Dollywood

As you all probably know, Brian and I are huge theme park/roller coaster people, so we couldn't possibly visit the Smoky Mountain area without spending a day at Dollywood. Dolly Parton is from the Smoky Mountain area and this park is named in her honor. She visits the park every year to open new attractions and to perform, but she was not there when we were. Brian and I have been to many theme parks, and we were both impressed with Dollywood. It had a nice "country" feel to it. The park seemed to really make an effort to showcase the traditional lifestyle of the region. In addition to the rides and shows, there were shops that you could visit to watch craftsmen work in the traditional trades of the region (like blacksmithing, leather tanning, glass blowing, etc.). With so many things to see and do, it was not difficult to spend a whole day in the park...and that's exactly what we did.



















We arrived shortly after the park opening, and we left when the park closed. It made for a long day, but the kids loved it. They rode several of the kiddie rides. Olivia was even tall enough to get on the kiddie roller coaster! That brings Olivia's coaster count to 3. One of the kids' favorite rides was the little cars because they got to "drive". The cars were on a little track, so the kids really couldn't drive off that far. Even Owen got to sit behind the wheel. Other things that the kids liked were the large playground area and the children's ropes course. We spent a lot of time at these two attractions.

Although Brian and I were not able to do all of the adult attractions, we did make it a point to hit the one that really mattered. Of course, I'm talking about Thunderhead- former winner of the Golden Ticket Award for "Best Wooden Coaster" and currently ranked #5 wooden coaster in the world. We both got to ride it once, but we didn't get to ride it together. Bummer. The good news is that Olivia is that currently 39" and Owen is 33" tall. The height requirement for most coasters is 48", so it won't be too long before we'll all be riding together.

Gatlinburg

While on vacation, we spent most of our days in the towns of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. These two towns lie outside of the Smoky Mountain National Park, and they are major tourist destinations. Our country may be in a recession, but you would never know it if you judged the economy by how many people were in these two towns last week. While I personally prefer towns that are less "touristy"and more quaint, for a trip with kids these towns offered plenty to do. There were tons of activities- putt putt, laser tag, go-kart tracks, fun houses, wax museums, Ripley's attractions, etc... Our plan was to visit each town, walk around, and basically just do whatever we felt like doing.

The first town on our list was Gatlinburg, and we spent the second day of our vacation exploring this town. In Gatlinburg all of the attractions are really close together, so you park your car in a pay parking lot and walk to everything. One of the first things that we spotted while walking down the sidewalk was a putt putt course. Brian wanted to do this, so we did. The kids had never played putt putt before, and it was a lot of fun for them. Olivia really liked it- so much so that we ended up playing another round on our last night of vacation. Unlike her brother, Olivia really tried to hit the ball using the club, and she did pretty well. Owen was not so patient, and he usually ended up kicking the ball or picking it up with his hand and placing it in the hole.

After our putt putt game, we grabbed a bite to eat at a bar-b-que place and then headed to Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. Viewing marine life is always a hit with our kids, and this was no exception. The kids spent a lot of time looking at the fish. The sharks and sea turtles were some of their favorites. As far as my review of the aquarium goes, I thought that it was just okay- not bad, but it can't touch the aquariums in Atlanta or Chattanooga. I will say that I was impressed by the super-long glass tunnel that you could walk through to view the fish. I've seen tunnels in aquariums before, but none that were as long as this one. After spending an hour or two in the aquarium, the kids were really tired, so we headed back to our cabin for a much-needed nap.

We returned to Gatlinburg after napping to visit the Ober Gatlinburg Ski Resort and Amusement Park. Of course no skiiing was going on, but there were plenty of other things to do. To get to Ober Gatlinburg, we had to take a tram. The kids loved this. They were tall enough to see out of the window of the tram- so they just stood there and stared during the entire ride up. Once we got to the Ober Gatlinburg resort area, we decided to do the alpine slide- which was kind of like a sled on wheels that went downhill on a track. To get to the top of the slide, we had to take a chair lift. I was nervous about having the kids on a chair lift (that's why I made Brian ride with Owen- he squirms more). Once we got to the top, we got on our sled thing and got ready to go. There were two tracks, so Owen rode with Brian on one track while Olivia rode with me on the other. Even though we all started at the same time, Brian and Owen finished nearly a whole minute before Olivia and I did. The alpine slide was really fun and if we had had more time, we would have done it a second time. It was getting late, though, so we headed back to the cabin. This ended day two. At the bottom of the post I have put a video of Olivia's "victory dance". She did this dance after doing really well on a hole in putt putt. All I can say is that she gets her moves from her mama :)

