We're back!
We rolled back into Cincinnati near 2:00pm this afternoon. Cranky baby and all. He definitely wasn't cranky the whole time - just the drive home:)
It was truly a perfect first vacation getaway for our family. It was close enough (5 hours) so that we weren't couped up in a car all day, and far enough so that we felt we actually went somewhere.
The trip taught us a couple things.
1. When planning our next trip, we may want to look into a condo/house/beach house. (Dan and I thought we were pretty "set" on our summer vacation, but, may change plans a bit after our first vacay experience.
2. NO longer then 5 hours TOPS in a car/plane. Sorry, momma can only take so much "how much is that doggie in the window. WOOF WOOF". Yes, my child needed to be entertained in the car ride. I love him to death, but I had to have a baggy in the back of the car with me "just in case".
We left for Gatlinburg Friday afternoon (12:30pm) and made it in at around 6:30. Traffic getting into Gatlinburg was a little crazy Friday evening, which we knew might happen.
G did great on the car ride TO Gatlinburg. We stopped one time for G to eat and for Dan to conduct a conference call meeting. Yep. Dan scheduled a conference call in the middle of our trip. LOVE-LY. It's all good, G only screamed AHHHH once. :P
Oh yea. He screams now. Not a lot, just enough for someone to look at him. Like he doesn't get enough attention??!!
Anywho. At roughly 6:30ish..we arrived at our cabin. And what do you know? We actually had a wonderful mountainous view. Just like the website said!
The View from our back porch. Just Perfect!
We went grocery shopping Friday night to get our food for the weekend, and hung inside the cabin for the remainder of the evening with the little dude.
Saturday morning we woke up to sunny skies. WOO HOO! We packed up and prepared for our hike!
Strapping G in! He looks so excited......
My favorite picture - my boys hiking
Family picture at the falls
And I just realize that there's a pic missing of G falling asleep on Dan's back! I will make that a seperate post maybe....:)
The hike wasn't very long - 3 miles. It was a lot easier then we anticipated, but, was a good starter considering we had never done this with G before. He LOVED every minute of it. It was so awesome to see his little eyes dart around everywhere.
After the hike, we took a drive up to a "lookout" point.
After the lookout, we decided to go back to the Cabin to re-group, see if G would take a nap.
Momma, I don't take naps when we're having fun. Nope. Not me.
Dad Love.
After about 1.5hrs back at the cabin, we packed it up again..and headed to downtown Gatlinburg! Such a crazy little area.
There were TONS of people downtown. We stolled G around, but almost wish we backpacked him. Dan and I could barely walk together. It was fun to just walk the downtown area, though. Lots to see, for sure!
After we had walked around most of the area, we stopped in at the Aquarium.
He KIND of payed attention...:)
It was time for home after the Aquarium. We had one tired 6 month old, and two tired adults.
Sunday we woke bright and early...to Skype with Daddy and Nonna! Ha. Can't break a Skype date:)
After we got ready, we headed off the the outlets! Yey for bargain shopping!
Oh just a regular Sunday morning, eating my toes...
Dad playin' in the back seat with G
Momma Love
Are we home yet....??!!
So. In un-brilliant nature, Dan and I decided to drive to Cades Cove. It's a scenic drive..blah blah blah. Actually, it really is quite beautiful. There was ONE TEENY DETAIL we forgot. The speed limit is 20mph. And it's one way. Which means if someone is going 5 MILES an hour..your stuck behind that person for quite some time. Now, if you want to go 5 miles an hour, you can! Your supposed to pull off to the side of the road so that those of us who don't really need to mosey on..can pass! Nope. This fella did no such thing. Needless to say, it took much longer then expected to drive to Cades Code. Lesson learned.
We made it back to the Cabin around dinner time...Snuggled with the little dude, read books, and put him to bed.
I super hate this pic of me, BUT, it's honestly how I read to him. If you sit him down, he's just constantly lurching for the book. This way, he's forced to just look up.
Dan and I got some relaxation in Sunday night. We watched a movie and just vegged out for a couple hours.
Monday, we left the cabin at 8:30 for the LONNNNG drive home. Usually G passes out when he's in a car. Today, not so much. He decided to fight his nap pretty hard. SO hard. Even though it was tiring, I'm kind of glad that it happened. It kind of put a time stamp on how long we want to be stuck in a car with G at a time. Granted, we've done the trip from CT to Ohio in one day, just not so sure we want to make the a viable option too often.
To top it all off - pics at home
It was a great vacation. Minus the crazy drives. So great, that Dan said Saturday was one of the best days he's had. Ever.
We can't wait for our next trip, and are already looking at options for the summer and in between. We were a little spoiled having a full cabin to ourselves for this vacation, and are now wondering if staying in a hotel room wouldn't quite work with the little guy. (we try to have him in bed at 7:00pm every night, so if we're in a hotel room, how do we put him to bed and not go to sleep ourselves?)
We didn't really think of that when we were planning our summer vacation. It sounds easy enough to just stay in a hotel room, but it would be nice if Dan and I could really have our own time without "tip toeing" around a hotel room, ect. Things to thing about.
I hope everyone had a great weekend!
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