Onward to the Great Smokies

After a couple of days in Knoxville, we continued on to Sevierville, in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, where we met Gramma, Grampa, and Patty (who'd driven separately), and family who'd traveled from New York and Minneapolis-- my aunt, cousin, his wife, and their kids. We all stayed in a gigantic cabin on the side of a hill with a beautiful view of the mountains.

We spent a lot of the quality time in that long weekend relaxing around the cabin and doing a lot of catching up.. but we got out and did a few things in the area as well.

We took the kids to Splash Country one day, and then Dollywood the next. Another day, a group of us went into nearby Gatlinburg and visited the local aquarium-- Aidan and Bryce got a real kick out of that! Meanwhile, another group of us did some hiking up in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Word is there was a bear siting along the path. You'll have to contact my cousin Robert to verify that.

[Just one note-- Dollywood and Splash Country are both, we think, really great theme parks. We had a group of kids ranging in age from 12 to 4 and the parks were each organized in such a way that we were able to split off and do some fun things for each of the kids and then meet back in a central place without too much difficulty. We werent' sure what to expect before we got there, but we were really impressed with both parks.]

setting up for dinner in the cabin

the kids immediately found the hottub!

generations

the boys at Dollywood with the Veggie Tales

touring around Dollywood

Bryce and Megan on the carousel

Once Bryce was sure that the giant scarecrow wouldn't eat him, he gave him a big hug!

Jennifer took the younger kids on the mini Roller Coaster

Dad and Eileen at the Aquarium

Amanda and the kids @ the aquarium

watching the Manta Rays

Want more pictures? Check out these and a few other pictures from our trip on our Flickr page. The flickr page also has the HUGE full size versions of each of these pictures.

@ the Knoxville Zoo

Today, we visited the Knoxville zoo and got to see lots of great animals right up close, including Red Pandas (which are more like foxes than Pandas) and even a black bear-- that's a lot closer to one of those than we ever want to be again, I think!

































And we thought the signs at the Zoo were pretty funny too.

"Washing Dishes"

For the first leg of our trip, we're spending a couple of days in Knoxville with our good friends, Miki and Tom and their little boy James. Today, Bryce and James had a big time washing the dishes.. which, as you can imagine, didn't really involve making many dishes any cleaner-- though the sink area got a whole lot wetter.

Saddled up..

We headed out on the road today for a week-long vacation in East Tennessee. First stop-- Knoxville, to visit with some old Vanderbilt friends and their little boy, James. Then, on Thursday, we'll be heading to a cabin in the mountains to meetup with some family and have a little weekend reunion out in the Great Smokies. And of course, we can't miss Dollywood. :)

Camping in...

This is what happens when you try to take the boys on their first backyard campout.. you come inside and watch Scooby-Doo videos..
We wound up spending last night at our friend Jack's house-- but we only spent about 15 minutes in the tent we'd setup out in the backyard.. we had a great time.. but it wasn't what you'd call "camping out"..

blur..

At our neighbor's birthday party this morning...
add a little sugar and the kids become a blur...

Go Sounds!

Courtesy of Aunt Laura's employer, we got a few tickets to a Sounds game for Friday night, so we loaded up the boys and went out for an early summer evening at the ballpark. The Nashville Sounds are the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers and have always been a pretty good team to go and watch.This was Bryce's first time to a real ballpark... he took it all in, the sights and sounds.. and especially the food! Hot Dogs, pop corn, an Icee.. he loved it!

This was Aidan's second Sounds game... Grampa and I took him to a game last season with his school.. so he was a little more comfortable with his surroundings at the park and really took an interest in what all the players were doing on the field.. and, of course, most important to Aidan these days-- who's winning.. so he was really excited when the Sounds hit a game-winning two-run homerun.