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

We have just returned from our spring break trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We had such a wonderful time, and I will be doing a series of posts detailing all of the fun things that we did on our vacation. Our trip began last Monday as we made the long drive from Blackshear to the Wears Valley area (located just outside of the national park) where we had rented a cabin for the week. The already long drive was made even longer by poor little Owen who got car sick and threw up twice within the first two hours of the drive. After that, though, he felt better and did not get sick any more that day (he did get sick again twice on the way home). Other than Owen getting sick, the kids were excellent in the car. They did not whine or complain at all.


We arrived in Cherokee, NC in the late afternoon and then crossed the Smokies into Tennessee via the Newfound Gap Road. This is a scenic drive that runs through the heart of the national park. It took us quite a long time to drive this road from one side to the other because we got so distracted by the scenery. We stopped and got out of the car four or five times so that we could take in the beauty of the area. This road had it all- mountain vistas, roadside streams, waterfalls, and various types of woodland areas. The kids were in awe because they had never seen terrain like this before.

We were almost finished with the drive through the national park when we spotted a large number of cars parked along the side of the road and people outside of those cars looking into the woods and taking pictures. There was no spectacular view, so we wondered what all of the commotion was about. We got out, and then we saw them- two bear cubs! According to the other bystanders, the mother bear was down in the forest, too, but we didn't see her. I couldn't believe it- we hadn't even made it to our cabin yet, and we had already seen wild bears! At that moment, I knew that we were going to have an awesome vacation.

Easter 2010

Here are some pictures from Easter this year. I think that this has been the best and busiest Easter ever. Participating in the Passion Play really kept us moving and got us into the true spirit of the holiday- although we did have fun hunting eggs and doing all of the other fun holiday things, too.

On Easter morning the kids woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had filled their baskets with all kinds of goodies. Both kids received candy, DVDs (buy 1 get 1 at Toys R Us), and a few other things. The Easter Bunny also hid eggs in their rooms for the kids to find. They really liked searching for the eggs. After breakfast, we put on our new clothes and went to Sunday school and church. Like always, the cross in front of our church was decorated with greenery and fresh flowers to honor the occasion.

Following the church service, we went to Granny Buie's house to eat lunch and hunt eggs. The egg hunts get more and more interesting every year as the number of "hunters" gets larger. This year the eggs were hid in two sections- one section for Ava and Olivia and the other section for Claire, Owen, and Natalie. The "baby" section had eggs hidden in obvious places like under a leaf or behind a pinecone. The eggs were much more difficult to find in the Ava/Olivia section. All of the kids had a ball hunting the eggs and were excited to find out that some of them contained coins. It was a very nice Easter, and I think it will be interesting to see what happens next year when Audrey is able to hunt eggs, too. We are definitely going to have to invest in some more plastic eggs.

Passion Play

Our church presented a passion play this year, which is something that we haven't done since I was in high school. Brian, Olivia, and I were all cast members. I'm not going to lie- when we heard that they were looking for people to be in the play, we were not the ones jumping up and down saying "me, me, me". I don't think anyone else did either. That's why we- like the majority of the people who ended up in the play- were "drafted". Getting ready for the play was a lot of work. We would practice for hours two to three times a week. At times it was very tiring. All this being said, we are so very glad that we participated. This experience has had a big impact on both Brian and myself, and it seems to have had the same impact on the other "draftees". Our church seems to really be moving in a positive direction, and it is really great to see all of this happen. Anyway, we preformed the play three times this past week. Brian did a great job of acting- I never knew that I was married to such a thespian. He started out as just a regular disciple, but his part kept getting bigger and bigger. It seemed like every time he came home from rehearsal, he had more lines and scenes. In the end, he played the role of the apostle John. If you can't tell, he is the one seated at Jesus's right hand during the last supper. Olivia had a brief role as one of the children. Her job was to march in waving palm branches and shouting "Hosanna" and then to act up so that the disciples could get on to all of the kids. Acting up: the role that she was born to play. The children also had a song that they sang, and Olivia did well with that. My official role was a "mother" to the children (but really I was just suppose to herd the children to wherever they needed to be next). Like I said earlier, we really got a lot out of this experience. I think if they do this again next year, they will have lots of voluteers. I know that we'll be on board!

