Last Day of Dollywood

Last day at Dollywood is ride until you drop. We started at 1100 and the kids gave up at 1830. Meredith even talked Grandma into riding the Shooting Star.

The kids had a pizza party with Grandma, Grumps and Uncle Roger after we returned to the condo. Everyone was tired enough to skip the pool.

Time to pack the crew up and head back home.

Water day at Dollywood

Thursday was the hottest day of the week, so we made that water day. Everyone wears their swimsuit and the kids can ride water rides all day.

We started off with Grumps at the River Rampage raft ride. A couple of turns on Daredevil Falls and Slidewinder, and finished the water rides with Grumps on the River Battle ride. The kids returned to County Fair area to burn themselves out. Eight hours at Dollywood seems like work.

A day in the Smoky Mountains

Took a day off from Dollywood yesterday to go to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We started out in the line of cars heading in in on 441, ditched that idea right away and headed out across the back roads. I don't know if we saved any time, but we were moving.

The first stop was the Sugarland Trail. Mindy picked up a book of scavenger hunts in the Smoky Mountains, and that seemed like a good one to try on the kids. The photo is creek side from that trail.

Afterwards, we drove the 20 miles over to Clingman's Dome. The boys and I walked up without incident. Mindy thinks its steeper than last time, I thought it was an easier walk, but I didn't have a kid in a backpack this time. The walk did wear the boys down though, they both had a nap on the drive to Ogle's Farm.

We finished the day in park with a scavenger hunt at Ogle's farm. There's plenty of creek crossings, so we should have packed some creek shoes for the kids. Due to wet feet we ended up having a drive through McDonald's dinner. Shoes when out on the balcony to dry while the kids went back into the lazy river and pool at the resort.

Dollywood 2009 family photo at the front Picture Spot. It was hot again today. The park had lots more people today without the rain. The kids thought the lines were going to be short like yesterday, but they had plenty of rides anyway.

Dinner was at Mel's Diner, followed by three hours of swimming.

A Day at Dollywood

The rain early in the day drove us to the pool instead of the park. But the kids finally had an opportunity to ride in the afternoon. Meredith and Nate rode the Shooting Star just before the rain closed the rides for a bit. They're on the left. We only had about four hours there today, but the kids managed to ride their favorites.

After the park, we cooled off in the lazy river for a couple of hours. Dinner was take-out from Taco Bell. I'm up waiting for that to settle down.

Looks like it was fun day at work too. Probably the busiest day ever for the website. Nagios kept me up to date with the slowness of the websites. If it weren't for the kids, vacations with SMS alerts would suck.

Florida 2008 - Indian Rocks Beach

We were lucky enough to have good beach weather on Monday. We ran down US 19 to Clearwater, only to find that all of the parking lots were full. We followed the causeway a bit farther to Indian Rocks Beach. The kids were glad that we found a less crowed beach where we weren't shoulder to shoulder with everyone else. Tried some belly surfing as the tide came in, Meredith is starting to get the hang of it.

Florida 2008 - Swimming into the sunset.

The after dinner swim means we get to watch the sun set as we enjoy a 84 degree swim.