Weekend Fun

We decided to continue Audrey's birthday celebration and make a quick trip over to TN for the weekend. We purchased season passes to Dollywood last Thanksgiving when we were there and wanted to see if it was possible to drive over and back in one weekend, without being too exhausted. We drove to TN Friday after Chip got off work and got to our hotel about 11pm. It's funny to me that now I think a 6 hours drive is so short. One quick stop for dinner and gas and then we were there. After years of taking those 13 hour trips to FL, 6 hours is GREAT! The kids do great in the car. Between eating, watching movies, and listening to their favorite CDs, they do fine. The only problem with the drive was that we didn't get to sleep until about midnight. Which is about 2 hours late for Audrey, who didn't nap in the car. Andrew slept for a couple of hours after dinner. I laid down in the bed with her and she just had the giggles. Here we all four are in one room trying to fall asleep without any white noise (oops, I forgot the travel fan!) and she couldn't stop laughing. It would get really quite and then she would just scream out some random sound and crack up. Of course, Andrew found this quite amusing. I finally had to sit with her on the couch until she calmed down and fell asleep. We spent most of Saturday at Dollywood. We really like it there. They have a lot of rides for the little kids and they have great shows for them too. It wasn't too crowded but it was hot. I'm thinking I couldn't do it any later in the summer. After an early bedtime Saturday night, we decided to go back to Dollywood Sunday morning to ride a few more things that we didn't have a chance to on Saturday. After that we picked up lunch and drove back. It wasn't too bad. I think Chip and I were more exhausted last night than the kids.

The first ride of the day. It doesn't go up too high and only drops them a little at a time, so the little kids can ride it. Audrey liked it but it scared her at first, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

They saw several characters in the park.

Ready for fun!

Riding the scrambler...this was his favorite ride! It was fun, but didn't compare to the old snowman at Miracle Strip...in my opinion!

One of her favorite rides...driving the cars.

Watching a magic show.

Ready for the train ride.

We sat up close to the engine this trip and the whistle was really loud. Every time it blew it would scare Audrey and she held on to Andrew's leg.

We were up for a walk at the seminary the other day and I took a few pictures of the kids. Andrew is showing off his muscles in his new sleeveless shirt he picked out recently. The first one of Audrey is what she did when I asked her to sit on a bench for a picture. Can we say "attitude". When we got to the gazebo she climbed up on the seat and said "time for pictures".