Swamp Run 2010

For the second year in a row, our family participated in the Okefenokee Track Club's Swamp Run. The run was held this morning at Laura Walker State Park. Like last year, I competed in the 10K and Olivia did the 1 mile fun run. Owen made his running debut this year and competed in the fun run with his sister. This is a great race for families because it is in a state park (playground equipment) and because there is a pancake breakfast for all participants after the race. The 10K race was first. I really like this course because part of it goes onto the trails of the state park. I have come to like cross-country and trail running and I'm thinking of trying to do more races that have those elements in them. Anyway, I finished with a time of 54:42. This beats my previous 10K time of 58:25. The picture above was taken as I approached the finish line. I took my headphones off because I saw Brian and the kids cheering for me. That was just the motivation I needed to give the final push to the end. My time was good enough to give me a first place finish in my age group (and, yes, there were other people in my age group- so I didn't win by default). I received a pretty decent-sized trophy which was immediately commandeered by Olivia and will probably find a permanent home in her room.



After the 10K race was over, it was time for the 1-mile fun run to begin. Both Owen and Olivia were competing. Well, I don't know if "competing" is the right word here, maybe I should say "participating". Olivia was super-excited about running in this race. She has been "practicing" for about two weeks now. In case you're wondering, "practicing" consists of putting on her new running shoes (given to her by Granny Mel), running up and down the hall, and having me give her one of my old medals at the end. All of that practice paid off today because she did really well. During the fun run, Brian ran with Olivia, and I ran with Owen. Once the horn sounded, Brian and Olivia were off, and I didn't see them again until Owen and I finished. So, all of the details that I have of Olivia's race come from Brian. He says that Olivia did a great job and actually ran most of the mile. She only stopped a few times to walk, and then she started running again. Right before they got to the end, Brian told her to run hard to the finish. She did and was rewarded with a medal for completing the race.

Owen's race almost ended before it even got started. Gigi had come to watch the kids run. Once the horn sounded, Owen started running...toward Gigi. I managed to get him back on the road, he took a few quick steps, and then made a bee-line for Gigi again. Gigi had to end up hiding so that Owen would begin the race. Once he got started, he actually did pretty well. I took a stroller with us so that he could get in it when he got tired, but he never got in. Every few minutes I would say, "Owen, do you want to get in the stroller?". He would say no and begin running with renewed vigor as if the mere suggestion of the stroller offended him. Although he tried really hard, his little legs just couldn't keep up with everyone else. We were way behind. As you can probably guess, a member of the Sanders Famiy finished dead last in the 1 mile run for the second year in a row. I hope this doesn't become a tradition. Even though he was last, this was a big accomplishment for Owen. He got lots of cheers when he crossed the finish line. I guess Olivia didn't realize that Owen would get his own medal because she ran up to him and tried to give him hers. Needless to say, the kids were exhausted after the race and fell asleep quickly. This was a great morning, and I'm so glad that the kids had a good time.

Owen's 2nd Birthday Party

I can't believe that my baby is almost two years old! Although his actual birthday is tomorrow, we celebrated Owen's second birthday today with a "Diego" party at our house. The party was well attended and lots of fun. It began with lunch (fried chicken) at noon. After eating, we sang to Owen and had cake and ice cream. I don't think that Owen realized that it was his special day, but he was definitely excited about the cake. He kept trying to reach out and grab it. We only put it close to him when it was time to blow out the candle. This preventative measure was not 100% effective, though (note that he is licking his hand in this picture).

After cake and ice cream, it was present time- and it was slow going with the presents. Owen appeared to be unimpressed with the whole "opening present" thing and he kept running off. It took him a little while to catch on, but eventually he began getting interested and started opening the presents for himself. He received lots of nice gifts, including some clothes (which he desperately needed), toy animals, and hot wheels. After all of the gifts were opened, we all headed outside to the carport for one final gift- a toy train table. This was the big gift that Brian and I got him, and it was a hit. The kids spent the rest of the party playing outside. Brian had inflated the bouncy house and put out the t-ball, golf, and basketball toys- so the kids had lots of neat things to do. The party was fun- maybe a little too much fun. Olivia now has "party fever" and has been telling me- repeatedly and in great detail- what kind of party she wants for her next birthday (and it's in October!). Oh boy, here we go again.