Thursday, September 20

I love Gatlinburg!

I was chastised in the comments last entry for not posting real post. So here it is... a REAL post.

We had such a great time these last few days with Nikki, Jason, and her family. We stayed at the Gatlinburg Falls Resort at the Eagle's Nest cabin. It was so beautiful! It had a hot tub, 3 floors of rooms, 5 bedrooms each with own bathroom, and a game room with air hockey, pool, poker table, big screen TV, and arcade game. Leah LOVED playing with Halle and
adopted Nikki's mom, Mia, as her own. She also liked hanging out with Nikki's sister, Teryn, and meeting the other family members. We just want to say thanks to the DeRosa's for having us and taking care of us so well! Oh yeah, and thanks to Joe for turning 30 so we could join them on vacation!

Anyway, we had a blast on Saturday watching the Gators bang out the win against Tennessee. When I pick up our pictures from JC Penney's (where I get all my photos taken), I will post the ADORABLE one of Mike and the girls in their Gator outfits. Sunday we headed to Gatlinburg and got settled into the cabin.


Monday, Mike and I took the girls on a hike to see Grotto Falls. We hiked a "moderate" trail 2.4 miles round trip. Leah rode in the backpack (thanks for loaning it to us, B&L) most of the way there and Erin was in the Moby wrap. Actually Leah got out and hiked with us probably at least 1/4 mile. At the top, Mike and Leah played in the falls and I fed Erin. We ate lunch up there and then started back. Now it took us 1.25 hours to get up there and only 35 minutes to get back. Leah actually fell asleep in the backpack on the way down! :) I so wished I could have gotten a picture of that, but the camera was packed away somewhere by then. We were so proud of going hiking as a family! You too can hike with a one month old. :) That evening I made roasted chicken and vegetables for everyone.

Tuesday, we went into the town of Gatlinburg and shopped around. We ate lunch at Bennett's BBQ, then took the tram up to Ober Gatlinburg. Mike and Leah went on the Alpine Slide, which Leah LOVED. We got ice cream and headed back to the cabin for a yummy Mexican fiesta. The next day we went to breakfast at Flapjacks Pancake Cabin, then walked around the Great Smoky Mountains Arts & Crafts Community.

That afternoon we went Hillbilly Mini-Golfing! You take this tram up the mountain and golf your way down. Leah did so well with her little orange plastic club. She teed off and putted every hole. After the first hit, she would move her ball to within inches of the hole for her last shot. We were there during naptime, so I think she did great! After golfing, we went home to let Leah have a late nap and pack up our stuff. We had an early dinner of burgers and dogs then headed home around 6pm.

Three things of note on this trip:

1. We do NOT like having both girls in the same room. Whenever one woke up crying, we were afraid they would wake the other up. Leah had a stuffy nose while we were there so she coughed at night a lot. (Erin has the stuffy nose now at home. She sleeps in her car seat for the time being.)

2. I can nurse Erin in both my Moby wrap and the sling I bought at Sleeping Baby Productions. That was nice because I didn't have to slow anyone down while we were out and about. The sling is WAY easy to nurse in and it will be even easier when Erin has full head control.

3. I love fresh raw corn! You can cut it right off the cob without cooking. It is great in salads of all kinds. I will definitely be using it in recipes in the future. If you eat my food, keep your eyes peeled for corn!

7 comments:

Keri Donald said...

Haha! You were chastised for not posting a "real post"? :) No wonder Nikki has nightmares about forgetting to blog and everyone getting mad at her! :)

Sounds like you guys had a great time! We used to go to Gatlinburg with our church youth group for Winter Retreats every winter. We always had lots of fun, and your post brought back memories!

Good to know about having 2 kids in the same room... I've been afraid about that and am glad to know that it wasn't for nothing. Thanks for the warning!

Mandi said...

Sounds like a blast! I think i'm one of the few people in america who hasn't gone to Gatlinburg for a vacation. we'll have to head up there sometime.
I didn't say anything about not blogging because i too get chastised for not having a blog! We have you in our calendar for the long weekend next week! What are you guys doing monday? We want to go to a park but don't know what ya'lls plans are :) give me a call Chica!

Mandy said...

Jacob and I laugh that anywhere we go on vacation now, we need three total rooms; one for us, and one for each girl. FOR REAL! And let's not even get started about trying to sleep at all int he same room with either of them. Every sniffle or roll-over and I'm awake, waiting for cries. Post your roasted chicken and veggies recipe!

Rhiannon said...

Yay for a real post!! lol Gatlinburg is a really fun place. We will all have to do a huge camping trip in the Smokey's once all the kids are of age (that could be a while though!)

Christina said...

Wow it sounds like you had a great time. We love Gatlinburg too. I haven't been there since Zach was born though.

I agree with Keri on the two kids in one room. We have a hard time with just Zach in our hotel room. He doesn't like to go to bed when there is other stuff going on. We have to sit in the dark until he is completely asleep.

stacy said...

sounds like fun, we'll have to do that sometime...i was there prebaby as well...talk to you soon and set up a few days to get together.

Anonymous said...

Hi Angelle,
My name is Jane and I'm with Dwellable.
I was looking for blog posts about Gatlinburg Falls to share on our site and I came across your post...If you're open to it, shoot me an email at jane(at)dwellable(dot)com.
Hope to hear from you :)
Jane