First Family Vacation

All four of us went to Gatlinburg, TN to Mountainloft Resort, which is part of our timeshare with Bluegreen, for a long weekend (= $0 to stay; usually around $80-$90/night for the deluxe 1-bedroom villa we stayed in). The boys did pretty good for the car ride up and back. They slept most of the time thanks to their new super comfy car seats (wish I had one!) and were generally pleasant the entire time we were there. We got to cash in a lot of time with cable tv while the boys napped (I miss you even still HGTV...). Isaac and Joey had a little bout of sleeplessness one night but the cat's finally went away (meowing kept Joey up) and we padded Isaac's bed better, so we all slept well last night before heading home today.



The place was pretty nice, although a little misleading (villa didn't exactly match what you'd think it is) and even provided pack'n'play's for the boys to sleep in so we didn't have to pack them. After 3 separate calls, including one before we even left to come up there, and the last one Sunday night, we got out of the "owner's update" which is their way of trying the sell us more points - the only annoying part about the timeshare. We got in around 7 or 8 Friday night and there was still some snow on the ground from the day before which was nice and after a little trouble finding the room, got the boys settled down for bed.



Saturday morning, we got everyone up and dressed and went on our first grocery store excursion. They boys were great, hardly made a peep, but I guess they were too busy looking at everything. My arm felt like it was going to give any minute though because I was holding Eden (not ready/prepared for grocery carts yet). I don't know why it was easier for me suggest this in a place I'm unfamiliar with, but I felt very liberated with taking them out the whole time we were there. After getting the groceries back and cooking some breakfast, we took naps and then decided to see what the traffic was like at The Old Mill Restaurant in Pigeon Forge. Joey was a little nervous about taking them, but I figured worst case scenario, if they made a scene, we'd probably never see any of those people ever again. They did great though and Eden even fell asleep on me after eating his bottle.



Sunday was the boys' 7 month birthday and we made breakfast again, and this time decided to go to Hard Rock in downtown Gatlinburg for lunch after their AM nap. They boys were a little more ornery than they were the day before and the waitress was a little too invasive, but we got the boundaries and the boys settled and then drove around Pigeon Forge again "window shopping" at the Tanger Outlet from the comfort of the car while the boys took a long nap. We had our last dinner and put the boys to bed again and packed a little before going to bed.



I was woken this morning by Joey laying Isaac beside me telling him to "wake Mommy up so we can go home". I'm usually the first up so it was a nice change of events. He had even showered before the boys woke up so after we got them ready to go, I hopped in the shower, fixed our last breakfast, then started packing the car. We did pretty good on groceries so we didn't waste much and gave what was leftover to the cats as a reward for leaving us alone :) The drive back was pretty uneventful. Glad we came back when we did though cause it looks like more snow is on it's way in. We all had a good time and it wasn't too short/long/stressful/far away, not boring and very affordable. We're already looking forward to our next trip attempt, but we'll have to figure out if we can manage a longer road trip or make the first flight attempt. Only time (and money) will tell.