Road Trip Time!

For the first time in a lot of years, we didn't go to the beach! Sniff. Instead, we decided to take our yearly Tidwell/Perkins vacay in the mountains! And for an added bonus, we got to pitstop in Knoxville on our way to see Ali, Jim, and the cousins! YIPPEE!

We got to see their beautiful new house, spent the night, and the kids got lots of playtime!

Sure love this crew :)

The Tidwell's met up with us there and then we hit the road to Gatlinburg. It took a long time to actually find our cabin, but once we did, we were excited to get settled in! 

The kids were so excited about the tree house!

G was getting very sleepy, and even let me "swing" him to sleep that evening :)

The next morning, we decided to try and plan out our week (No, we did not plan it out before. Our motto was "We are winging it!") We knew we wanted to hit DollyWood and wanted to go on the coolest day so we wouldn't be miserable. Turned out, that WAS the coolest day forecasted, so we all ran and got dressed and jumped in the vans for DollyWood!

We found a small rollercoaster, and thought G might enjoy it. That ride was much faster than we realized! But, he loved it!

Kinley worked up her courage and jumped on with Daddy and Kallen at the last minute. So proud of her! And she really liked this ride!

We took Graham and Jack to the kiddie rides while the big kids tackled some roller coasters.

We were getting hungry, but decided we would take a train ride before eating a late lunch. Our timing couldn't have been better--a 20 minute rain shower hit just as we boarded and ended just as we got off!

The Daddy's won basketballs for the kids, Graham didn't care that ours was pink :)

We found a really fun sprinkler area and G had a BLAST! While he was splashing around, Kinley and Jack played on the playground and Jacob and Kallen....

...rode this crazy scary ride! They were so brave! I nearly had a heart attack thinking about my baby being on this thing, but she did great!

Me and my daredevil rode a tamer ride that I could handle :)

Our own little Shirley Temple

Jack in the fake seat for Wild Eagle :) Kallen rode this one, too! That girl is super brave.

Kinley liked the swing ride!

Back to the kiddie rides, these kids were still going strong!

Whew! We shut the park down! But we had so much fun. Dollywood is really a GREAT place! So nice, and so clean. We loved every minute :)

The next day, we thought about taking it easy. Then thought, "nah!" Off to River Rats for some tubing!

We weren't really sure how this would go, whether Graham would like it or if the kids might be scared.  For the price, you get to float the river on an inner tube, catch a ride back to the start, and do it again if you want. We went down the first time and had SO much fun! The kids all loved it! The downside was that some went faster than others depending on rapids and rocks, so it was hard to all stay together. After our first trip, we decided to eat a picnic lunch and then go again. This time, with straps tethering our tubes together. The kids did NOT like this plan! Ha! They liked going every which way down the river. The grownups however, decided this was definitely the way to go! It was so much fun, so glad we did it!

After we got back to the cabin, we decided to make s'mores!

We heard a rustling in the bushes and spotted this guy. Probably not our smartest move, but to "shoo" the raccoon away, we *might* have thrown some graham crackers and burnt marshmallows out into the woods so he would go fetch. Problem was, he kept coming back for more! Our kids kept wanting to pet him, as if we were in a petting zoo, yikes! Suddenly, the raccoon took off. Sensing that something bigger may have scared him off, we quickly cleaned up our s'mores and headed inside.

While the kids and Jeff were downstairs playing arcade games, I wandered out on the upper balcony just in time to see this guy come out of the bushes!

EEEEK! He sniffed around a while, then finally wandered off. He was small, but thankfully, momma bear never came behind him. The kids all got to see him, it was so neat! Neat because we were up high and not close! 

After all threats of a bear invasion were cleared, the kiddos settled down for a movie in the awesome theater. 

The next morning, we went for breakfast at the Pancake Pantry. So yummy! 

Kinley found bears that are much more our speed :)

Graham was pretty tired after several days of no napping. Jeff took him back to the cabin to sleep and Mr. Michael took the big kids to Ripley's Museum while Kari and I snuck off for some shopping!

Another xcqa day, the guys went golfing and we stayed around the cabin. We met up with them that afternoon at the Aquarium. It was huge! Allison and her kiddos came and met us, too!

I love this boy!

My loves!

Love these cuties, too!

The Mermaid Show. The girls really liked this :)

Jacob and Kallen

Stinker

Jack the deep sea diver

Three little mermaids

Digging for fossils

It was another great day! So glad Ali and her crew were able to come along!

Friday was our last full day, so we decided to visit the National Park. We got to see an old homestead which the kids thought was pretty interesting. Then, we drove the Roaring Fork Motor Trail and saw beautiful scenery!

Next, we decided to hike to Grotto Falls. We had read that it was a short hike and thought it sounded great! Hmm, this may have been the one time that "winging it" wasn't the best idea! Thank goodness Kari thought to give the kids each a granola bar before we started out, they might have never made it otherwise!
At long last, after lots of whining and "how much longer"s, we finally saw some waterfalls! And found out we were only halfway to the Grotto Falls, haha. Sigh. Did I mention that we were hiking in water shoes? Not our smartest moment...

At long last, we made it! The cold water was just what we needed to refresh us for the hike back down.

We had fun climbing on the rocks and taking in all the beautiful scenery.

Poor Kinley wandered a little too far into the water and fell in pretty deep. She was freezing!

But, she was a good sport and still managed to "smile pretty" ;)

First ever Tidwell-Perkins group photo!

Sweet, sweet friends

Kallen and Jack found some salamanders on the way down!

Graham won the "Best Hiker" award. He never complained and sang the whole way back down. What a sweetie. He kept passersby entertained with his loud singing of Justin Beiber's "Baby, Baby, Baby" and Happy Birthday :)

We FINALLY made it back to the van. I'm not sure who was happier, the kids or the parents! Whew! What a day. We were all beyond starving, so we found a Mellow Mushroom nearby. We found a tall pirate outside making balloon animals afterward, neat!

We could tell a storm was headed our way, so we let the kids take a ride on the carousel and then headed to Marble Slab for some dessert.

A beautiful end to a crazy day :)

After we got back and all got cleaned up, we had hot cocoa and settled in for our last night together in the cabin.

Not surprisingly, Graham, Kallen, and Jack crashed pretty quickly. We wore them out!

What a fabulous vacation!! We love having such great friends that we can travel, laugh, and "do life" with. Love them like family! Now, back to the real world at home...we have a house to pack! :)