Thursday, July 31, 2008

A Mini Vacation With Family From Far Away

Jim's parents live in Iowa and his sister lives in Nebraska. It is so far to travel but we try to get together about every 6 months. Julie (Jim's sister) and her kids, Jessie and Gavin came down with my mother in law for a mini vacation. They arrived on Friday after driving for 2 days. WE didin't really do much during the weekend. But when Monday rolled around, we were off to Dollywood. These pictures were taken in the car as we headed out.



My kids love Dollywood. So we thought Jessie and Gavin might too. And we were not mistaken. We rented two rooms at Park Tower Inn in Pigeon Forge. Soon after we arrived, we headed out.
We headed for the smaller rides first. Jack wanted to ride the steam engine "choo-choo".

So we rode the train first. Jack liked it but it was a little boring for the older boys.

Next we headed to the carousel. I think this was Maci Clare's first ride on a carousel.
Zane wanted to ride this huge swing that went round about 70 feet in the air.
I thought I would pass on that so Gabe and I took the babies over to the preschool section. They rode the bees, pigs, and ducks. I took some pictures on my phone because Jim had my camera in his pocket. I will try to remember to post them as soon as I email them to myself.
This is Zane flying high.

Gabe, Zane and I rode the Shooting Star. It was pretty fun. And just a little scary.
That is us way at the top. All you can really see are our feet.

But we did come back down.


This was Jack's favorite thing to do. It is called Dreamland Forest. It is a water play area. They especially loved running through the "geysers". They were more than a little wet when we got finished.

Dollywood closes at 8pm. We went in after 3pm so we got the next day free. So when the park closed we headed for the car and guess what? There was a downpour. We had to walk about 20 minutes in the pouring rain. When we got to our car, we were drenched.
I made Gabe and Zane stop for a picture before jumping in the car.
Of course, I had to have a picture of me. It was really cold and we ran the heat all the way back to the hotel.

3 comments:

Windy said...

I have been wondering where you are! I hope you guys have a great time and a great rest of the summer. We are off to the beach for a week and by the time we get back, it will be one week until school time:) where has the summer gone???? The pics are cute. We hope to go to Dollywood in Nov for Karson's birthday.

Unknown said...

We love Dollywood! We actually have a time share in Gatlinburg. We've gone 3 times so far in 2 years. Lovve it up there.

the Nebraskans said...

We had a great time at Dollywood, the kids liked the Mystery Mine best.
Jessie and Gavin also said they loved the new pool and playing with their cousins!!! They can't wait to come again. Thanks for rolling out the rug for us.