Smoky Mountains Vacation - Summer 2024

 Our first trip to the smoky mountains as a family.  

Typically every summer me and my kids go to the beach.  Last year we discussed maybe doing something different.  I was like yes, we can maybe change up what we do from year to year so we decided on making a trip to the smoky mountains.  

As the trip approached and we started seeing more and more people with their beach pictures, I wondered if we had made the right decision.  The beach is truly mine and Brett's happy place.  My son loves when we all go to the beach.  I didn't realize how much until he told me over the weeks leading up to our mountain trip.  It was too late to get our money back on our cabin in the mountains and all of us changing our vacation dates at work, so I said.... let's just go to the mountains and have fun no matter what.   I was real nervous about the LONG drive.. (8 hours) with 2 small kids under the age of 2!  

I will say the ride to the mountains was not bad with the kids.  We were late leaving however due to Brett having a fever and we decided to wait on him to go to MEA at 8am when they opened to make sure he didn't have the flu or something.  We finally got on the road after 10am and with stops to get babies out of car seats, etc. we didn't make it to our cabin until like 9pm.  And we lose an hour going so it was a LONG day.  Even with the long drive I thought Lydia and Neely did really great and the older two, Aybri and Rori watched movies on my iPad the whole drive.  

Sunday we stayed in that morning and rested.

Lydia and Neely checking out the view Sunday morning.

  We had reservations for Dixie Stampede at 3:30pm.  I was glad we decided to stay in that morning to rest a bit.  I did all the driving on the way up, the whole trip and the way back in my vehicle and Brett did 90% of the driving in the other vehicle.  The girls absolutely loved the Dixie Stampede.  Yaya (aka me) got a little teary eyed watching the girls faces and how much they loved the show.  We left there and went into Pigeon Forge to the Island and got ice cream and walked around a bit before heading back to the cabin.  

The girls got to meet one of the performers and pet her horse.

my corn loving girls!

We dressed the girls in matching outfits.  

amazed by the horses and performers. 

My girls! 

Aybri at Pigeon Forge

The girls had to get a deer. 

Rori at Pigeon Forge

The gang chilling after ice cream at Pigeon Forge .. The island

Yaya and Neely.. most pictures.. I'm behind the camera. 

Did I mention our cabin was like 3.9 miles up the mountain!  We were located off wears valley road straight up a mountain to the "Preserve".  It was a mountain resort with lots of cabins, a big pavilion area, pool, and gym.  I had booked there so Brett could still go to the gym every day...  guess what... he never got to the gym and I never got in any workouts either the whole week. 😂  We did get lots of walking in Dollywood and other places and that area is not FLAT so often we were pushing strollers up inclines.  Every day my legs were tired from all the walking. 😂😁

Monday we decided to go to Dollywood.  It called for rain every day of our trip so we had to keep watching the rain to figure out what to do each day.  Monday was a slight chance with more sun than the other days so we took our chances and went to Dollywood.  It was PACKED! Took us almost 2 hours to get parked, wait in line to get tickets and get into the park!😏😑 The gates opened at 10am and it was noon when we got in and then everyone was hungry.  Needless to say we did not even make it half way around the park that day.  We left at 8pm when they closed and had not seen everything!  Oh did I mention it was HOT HOT HOT!  I was glad I had went ahead and got 2 day passes so we could come back... but our original plan was to go to the theme park one day and the splash park the next day... but that didn't happen exactly.  

Aybri was the sweetest letting the little ones ride all their rides first. 

Monkey see.. Monkey do.. 

Lydia over the heat.. 

Neely saying give me more drink.. it's HOT! that pig tail! 

The flowers at Dollywood were beautiful. 

Tuesday it rained so we didn't go back to Dollywood and decided to hold off on that till Wednesday.  We wanted to go to Ober Mountain since it was raining and let the girls ice skate inside, but the lift was shut down due to weather so we ended up at the aquarium.  It was a nice small aquarium and we were dry inside.  The girls saw a mermaid show which they loved and lots of fish.  We ended the day with dinner at Peddler's Steakhouse.  The food was great, but our dinner was rough with crying / tired babies.  At one point Erin and Whitney were sitting alone eating while Brett & I were keeping babies entertained outside. 😂

Rain Rain Rain!

Mermaid show.. this girl could hold her breath forever!

Wednesday... back to Dollywood to try to see the parts of the theme park we missed on Monday and hopefully get to the splash park after lunch.  Well, it was going on 3:30pm by the time the girls got through riding rides and we were headed to splash park.  We assumed they stayed open till 8pm like the theme park, but it closed at 6pm so we barely had 1 1/2 hours at the splash park.  The girls got to do 2 slides and the lazy river and it was time to go. 😔  Guess I should have bought a 3 day pass, but I had no idea how big Dollywood was nor how crowded it would be.  By midweek, I was pretty tired so I told the group we were taking pizza back to our cabin to chill for the evening.  Every night it was after 10pm and midnight getting in the bed so I was ready for a restful night.   Little did we know what was about to happen....

Both girls wore slap out

They just got a bucket of water dumped on them. 

heading back into Dollywood... check out Neely's pig tails.. 

The umbrellas were cool. 

yes the big girls rode many coasters! They loved them! Brett and I kept the two younger kids entertained while the big kids rode rides.  

The loved the water! Time to cool off and that water was COLD!

