Gatlinburg, Tennessee

We are currently vacationing at Gatlinburg Tennessee and having a great time. We left home Friday night and drove over night thinking the kids would sleep for the 10 hour drive......ha, what were we thinking? Adriana did sleep a lot of the way, but the boys were awake throughout the ride off and on. But it wasn't a bad drive and we did get to crash for a few hours once we got to our condo. We are staying in a three bedroom condo with my parents and the kids are loving it.

After we woke up from our nap on Saturday, my mom and I took the kids to an outlet mall where they have a Disney store (I know I have to drive 10 hours to find a Disney store......its very sad :( ) So we were able to get Adriana her Halloween costume which she chose to be Cinderella. Then we shopped in the other stores and headed home.
Sunday, we went up to the sky area "Ober". We took a ride up to the top of the mountain where they have a lot of stuff for the kids to do. We took a ski lift ride up even higher in the mountain where we were able to get a lot of beautiful pictures. After we took the lift back down, we took another one up half way where they had a slide that you could ride back down to the bottom of the hill. The kids loved this and had to ride it several times. Andrew wasn't to sure of it and wanted to go slow, but Adriana my daredevil cruised down it really fast! They had several other rides the kids rode on. Inside the building they had an indoor ice skating rink that we were really wanting to do, but unfortunately we ran out of time and had to head back down. Then we ate at a really nice restaurant Calhouns. The food was really good there.
On Monday we took the kids to Dollywood, which is a lot like Silver Dollar City in Branson. It was really neat there and the people are always so nice. They had a little kiddie area that the kids spent most of their time riding all the rides and playing games. They also had a old train that would take you on a ride through the mountains. It was really neat and Chris loved it, he even talked Andrew into riding it for a second time. Dollywood has another area where they have a sanctuary for bold eagles. They take injured ones that cannot survive on their own and keep them safe. They also breed the eagles and release those into the wild to help with the population of bold eagles. Most of the day was just spent letting the kids lead us and playing on all the rides.
Tuesday we went to Ripley's Aquarium. Its a huge aquarium that has lots of different kinds of fish. The even have a tunel you walk through under the acquarium and have sharks swimming above and around you. It was really neat! There was an area that you could feel horseshoe crabs in the kids area. The kids had a blast playing with all the neat things that they could climb on and play with. In another area you could watch the stingrays get feed and touch them as well. Andrew tried to touch them but would come up proud that he didn't touch it.
Tuesday night we went to the Dixie Stampede Show. Its a huge show put on in a large arena where they also serve you a delicious dinner. The show goes through all the years leading up to the civil war. It starts with the horses running wild and free, then the Indians arrive. Next man arrives, then finally the civil war. The arena was split into two halves......the north and the south. We sat on the south side. It was a great show and Adriana was chose to go out to the arena to do a chicken race. She was the only girl down there and did great! Adriana and her partner won! She got a gold medal and a book for winning. She had a blast! The kids were great through the whole show and even the boys really enjoyed it!
That leads us up to today. Today we are heading back into the mountains and going to Cades Cove.
We are having a great time and can't wait to see everyone again! I have a ton of pictures to share and will post them as soon as we get home!