Smoky Mountain Vacation

I don't know what's been wrong with me the past few days, but I just haven't been in the mood to blog. I think it's because I'm missing my family pretty bad. We were there for Thanksgiving, but Christmas is just the one that's hard to miss with family. When we lived in either GA or MO, we'd get to do both holidays with both families because we were close to one and we'd just have to travel to the other. But now things are pretty different, living away from both. Really, I was ok until just the past few days. I'm still o.k. though, just a bit sad.

Anyway .... Happy New Year, everybody!!! The last year in the decade, so that's pretty cool, I guess. Unless 2010 is the last year and the new decade starts in 2011. I don't know, but it seems so weird that just next year we're going to start saying twenty-ten instead of two-thousand-something. Unless the Lord comes back before then. Then time won't matter at all.

Well, I said I'd post about our vacation. We really did have fun. On Friday we left the in-laws' house around 11:00 and went and spent an hour or so with Anthony's step-grandmother. She sure is a sweet lady. And a talker. Whew! ;-) She told us about the activities she's been involved in since Pa-Paw passed away. She's done some sewing. She showed us a quilt she'd just finished with and it was just beautiful. I told her she ought to start selling them and she said she'd been thinking about it. Anyway, this quilt had a pretty pink and brown color scheme and in each square she'd done a different star pattern. It was very unique, but really pretty.

She said she'd been on a tour bus trip with the people at the Senior Center to Savannah and Tybee Island. Anthony and I had been there before so we recognized some of the places she talked about. She got to eat at Paula Deen's restaurant, which is cool. Something I've wanted to do for some time. Anyway I'm glad she's staying busy and active.

Then we went to Chattanooga and met some of our friends for lunch. We hadn't seen them since Easter and it was so good to see them. They have a little boy just a bit younger than Jackson so the two of them enjoyed one another's company while we were there. We got a few really cute pics of them outside the restaurant. Here's one. Aren't they cute???

We then ventured on up to Cleveland and spent a few hours with Terry and Shaye Ammons where Jackson got to play with their little boy John Devon at their house. Those two had a blast. Terry and Shaye are close friends of ours, so it was so good to see them as well. All this fellowship almost made me just a little homesick for the Chattanooga Valley.

Then it was off to Kodak to check into our hotel and rest up for an action-packed vacation Saturday. There was one problem I was a little worried about, though. Jackson was coming down with a cold and I didn't want him out in the cool air too much. We didn't get in as much activitiy as we'd planned because he needed naps to help him get over his cold. Anthony, too, since he was just getting over a mild case of mono. But maybe that was a good thing. We probably needed R&R just as much as we needed fun time. So we built a nap into our schedule each day, which kept us refreshed and kept our sickness down. That and the touch of the good Lord. :D

We spent our first day in Gatlinburg. We did the aquarium, which is just way cool. If any of you ever vacation in the Smokies, it is the #1 thing I'd recommend doing. I also enjoyed the tropical waters exhibit where they have the most beautiful coral and tropical fish. Soooo pretty. This is the best aquarium we've ever been to!!!! It's actually voted #1 in the U.S. Loved it.

Excited to get started...

Curious little boy....
Look at those colors!!!

The coolest part is the glass tunnel that walks underneath a huge tank filled with fish and sharks and all manner of sea life. It is enormous and you get to spend a lot of time in there.
So cool. I mean, this is how close you are to the sealife.

And it's all around you ...

Mommy's boy ...
Daddy's boy ...
Check out the difference in the expression in those two pics. Can't figure the little twerpie out. *rolling eyes*Play area

Look at that little girl's pretty blonde, curly hair. Aw, so sweet. ;-)

We thought the area where they had the jellyfish, sea dragons, and spider crabs and such was just so cool.

These tanks were so cool. See the round part in the middle? Well, the kids could climb underneat and stick their heads up in there. We tried to get Jackson to do it and he stuck his head in for 1/2 second and got scared and got out real fast. :-( Would've made the coolest pictures ... if only he would've cooperated. Grrrrr....

The second coolest part is the Touch a Ray Bay where you get to actually touch a stingray. Awesome! Jackson and I tried and I got the tip of the "wing", but Jackson's arms were a bit too short and he couldn't reach it. Maybe next time.
This guy did a show with the stingrays while an emcee taught a mini-lesson on stingrays. We only caught the tail-end of it, so I wish I'd seen more. But what we did see was pretty cool.

Part two coming soon ......