Most people come to the mountains and drive all around hunting bears.  Well, we didn't have to hunt one! We took our pizza out on the table out on the deck to enjoy our view.  No sooner had we finished our pizza when a BEAR decided to climb up our deck and come over the railing to the table.  Let's just say we all scattered like a kicked ant bed! Everyone was screaming and trying to get inside the door to the cabin while watching the bear hoping it didn't charge us!  It was so surreal!  The girls were all crying and scared to death.  Heck I was scared.  She, aka the bear, ate the crumbs we had left on the table and picked up Whitney's phone and cracked her screen on the side.  It was the craziest thing ever!  When we thought she had left, Brett and I went out on the deck to gather the dishes and get Whit's phone.  I was glad she had not broke the dishes because they belonged to the cabin.  AND while we were out there the bear climbed back up! Brett and I both ran to the door and it was LOCKED!  I was like OMG! We beat on the glass door for them, aka our crew, to let us in! They unlocked the door and I was like who locked that door.......  Little Rori said .. I did...  I was like why??  She proceeded to tell us because she didn't want the bear to come in.. 😂

Video coming soon..

Let's just say we didn't get to bed early that night either...  we sat and talked and talked about that bear in shock.  Whitney facetimed with her parents who couldn't believe it.  I was afraid the girls would not sleep that night, but they did eventually. 🙏😍

Thursday... our last day we made it to Ober Mountain where the girls ice skated twice.  They LOVED it.  They also rock climbed and rode a small coaster.  When we left there we made the normal tourist drive through Cades Cove.  We only saw like 5 deer and no bears..😂  It was a waste of 2 hours to me... but we did get a picture of the girls with the mountains in the background.  By this time my hair looked a mess.. which it was barely fixed the whole trip.  Rain, kids, etc. you name it.  So no real good family pics with mountains in background. 

I braided the girls hair... Aybri loved it. 

Girl can climb!

On the lift going up. 

waiting almost 2 hours to ride a coaster with Rori and Aybri due to rain delay.

Neely waving at me. 

They tried to sneak off and get a beer.. ha 

Brett and Rori... finally after almost 2 hours ready to ride. 

Lydia nd Neely just want to ride also... 

Cades Cove .... 4 beautiful girls

Erin and Lydia... Lydia is probably laughing at her sisters.. 

Yaya wore out... thank goodness I carried my iPad.. the girls watched lots of movies while we did lots of driving! 

waiting to ride rides and being silly. 

Little sister, Rori thought she could climb to the top also.. 

Aybri did so good skating!

Rori liked being pushed on the seal. 

 Friday was a LONG drive home. First breakfast at the Pancake house.  Bye Bye Tennessee Whiskey #2819

The car loaded down!

Lydia giving Brett some loving!

Neely showing off her Dollywood shirt

Time to hit the road....

 After being stuck in a car seat for a week with lots of traveling.. Lydia was over it.  She cried a lot and we had to stop several times to get her out and play with her.  I was glad when we finally got home.  😁

Overall it was a great trip and lots of memories were made!  I enjoyed my time with my 2 kids and their kids.  I did miss the easiness of the beach.  Basically where our cabin was at it was 40-50 minutes to drive to do anything and that winding road up and down the mountain made the girls sick to where we had to give them dramamine every day.  I missed being right on the beach and walking out to sit and relax on the beach.  It had been like 25 years since I had been to the mountains and the main thing I noticed is it's so commercialized now.   You can spend a "Disney" fortune just doing stuff to occupy the kids.  They were not old enough to go hiking to water falls, etc.  So theme parks it was which cost.  And there was a sadness hanging over us..... We all knew that Erin and Matt had plans of separating but had not told the girls... I knew that the trip may be the last one I would take with Aybri and Rori and my heart broke.  I know in my heart that this is probably the best for my daughter in the long run, but we've all gotten attached to Matt's other 2 daughters.  So that was on the back of my mind the whole trip.  Aybri is such a doll.  She a very compassionate kid! She's 10 and we've been around here since she was like 4-5 years old.  Rori, who's 5, just came into our lives like 7 months ago, but she'll get under your skin fast.  I pray for whatever happens those girls will be ok.  Erin has fretted over it for months.  She loves them and wants the best for them.  She just can't live with Matt anymore.  When trust and respect is lost in a marriage it's hard to save it.  That's a long story that I won't get into, its just best for my daughter to break ties with him.  

Maybe we'll get in a few days at the beach some time this summer...just won't be our full week due to Yaya's fortune she spent in the mountains.. 😂💗  

Love these girls!

 I also made a decision... I'm not going to do the Ironman race on September 29 this year.  I feel like my daughter is going to need me over the next few months... AND  I was already going back and forth as to did I really need to attempt it this year.  I've already done a couple of marathons and have a couple more on tap end of year so I worried was it too much on my body.  I remember before when I trained that I barely had time to clean my house and my weekends were totally allocated to long bikes and runs for the last 3-4 months prior to the race.  That would mean NOW for me... Now till end of September.  I just didn't know if I had time to commit to that much training and also have time for my family.  Every day I've been praying about it and right before this trip one of my friends asked me what my "why" was.....  All I could think of was the fact that I wanted to prove to myself I could finish chatty.   She reminded me that I had finished a full ironman at Florida which many feel is a race harder than Chatty due to the swim and the headwind on the bike with no hills for good speed.  Chatty has become so popular with the downstream swim and fast bike that the race is really crowded.  In May at the half ironman race there was many bike wrecks where people got hurt.  This also kept playing in my head..... what If I get hurt... I won't able to do my other races and I really want to do Athens in November. and go to Tokyo in the first part of 2025.  It was just so much weighing on me that I decided to pull out of the race and I'm glad I did because right afterwards.. Erin and Matt officially decided to separate.  That was God telling me... I did the right thing... I'll be here for my daughter and not off training every weekend.  Maybe one day I'll get back to Chatty... but for now... I'm happy with my 4 half ironman races and my 1 full at Florida.  😍  sometimes in life you got to do something other than proving something to yourself..