A Smokey Mountain Christmas!

This year, instead of going back to Wisconsin, I talked my family into coming down here and us going to Gatlinburg for a week. It wasn't very hard since they had so much snow last year and they are supposed to have even more this year!
My family got down here on Friday night, they stayed over at my place and then got a hotel room on Saturday night!
Like I mentioned in a previous blog, Saturday night, I took the family to see the light festival, they really liked that, Santa was still there, unfortunately Mrs. Claus had headed back to the North Pole. Then we went downtown and ate at "Jack's" it's a really good Barb-B-Que place, then I showed them the Music City Walk of Fame and we took a couple of pictures of the kids.




Sunday morning, we headed for Gatlinburg, mom, Katie an I in my car and the rest of the clan in Wade and Amanda's minivan.
It took us about 4 hours to get there and I only got turned around once, not bad considering the Mapquest directions weren't the best.
My parents actually had rented a log cabin in Pigeon Forge and we stayed there the whole week. We went into Gatlinburg two days, but there were so many people that we were happier in Pigeon Forge.

Our Cabin's name was "About Time"

Grandma and Papa's (Mom and Dad) room up in the loft

Wade, Amanda and Kyle's room

We weren't there long and Kyle had all his tractors and the car that I got him out, making himself right at home!

Katie doing a little relaxin'

Our room (Katie and me) We had some really good sweet conversations...I love my Katie-bug!

We kept ourselves busy with endless games of Pool, Air Hockey and Ping Pong. We also visited a local Arcade a couple of times. Man, those games are addicting.

Katie learning how to play pool, Papa giving her some tips

Kyle wanting a turn

It was easier just putting Kyle on the table and making up our own game

Air hockey got a little crazy, the puck was flying everywhere, thankfully no one lost teeth!

One day we went to a little amusement park for kids and went go-carting and played some miniature golf, which ended up being for Wade an Amanda a game of who can hit the others golf ball the farthest!

Amanda in the lead

Wade caught up in the next lap

Dad bringing up the rear

Actually I think Katie and I were bringing up the rear, since we were in a double go-cart, we didn't get a chance to race with the others.

Look at her lookin' all innocent, don't be fooled, there's a lot of mischief in that pretty little face!

Mom in charge of the stroller

Wade and Katie had a blast in the Jacuzzi, it was really cute to see them in their goggles, apparently saving the world, they even had their own encrypted code, it was quite funny!. What a fun dad!

I was taking a picture of Wade through the window, he was trying to convince Amanda to come out into the Jacuzzi, Katie and Wade were up to something!

Kyle loved it when Katie would give him piggy back rides and horse rides

Kyle also loved rides around the cabin in the stroller with Papa

Grandma found out that he loves it when you do "This Little Piggy" on his toes.

And we can't forget snuggling with Papa

We drove through some of the Smokey Mountain National Park and took a couple of pictures. When we got to one high point we got out and tried walking around, but it was so windy we didn't last long, I got a picture of Wade and Katie on some platform trying not to get blown away.

View of downtown Gatlinburg

This was actually coming back to the cabin on Friday afternoon

That is what our cabin looked like from the road

It was really foggy Saturday morning when we were heading back to Nashville.

What a great week with my family. I am so glad that they were up for coming down and that we were just happy to be together, I am truly blessed!

Grand Ole Opry

Tonya an I were able to go to the Grand Ole Opry, which was at the Ryman and we saw Martina McBride, Carrie Underwood, Diamond Rio and others. We had AWESOME seats and Tonya even made an appearance on GAC (they taped the show and you can see Tonya in the crowd on one of the shots).
The first hour (which wasn't taped) they had Diamond Rio, Bill Anderson, Chuck Wicks and Rider's In The Sky. Then the second hour was Julianne Hough (Dancing with the Stars girl), Carrie Underwood and Martina McBride. What a great night!

Tonya on the phone with her mom telling her where we are

Sitting on the Ryman steps

Bill Anderson

Chuck Wicks

Diamond Rio

Marty Roe (lead singer of Diamond Rio)

Rider's In The Sky

Julianne Hough

Martina!!!!

Sing it Carrie!

Ending with all the ladies singing a Christmas song together

Tonya stumbled across the Music City Walk of Fame, I had wondered where that was and here is was just a few yards away from the Country Music Hall of Fame.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

A couple of years ago, Tonya and I had stumbled across this house that has all these lights put up. If I remember correctly, they have 8 acres of land that is covered with lights and all types of things to look at. You drive through this "festival of lights" while listening to Christmas music that is provided by the local radio station. So we go through the wonderful light show every year!This year, we didn't get started till around 8:30pm, we thought they might be closed when we got out there, but they were open till 10pm. I was even able to take my family through this when they came to visit.

As you can see, we aren't the only ones that want to see the lights!

It's kind of hard to see, but there is a reflection of the lights off of the pond in front.

There were live animals in pens on the other side

There is a house in Wisconsin that decorates the tree trunk and then lights only one branch, it used to drive me insane, I always wanted to run into the tree so that they would have to cut down the tree. Yes, I know I have issues!

Yea! It's Santa and Mrs. Claus

Frosty!!!!
He was doing a little break dancing for us, it was great, that Frosty knows how to move!

We decided to go to Brentwood afterwards and go look at the lights on the houses (mansions). The picutres didn't turn out really good for those, but believe me, they went all out and just because they have alot of money, doesn't mean they know how to decorate! I ended up getting home around 11:00pm, it was great!