ha