Last Monday Aaron was told that he was going to have a long weekend Fri-Sun. We have been wanting to get away for the weekend since we moved here, but have never been able to go for one reason or another. We decided that with Aaron leaving for training overseas there was no time like the present. We decided to go to Gatlinburg, TN which is about a 4 hour drive from us. Gatlinburg is located south of Knoxville in the Smokey Mountains. We decided to leave Thursday night so we could have two entire days to spend up there. The drive went smoothly, Jack was happy or sleeping the entire time. The only hiccup we had was feeding him dinner in Cookville. Lets just say that sweet potatoes were EVERYWHERE!!!!
Jackson slept so well in the car that by the time we got to the hotel and unpacked he was wide awake. Luckily we had a wonderful high speed internet connection and Netflix has Backyardagins!! Jackson was shrieking and giggling the entire time we settled in to the room. Before we went to bed we planned out our first day. We decided to go to Ripley's Aquarium, Ober Gatlinburg (gondola ride to the top of the mountain), then dinner somewhere and Ripley's Mirror Maze. For a vacation it seemed like a super busy day, but we figured to take it an attraction at a time.
The Aquarium was amazing!! The 90% military discount didn't hurt either. Aaron and I were like kids in a candy store looking at everything. Jackson was also fascinated by all of the bright colors. They had everything from Sharks to Jellyfish, indoor waterfalls to penguins! We spent about 3 hours there and didn't even see everything. Jackson's favorite part was the penguins. Now, he did sleep through the moving sidewalk through the shark tank, but I'm sure he would of picked penguins anyway. There was a tunnel that you could crawl through to get to a pop-up in the penguin "tank". Aaron army crawled it with J in his arms. When they popped up Jackson was nothing but smiles!
After the Aquarium we took the gondola up to the top of the mountain and had lunch by the ice rink. There were some fun things to do up there, but not many with Jackson. So, we let him play on a little playground. We took turns going down the slide. Then we let him play on the ground for a bit. Dirt and woodchips were SUPER interesting to him. Of course the first thing he tried to do was put it in his mouth. We managed to get some cute pictures in before I had enough of "catching him in the act".
After Riding the carousel we went back to the hotel for a nap. For dinner we explored Bubba Gumps (which is delicious) and then went to Ripley's Mirror Maze! We ended the night enjoying some caramel covered popcorn and attempted watching Due Date.
Our second day was full of Shopping at the Outlet Mall and just wandering. It was a rainy day and ended up being a perfect day! Our last night there we wanted to do something big, so we went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I have seen it before, but Aaron hadn't. It was wonderful cast and an excellent production. Jackson slept through the first half and then flirted with the older ladies in the row behind us the entire second. He was too cute!
Gatlinburg was an amazing getaway!! We were so blessed to be given the opportunity to take our little family our on our first vacation. It wasn't anything fancy, but we had so much fun. In my family its not where you go that matters, its who you are with!
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