Activities in Pigeon Forge TN

We found lots of fun things to do in Tennessee!

Buc-ees!  The kids found souvenirs, I got a puppet for my classroom and we ate some delicious food.  Don't miss out on their homemade desserts.  The banana pudding is SO GOOD.

We tried something new this trip.  We had a Publix nearby and since we don't have them in the Midwest, we decided to shop the grocery store for lunches inead of going out to eat.  They had tons of good food options.  We tried salads, new fruit, some frozen meals and snacks.  It ended up being cheaper than going out to eat.  We all enjoyed shopping the store and eating exactly what we wanted to do for lunches.

If Leo saw a character, he insisted on getting his picture taken one.  Too bad he felt the opposite about family pictures.  He hate that.

Kevin got us tickets to the Paula Deen lumberjack dinner show!  We enjoyed the actual lumberjack show, but the whole experience was odd.  Our tickets were for 5pm.  We arrived at 4:45pm where they told us we had ten minutes left to grab some dinner before the show.  It wasn't clear that we were supposed to arrive an hour before our ticket time to eat dinner.  We scrambled to get dinner from the buffet.  None of the employees seem to know the right answers and were kind of rude.  We walked all over the place with plates full of food and drinks trying to find the entrance.  So it was hard to eat dinner in a stadium setting.  Leo basically didn't eat.  I wish we could have just purchased tickets for the show and skipped the dinner.  The Paula Deen name on the meal made us think we were going to be eating extra delicious food, but it was not so great.

The show was entertaining and fun.  We wouldn't go back, but we did enjoy it once.  Just beware that you need arrive an hour before your ticket time if you want to eat dinner before the show.

The outlet mall is HUGE.  It has every store you could ever want and you could spend the day there with the restaurants and shopping options.  The boys did not want to do that so we shopped fast.

Lots of distilleries to sample and eat at.  Kevin loved it!

Another character and the exact photo he asked me to take.  Mellow Mushroom is so good!  I was thankful to land here for dinner after a bummer of a dinner the night before.

We tried a new restaurant - Muchacho Alegre!  It was yummy!  We loved the quesadillas, guac, chips and salsa, chicken dishes and Kevin got the Molcajete.  It was a HUGE lava rock bowl filled with 5 meats, veggies and sides.  It was amazing, but it could have easily fed our whole family.  Be sure to share that one.

Thanks for a great trip, Tennessee!

Spring Break: Wilderness at the Smokies, TN

We headed south for Spring Break this year in the hopes of finding fun a little closer to home.  Joke was on us because the 5.5 hour drive from IN to TN took us closer to 8 hours each way.  Darn traffic, accidents and lane closures.  The good news is that we stopped at almost every Buc-ees along the way to make the trip a little more enjoyable.  We're huge fans.  I know they are crowded, but it is the yummiest gas station food around with the cleanest restrooms ever.

We came to Wilderness at the Smokies several years ago and liked it enough to return.  There is so much to do in the Pigeon Forge area.  We've still got a long list of things we'd liked to see and do for our next visit.  We tried a mix of new things and favorite things from our last trip.

We were excited for the upgrades that Wilderness Resort had done - roof top pool, fire pits, new lazy river, new slides, cabanas and new indoor water play structures for the younger kids.

The highlights of our trip were:

PS There were definitely lows and hard moments, but those aren't as fun to document :)  Just know there were kids up at midnight, car sickness, scary drives through the HILLS of TN that seemed right out of a horror film and excursions that didn't quite pan out.

Kevin surprised us and rent a cabana for us for the day.  It was so nice to have a cozy spot to relax, order food, eat and watch March Madness.  I was taking his picture with the kids and a sweet lady told me to hop in the picture while she took our whole family picture.

They had a new roof top pool that was so cool!  There is a roof top restaurant, fire pits, cabanas and this fun pool.  The views were amazing.  The boys loved the helicopters that fly over for tours.  Leo couldn't touch so I was glad he had his puddle jumper.

Cabana life suits him.

And them.  The food was yummy, too.  We all enjoyed the new lazy river, big kids loved the slides, Fletcher and Kevin really enjoyed the wave rider/surf attraction, wave pool and hot tub.

Now that Leo is five he wants money to play the arcade games.  Gone are the days of him happily just pretending to play them.

The weather was so nice in late March in TN.  We loved sitting on that patio.

The kids found a rainbow for me.

The firepits that overlooked the golf course were really fun.  We sat out there and played games, watched golfers come in and explored the property.  It's a pretty place!

A few more trips to the water park.  They added this big new play structure since we were there last.  Leo could have spent the day there doing the slides, shooting water guns and playing.

See Leo up top trying to shoot us?

It took two poeple to keep tabs on him.

Sunset strolls around the property were so fun.

And the kids LOVED the new robot vaccums.  They had the best time keeping tabs on it during our stay.

Check back on Wednesday for some of the fun things we did around Pigeon Forge!

Happy Friday

Happy Friday, friends!  I hope you've had a nice week.  I'm off toay on a field trip adventure with Fletcher.  The best parts of our week were:

1. Dollar Tree Haul!  Olive loves a good run through Dollar Tree.  She found a scrunchie for her Crocs.  And we both found some new lip products.  She loved the gloss.  I loved the juicy cherry lipstick.  It's really long lasting and the color is so pretty.  I was shocked and will be repurchsing.

2. HomeGoods is my favorite.  We have some fun events coming up this Spring.  Graduations.  Birthdays and more.  Collect it when you find it at HomeGoods because the cute stuff goes fast.

3. Kindergarten is so much fun!!  I'm working on a really cool end of the year project.  Stay tuned.

4. We braved Costco the day before Easter (wouldn't recommend that) and tried the famous hot dog.  We kept laughing becuase it was HUGE.  It was tasty.  The bun was amazing.  I think we all just prefer a more well done hot dog.

5. Date night on a week night. Yay!  I helped Kevin with some work stuff.  We grabbed dinner at our favorite spot and then we stopped by the grocery store.  Practical + fun.

6. My mom made me the yummiest chicken salad this week.  I'd 10/10 recommend having your mom make your lunches when you are an adult.

7. Mr. Mittens is the cutest.  He's a rascal, but we all love him.

8. Give me a bracelet stack always and forever.  They are my favorite souvenir when we travel.  I got this set from a boutique in Wisconsin.

9. I joined a book club!  My neighbor friends invited me and I'm doing it.  We had a delicious dinner on the patio and picked our first book to read.

10. We had chapel this week and I love seeing Leo with his class.  He's so excited to see me.  We do our chapel service with him looking over smiling and flashing me the love you sign.  I got assigned the closing prayer role this month.  I'm not used to praying for a large crowd so I had to step out of my comfort zone.  It went great.  I can't believe we only have 18 days of school left.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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