Smokies

We're back! Of course, leaving on vacation and having my journal go entryless during the Vivi Awards was NOT the best of timing...but it couldn't be helped. Our first log cabin awaited!

We had a fantastic time, but all the things I THOUGHT we were going to do, never got done. I'll just have to visit Dollywood another time. Ha! What did we do?? We took the kids to play miniature golf the first day and Tyler was totally HOOKED. We ended up taking the kids to play golf every day! Did we play every course in Pigeon Forge? Nope! That place seems to be mini-golf heaven! Every where you turn, there's another course to play.

Some highlights from our trip:

- The cabin was amazing! All that wood! All those windows! Waking up at dawn every day! Oh wait. I am NOT a morning person. Ooops!

- Tyler cheats at mini-golf. Blatantly! He will pick up his ball, walk to the hole and drop it in. Meanwhile, his pal Maddie was playing strictly by the rules. No one touch her ball! She wants to do it herself!

- Tired and hungry children do NOT play nice. We discovered our son has quite a mean streak. I think some more lectures about the evils of bullies are in order.

- After dinner one night, I was approached by a time share hawker (there are a LOT of them trying to sell vacation property in the area). He asked the ages of all my children, including my oldest (my friend Kim). Poor Kim! I guess there are worse things than being mistaken for my teenaged daughter.

- That worse thing came a couple days later when a worker at one of the mini-golf places was attempting to take a souvenir photo of all of us. He said "OK everyone, move over and make room for Grandma!" Grandma?! Who was he talking about? "Squeeze on in here, Grandma!" Oh...my...Lord... He was talking to ME!!!! Grandma?!?!?!?!?!?! Someone get me some hair dye, QUICK!

- John volunteered to baby-sit all the kids while Kim and I had a rare kid-free afternoon. We hit the outlet mall and shopped 'til we were ready to drop. I called John once to check on him. He was doing great! Then Kim and I went out for leisurely dinner. I got to try chicken 'n dumplings for the first time. Yum! John finally called and asked us to come help with bed time. Poor guy was worn out! But he did fine and said he would do it again. That's my guy!

I think that's a good place to stop. Time for some sushi! Want to see more photos from our trip? Visit my Shutterfly album here.