Dollywood

Last week, we hooked up with my best friend Deborah and her husband John, and headed up to the Smoky Mountains for a few days of R&R ... that is, if hoofing it around an amusement park in 90+ degree weather, 100+ percent humidity, and heavy thunderstorms qualifies as R&R.

Our trip might be labeled "Stormy Weather" -- we encountered severe storms on Wednesday night on our way, which was just how we wanted to begin this little mini-vacation -- driving 20 mph on the interstate while thunderstorms and tornado watches swirled around us. We had thunderstorms the next day while we were at Dollywood, heavy rain and storms on Sunday as we toured the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and even a personal storm of sorts on Saturday morning when I fell down the stairs in our cabin and injured myself nicely (in fact, as I type this, I'm waiting for my doctor's office to call back and let me know if my big toe is broken).

Despite all the storms, we had a good time. The first two days were really for Maggie -- we did Dollywood and Splash Country on those days. (No pictures of Splash Country though ... didn't want to take the good camera there.) The next two days were full of shopping, nature, and ... oh, yeah, my fall.

One of Maggie's good friends happened to be at Dollywood the same day as we were there, so we met up briefly and let the girls ride a couple of rides together.

Maggie was tall enough to ride almost all of the rides this year; only the extreme thrill rides were off-limits to her. Here, she and Bobby climb aboard the big swings. As the ride started, I heard Maggie say, "I want to get off!" but when it was over, she raced to get back in line and ride it a second time.

Alicia and Rebekah rode the swings too, and I thought this was a pretty good picture of the four of them on this ride:

Of course, being tall enough to ride these rides didn't necessarily mean she liked riding these rides ... as evidenced by her trip on the bumper cars, where she glared at and shouted, "Stop that!" or "No!" whenever anyone bumped her. (Though I won't say those four words to Bobby, I will say here that I told him I didn't think she'd like the bumper cars.)

As part of KidsFest, Dollywood presented short plays based on three of the books from Dolly's Imagination Library. We weren't interested in seeing all three, but we wanted to be sure and catch one of Maggie's favorite stories, "Llama Llama, Red Pajama."

The play was held inside the Imagination Theater, which had really neat decor inside:

The little llama was a puppet and was voiced by this actress, who did a great job - especially when the little llama throws tantrums. Maggie was laughing and laughing during these parts.

Maggie poses with Mama Llama and her baby after the show.

Mommy and Maggie posing in one of the cheesy "photo spots."

While we were watching "Llama Llama," a huge thunderstorm passed through. We waited for the rain to let up a bit, then made an adventure of running through it to another theater where our friends were waiting for us. Maggie, the world's biggest puddle magnet, wanted to splash, so I let her put on crocs and have at it. I think this was the most fun she had all day.

Soaking wet, she enjoyed sharing (read: dipping her face in) our funnel cake.

Since she was already wet, we let her go to town in this small water-play area. Water squirted from the fence and collected in a small river. Maggie started with good intentions, trying to crawl her way through the water without getting wet, but pretty soon she was soaked to the bone.

As we left the park, Maggie jumped onto this bench and requested, "Mommy, take my picture with these flower guys!" It's a rare day indeed when she wants her picture taken. (Note the change of clothes ... after she got wet in the puddles and wet playing at the water fence, she and I engaged in a water gun battle with several older boys in another water play area. I was shocked at her fearlessness and determination in barking out orders: "Shoot him, Mommy! Block me! Over here!" For a kid who usually doesn't like getting her face splashed, she was right in the thick of things, battling it out with the older kids.)

Tomorrow, I'll share some of our pictures from our motor tour of the national park. We had hoped to do a simple family hike, but my toe issues prevented that from happening, and it was just as well since it poured down rain for half the day.
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Update: I've put more pictures into a Shutterfly album -- you can check them out by clicking on "Our family photo albums" in the "Favorite Links" section on the right. Oh, and my toe is in fact broken. I go see an orthopedic podiatrist in the morning.