A quick trip to Tennessee

We just got back from a great trip to Tennessee. My Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Mike just moved there from Alaska and my Grandma (who was living in Utah) moved with them. The plan was to have my mom fly over there and spend a week with her sister and since I live so close now ( 605 miles / 10 hours) the girls and I were invited too.  The only problem is that Damian would not let me drive alone with just the girls, so the plan was to have my mom fly into O'Hare and then drive down with us. Then it turned out that my dad has some vacation time that he needed to use so he came too.

We left late Friday night after I picked up my parents from the airport. (I like driving at night because the girl sleep through most of it and don't need as much attention.) We drove all night and arrived at their house in Greenback at about 10:30 a.m. 

Well Kim and Mike just got a new swimming pool and needed a little help testing it out so we were more then happy to help. 

The girls love to swim and would have lived in that pool for the whole week if only their mean mommy would have let them.

Here is Kim showing us how deep the water is. Just over 6 ft at the deepest point.

The next day was Sunday and we did not have anything planned so we just hung out at home swam a bit and went to the Mall for tax free weekend. I guess one weekend a month they have no taxes on clothing and we were lucky enough to be there for that.

On Monday we drove to a town called Gatlinburg which is about a hours drive. Wow, this town was awesome! It reminded me a lot of Jackson Hole, Wy or Park City, Ut.  It had tons of little shops and  plenty of food and entertainment. 

There was also a really neat aquarium with a glass tunnel where sharks, fish, rays, and turtles swim all around you.

 

As you can see by the look on Aniela's face she was not quite sure what to think of it all. She just kept singing fish, fish, fish. 

There was a really cool hands on area where you could touch horseshoe crabs and take your picture as a deep sea diver. There was also a display of shark jaws which was so big that it could have eaten my dad and uncle mike in one bite. 

Areya spent the whole day with her Grandma Great. She had so much fun and loves her great grandma so much. 

When we got home we went for a swim.

Tuesday we went tubbing down the "Little River" in the Smoky Mountains. We kind of got a late start that day and was only able to go down once but it was really fun and took about a hour. We had planned to go on the trip with a little white water but because Areya is not old enough we just floated down the lazy part of the river. 

Aniela had a rough night and Grandma Great was not up for tubbing so they went shopping. 

I was really meaning to get a water proof camera so I could take pictures but that didn't happen so here are some I took before we went home.

You would think that we would've had enough water but I guess not because when we got home we went swimming in the pool again.

On Wednesday we went to a town called Pigeon Forge and rode the go carts. This town has tons of shops but also tons of mini golf courses, go cart tracks, rides and tons of other stuff to enjoy. This town is also home to Dollyworld and Splash Country. For those of you that have never heard of these places (me being one of them) it is an amusement park and water park created by Dolly Patron.  We had planned to go but come to find out it is close to $80 a person, which is a bit out of my price range, so we settled for the go carts.

For some reason the guys sat this one out so it was the girls who ended up going.

Me, Gayle, Kimmy & Areya

  

And of course after a fun filled day we went home and went swimming.

Thursday the girls took another shopping trip to the Mall while the guys went to the pool and lawn mower store. Then when we got home we played badminton, swam and had a great dinner of BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, beans and rice, corn bread and watermelon. It was really good! 

And you guessed it we went swimming.

Friday, sadly was time to pack up and drive home so my parent could catch their flight back home to Utah.   

I woke up with the worse sore neck and back ever and could barely move so my dad had to drive back to Illinois.  We weren't in too big of a hurry so we took our time getting ready to leave.

 Areya, Aniela and Kim had a great time coloring with the sidewalk chalk.

Then it was time to go. We ended up driving through 4 different states.  (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee)

Thank you Kim, Mike  and Grandma for having us. We all had a great time and can't wait to do it again. We love you!