Here is the story of our first family vacation. We drove to Nashville Tuesday night and then got up early the next day and finished the trip to Gatlinburg, TN. Our first stop was the Ripley's Aquarium there. It was by far the best aquarium I have ever been to. Absolutely incredible. We all had a great time! This is a pic of the kids looking at the big tank they had there.
The sawtooth shark was one of our favorite things that we saw. It was so big!
This is a fun pic I took of the sawtooth shark's "nose." The sharks were swimming above us. I took this pic when the shark was directly above me! So cool!
Sophie's favorite part of the whole trip was petting the horseshoe crabs. Aiden and I were too scared to touch them!
This is a pic I took of the jellyfish. They were awesome to watch!
Sophie learned what the word "souvenir" means on this trip. Aiden got "Sharky" and Sophie got a rubber worm. The had so much fun!
We spent the second morning there driving through the Smoky Mountain National Park. It was absolutely breathtaking. This is a pic of the kids on our way up the mountains.
When we got to the state line, there was a bunch of people gathered looking at something. We soon found out that it was a bear! Sophie was impressed because "it wasn't even in a cage!" Aiden cried when we left because he wanted to take the bear home! No Way!
This is the state line sign. I was so excited to say I've been in North Carolina. We hit six states on our trip: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina!
One of the kids' favorite things to do was swimming at the hotel.
Sophie became a very brave little swimmer on this trip and had a blast going down the waterslide by herself! She also started swimming without clinging to mom or dad. Aiden is a completely different story!
We spent the third day at Dollywood. We had a great time, but I didn't bring my camera so here's a pic of the souvenirs. Aiden got a blue snake and a piece of coal and Sophie got a pink Jewel. Aiden saw that snake when we walked in and asked about it all day. He kept saying, " I get snake mommy? Say yes." It was so cute.
The hotel we stayed at was really nice. We had a big thunderstorm one night that knocked out the electricity for a couple of hours and an hour long incident with the fire alarms being set off. We really didn't mind.
The bear statue in front of our hotel.
We stopped in Louisville on our way home and went to the Louisville Slugger Museum to see them making bats. This is the giant bat at the enterance.
Travis swinging Mickey Mantle's Bat. They made everyone wear gloves!
Travis and Babe trying to see where the ball went.
We had so much fun on our trip. We also went Whitewater Rafting on this trip which was Aiden's favorite part. I'm still looking for the CD with our picture from that trip on it. I'll post it as soon as I find it!
When we got to the state line, there was a bunch of people gathered looking at something. We soon found out that it was a bear! Sophie was impressed because "it wasn't even in a cage!" Aiden cried when we left because he wanted to take the bear home! No Way!
This is the state line sign. I was so excited to say I've been in North Carolina. We hit six states on our trip: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina!
The hotel we stayed at was really nice. We had a big thunderstorm one night that knocked out the electricity for a couple of hours and an hour long incident with the fire alarms being set off. We really didn't mind.
We stopped in Louisville on our way home and went to the Louisville Slugger Museum to see them making bats. This is the giant bat at the enterance.
Travis swinging Mickey Mantle's Bat. They made everyone wear gloves!
