Weekend fun

This past weekend, we went with our friends the Wilsons to Pigeon Forge. We rented a cabin together and took the kids to Dollywood and Splash Country. We left bright and early Friday morning (we met at the Ooltewah Hardee's at 7 a.m. ... can you believe it?!?) and though it seemed at times we'd never get there, we eventually did, and the trip was a rousing success. Allow me to explain ...

Back in June, when we went to South Carolina to see my parents for Father's Day, our portable DVD player started acting weird, not reading certain discs and skipping/freezing a lot. When we put the same discs in our home player, they were fine. Bobby checked out the player very thoroughly before we left for PF and even cleaned the laser, and for about eight miles it seemed to be working. But when it froze mid-movie and wouldn't read any more discs, we were unable to bring it back to life. After our breakfast, we ran across the street into WalMart to see about getting a new one, but they didn't have one Bobby liked, so now we'll be shopping around for another.

Then, just before Knoxville, the Wilsons' neighbor called; he was supposed to be letting the dogs out and feeding them, and they'd left him with a key. But they had new storm doors installed a couple of weeks ago, and they forgot and locked the storm doors too! So the neighbor had no way of getting in the house. They called a locksmith, who needed all sorts of authorization faxed before he could try to "break in" to the storm door, so we stopped in K'ville at a bank and begged to use their fax machine. The bank folks were nice, and after another 20 min. delay, we were back on our way.

We went to Splash Country on Friday, and even though we didn't get there until lunchtime, we were able to do a lot of things. Maggie had so much more fun this year than last (and it's not like she had a bad time last year). She wasn't as timid this year and had more fun playing in the kiddie areas, even running through some of the things that rain water down on your head, a huge milestone since last year she wouldn't go near them. She also had a lotmore fun on some of the bigger rides we all rode together. But then again, she had just as much fun floating in her life jacket on the lazy river and "swimming" in it and in the big pool.

Saturday was Dollywood. It was fun too, though we didn't even go to over half of the park. I think you could definitely spend two days there, esp. with a little one. We stayed mainly in the kiddie area. Maggie did ride the whitewater raft type ride; sometimes you get really wet and sometimes not so much. I didn't want to be wet, so I stayed with baby Cason while the others rode it. Maggie said it was her favorite ride, and that the best part was Daddy getting stuck under a waterfall! They were both pretty wet when they got off; I had a change of clothes for Maggie, but poor Bob had to stay wet for a long time! He wasn't feeling well on Saturday; he got nauseous on the spinning teacups ride (which they had to stop mid-ride b/c Maggie had climbed into Bob's lap -- a no-no) and then walking around in the heat made it worse.

Right now it's KidsFest at Dollywood, so we were able to see a VeggieTales show, followed by another live show starring the Kratt brothers, stars of the PBS Kids show Zoboomafoo. (And Bobby felt better after sitting in the a/c for a while.) Their show was neat -- we got to see a real zebra, kangaroo, two huge snakes, a porcupine, a beaver, and one other that I'd never heard of. Maggie said she liked this one better than VeggieTales. She also got to drive on the old-timey car ride; she loved that!

Yesterday, we spent most of the day shopping at the Five Oaks outlet mall. This is the best place if you have kids -- they have outlets for Gymboree, Stride Rite, Children's Place, Heartstrings, Baby Gap, Carter's, Strasburg, and more! I was able to get some good deals on summer clothes for Maggie for next year, as well as a few fall things. On the way home, we stopped in Knoxville and met up with my friends Kirby, Leslie, and Haifa (and their significant others) for dinner. It was so great to see them; it's been a long time since we were all together. We didn't get in until 10:30 last night!!

The cabin we'd rented had three bedrooms; initially we planned to put Maggie and Meghan in a room together, and both girls were thrilled with this idea. Well, on Friday night poor Meghan was so wiped out she couldn't even stay awake during dinner, so she slept alone that night while Maggie stayed in our room. On Saturday night, it was Maggie's turn. She fell asleep on the way to pick up pizza, so we just carried her into bed and she slept through the night. So much for the girls' mini slumber party!!

I'll work on getting some pictures up soon!