Hello Dolly[wood] and Gatlinburg!

For our summer, Gatlinburg vacation this past week, Aaron and Jess picked another great B&B, this time in the mountains, with views for days!

Tennessee was hot and humid, but the A/C worked well, and the view was great from inside, too!

We spent the werk playing hard with some of our favorite people, 

Photos from Ripley's Aquarium

including a short hike to Cataract Falls with all the littles, 

where we saw a waterfall, 

but no bears...

One of two "happy trees" along the way!

A visit from Julie (and her husband, not pictured) who live two hours from Gatlinburg...

and Hilbilly Golf were fun,

and there was  an interesting three-man "scramble..."

but no bears...

This was also our first trip to Dollywood, 

which was hot and sweaty 

and overall wonderful!

We enjoyed lots of rides, 

and shows (the Gazillion Bubble Show was air conditioned amd magical!), 

but when a boy is sooo sleepy, an ambush nap just might take over...

We rounded out our day with shopping, 

and some pretty fun food, 

but no Dolly sightings...however, our little guy did finally see a bear!...

and his mommy posed with a pretty fairy!

Jess: Sorry, Fairy. Weve just got boys...
Fairy: YOU can pose with me! 

The vibe of the park was clean and fun, and everything was family friendly, we had a great day. 

The rest of our vacation boasted lots of pool time in the Great Smoky Mountains,  

where the kids made quite a splash as much as they could, 

a mountain roller coaster 

(I didn't get to ride this one, but I heard that it was lovely...not too fast, no big dips), 

Even our littlest guy rode this one!

and a lot of time to just goof off together, especially on our trips down Boogertown Road!

On our way out, we even saw an actual bear, and did not get eaten...yay!

Thanks for a great time together, everyone! We'll be talking and laughing about all the fun for years!

By the time you read this, our road trip home will be over (or nearly over) and I'll be gearing up for mountains of laundry, lol! Then back to work on Monday, and back to reality...but I'm even looking forward to that!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health! 

Was there knitting? You know there was!

My first Matryoshkats!

Quite well received, thank you very much!