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!

Ocean Days, Pool Days and Delicious Days

We were thankful for any breaks in the rain and especially thankful if the sun came out.  We made it to the pool every day and we were so happy for that.  Some days we even got to swim multiple times which was better than we expected.  We swam a lot at our Lely neighborhood pool and then headed to the big community pool on the nicest days.  It's the nicest, very large pool set up with a restaurant, bar, poolside menu and multiple pools to swim in.  

I asked this cute couple on their babymoon to take our picture.  My family absolutely grumbled, but I'm so glad to get pictures with all five of us in them.  We met another family from Chicago and we bonded over the fact that the weather is never this tragic in Naples.

One afternoon at the ocean was unusual for an ocean trip, but we made the most of it.  The kids built sand castles, we walked the shoreline looking for shells and Fletcher found some treasures.  We could have gone back one more time, but the ocean was so murky, sand was kind of shelf like and the shells weren't plentiful after that big storm came through.  The ocean is usually clear, gorgeous and tons of shells so we opted to focus our time at the pool instead this trip.

The Miromar outlets are not too far from Naples and they are so nice.  Every store you could ever imagine is there.

Vacationing with a 4 year old is somehow easier and harder.  Easier because there is a lot less baby gear to pack.  Harder because he no longer naps, has big feelings about everything and is exhausted.

See what I mean about amazing flowers!?

There were a handful of people at the big pool and it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.

Kevin surprised me with this swimsuit this season.  He has a way of always picking out the best suits for me.  I love it and wouldn't have picked it out for myself.  Good job, Kev!

We cleaned up and headed to downtown Naples for our favorite dinner of the trip - Tommy Bahama.  Kevin would watch the weather so closely and look for our rain free windows during each day.  We'd zoom out and try to do as much as possible during those times.  The kids made wishes in the fountains.

It's a highlight of any Florida trip.  Best food.  Best service.  Best atmosphere.  We talk about this meal at Tommy Bahama all year long.

4 year olds.  I stopped this sweet family to take our picture and Leo refused to get in or out of the shot.  He insisted on glaring at all of us.  Then was sweet as pie a minute later asking me to take his picture by a cool lion statue.  Four year olds are something else!  This family picture might go down as one of my very favorites ever.

So all this to say, if the weather doesn't cooperate on your vacation, do your best to stay positive and make great memories with your family.  The heavy rain was discouraging at times, but Kevin still managed to find us fun indoor things to do so that we weren't stuck in our condo.  Then we were ready to go in a moment's notice when the sun popped out.  I'm thankful for another trip to the ocean!