The whole area is Christmas overload this time of year, which is part of the reason I was so excited for Emily to see it. We left Friday afternoon and picked Emily up a little early from school. She took her shoes and socks off to get comfy, and played on Mick’s iPad most of the way up until we got into the mountains.
Shortly after we put it away, Emily started crying—we thought it was only because it was a little past dinner time, and we knew she was tired, too. We were wrong. We were almost all the way up the mountain, and Emily threw up—we realized then that she was carsick. The roads were so curvy that even I felt a little queasy, but this is the first time she’s ever been carsick, so we just weren’t expecting it. We pulled over and got semi-cleaned up. Luckily, we were at the cabin within 5 minutes, so no one had to ride far after that.
Robbie, Stacy and Zachary had gotten there a little ahead of us and had brought dinner with them, so we ate and got Emily in bed not too far off her schedule.
Saturday morning, we got up and decided to go to Dollywood.
Emily and Zachary were both difficult to stop long enough for a picture :).
We got there an hour before it actually opened, but were still able to go in, and it gave us a good opportunity to take some pictures and check everything out before the crowd started. Emily immediately found a snowman and told us he was ready to "walk away!"
We stopped to eat lunch and were surprised by a visit from Santa! Emily loved him from afar, but wanted nothing to do with him up close!
We found the kids section and spent most of the afternoon there--
we played games, rode rides,
and Emily practiced her dance moves with Uncle Robbie.
Some of the kids' rides had steering wheels and buttons to push to play music, and of course, those were her favorites.
She was completely mesmerized when we went into Santa's Workshop with the enormous toys!
There was a huge white board on this wall with a Christmas picture on it--all Emily had to see was markers, and she was there. She loves to color!
We had a lot of fun at Dollywood, and left just as it started to get dark. We had pizza for dinner at Mellow Mushroom, and we're now convinced we don't even need a sippy cup for Emily when we go out--she just wants milk with a straw like a big girl!
Sunday, we went out for breakfast and then to a store called The Incredible Christmas Place--it really is incredible, but there's so much it's almost intimidating.
We gave Santa one more try since the line wasn't long, but believe it or not, this was our best shot. We do know now that we won't bother with Santa at the mall--Emily was clinging on to me so tightly that I couldn't have put her in his lap if I tried!
We spent the afternoon in downtown Gatlinburg--unfortunately, Robbie, Stacy and Zachary had to leave a little after lunch to get home for work and school on Monday, but we stayed and had a great time. Emily loved the sleigh,
the phone booth,
and the choo choo with a little bell!
We also went to the Ripley's Aquarium,
which we knew she'd love. The walk through tunnel with "big sharks" and "fishies" was very popular,
but not quite as much as the crawl through tunnel in the Penguin Playhouse. Emily must have crawled through the tunnel five times (and she made Daddy go with her at least twice). The penguins were swimming all around her, and she was thrilled!
She had to give a hug before we left.
I thought this was a cute feature outside.
Em is getting so big!
Sadly, on Monday, it was time to head home. We spent about half the day at the outlet mall in Pigeon Forge, taking advantage of some of the great sales! Em's winter wardrobe is now complete--and it's a good thing, because we felt like we had to break every dollar we had for change to ride all the little cars and carousels outside the stores!
We had a terrific long weekend, but it's always nice to come home. Gracie and Bella were starting to get lonely!
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