From The Smokies to Goats On A Roof

I'm baaacckkkk!! Did you miss me? I was in serious withdrawals for my laptop. You would not believe how much reading I need to catch up on!! Aaack!

We had a fabulous time, though, and the weather was perfect. We've been when it was just so cold you couldn't enjoy yourself. But this weekend was great. This is going to be a picture heavy post, just to warn you!

Thursday, the kids each took a test at school and then we were on our way. Once we got there and got unpacked, I went and got us some groceries. It may be vacation, but we still cook and eat in. It's cheaper that way! Then we went to Tanger Outlets. We have one at home, but there's different stores at the one up there. And OMG! They had JUST opened a Michael Kors outlet!!!!! <dreamy sigh> Yeah, Ben didn't buy me the purse I wanted. Oh well.

Our cabin, Bear Hugs,  wasn't too far off the parkway. And it was already decorated for Christmas! So cute! Here's pictures of the inside. Gets you in the Christmas spirit right away.

 
Friday, it was off to Dollywood. We got there at 10 am. The only problem is, they didn't open until 2 pm!! So, we spent a few hours perusing shops on the parkway, fixed some lunch and went back. I don't know if you ever been to Dollywood at Christmas, but it is GORGEOUS. There's over a million lights. They start putting them up in August and they light them in November and they tear them down after New Year's Day.  It's breathtaking at night.


Purple Tree for B!



Blake in front of giant snowman and blue tree

Blake and Leah in front of lighted Dollywood butterfly

Saturday, we rode up to Cades Cove. It's an 11 mile loop around the cove. You can see all sorts of wildlife, deer, bear, etc. We saw several deer.  The way we acted, you'd think we don't see deer every day in our own yard! It was gorgeous up there.

Blake at river in Cades Cover

Church in Cades Cove

Deer in Cades Cove right by the road

Then we went back to Pigeon Forge and to Dollywood. Blake talked me into doing this Adventure thing with him. It's a course of ropes and bridges and beams. You're attached by a lanyard and there's no danger of you falling, but my head still didn't believe it. I did not enjoy it at all. I will not be doing it with him again! Here's my walking around the rock wall, that felt 50 feet off the ground. Ben said it was maybe 12. See how easy everyone else is making it look? See how scared I look?! LOL The things we do for our children! Roller coasters are one thing, but they will not get me to do this thing again!

Holding on for dear life!!

We ended the weekend by stopping at this place outside of Clayton called Goats on the Roof. We've passed it a dozen times and just never stopped. It's a general store and..well, goats on the roof. Very exciting...

Goats. On a roof. Exciting...not so much

We're back home, unpacked and ready to go back to work. We'll be going back in the summer and next Christmas, too!

Now, I'm off to read what everyone else has been up to this weekend! I'll do outfit posts another day this week. Ben was getting into the outfit post spirit and is in every one of my outfit pictures. But he looks pretty good, so I will post them!