Pictures from Tuesday

Megyn, Reid, Hannah, Danielle and Jessica at the performance

Anthony & David...being manly?


Carole & Debbie
WonderWorksMe & Julia...I dread the day she's "too cool" to hang out with me :)

Zoe kicking Dave's butt on the climbing wall


Playing in the bubbles at WonderWorks



Danielle, Emily & Julia

Day Two...or "I ate the whole bird!"

I'm just letting you all know that putting pictures into the body of the text turned out harder than expected, so please forgive any errors. Also know that this time, I will probably only put a few pictures in with the text, and then do a separate entry with pictures from this day.

Tuesday morning we all got up bright and early for our performance. We were fortunate to have been invited to perform for the Golden Agers club at First Baptist Church of Maryville. Maryville is a suburb of Knoxville and is about 1 hour from Gatlinburg. We drove to the church, had a short rehearsal on the stage, had another music rehearsal and then did a 30 minute performance. We then were invited to stay for lunch with the club. Overall, we met some great people and had a wonderful time. I don't have as many pictures from the performance, but I'll post more when I get some from others. I'll also try to add a video when I figure out how :).

After lunch, all the kids changed clothes and we went back to Pigeon Forge to go to WonderWorks. WonderWorks is kind of like a glorified McWane Center; however, it was perfect for this group because it leans more toward "imagination" instead of "science" like McWane.

We all just went on our own. We experienced a simulated earthquake and hurricane, climbed a rock wall, played with huge bubbles, measured brainwaves, stuck our hands in water as cold as the Titanic water and lots of other things!

We finished with WonderWorks around 4:00, and we needed to be at the Dixie Stampede at 5:15. This groups never ceases to amaze me at how well they can entertain themselves. We played in the arcade for a little while, but then we just sat on the sidewalk until it was time to go to the Dixie Stampede. Carole told stories about buying a yak harness in Tibet, Glenn & Julia played with an imaginary frisbee (and then bought a real one from the gift shop), and we all played a couple of rounds of "I'm Going on a Picnic" (the Rising Star National Game).

Finally, it was time to go to the Dixie Stampede. We all started by visiting the stables to see the stars of the show. We then entered the Carriage Room for the preshow. Some of us thought is was amazing. It was a trio of bluegrass extremely talented musicians with pretty impressive resumes (Dolly Parton's personal fiddle player, 3 time world champion banjo player, etc.). Dave, Kelly, Anthony and I embarrassed most everyone around us by singing along with everything.

The show was absolutely amazing! I think everyone was more impressed than they thought they would be. If you go to the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area, this is the show to see! We all stuffed ourselves with dinner, which consisted of a whole rotisserie chicken, corn on the cob, creamy vegetable soup, pork loin, bread and an apple fritter. After dinner, as we waddled out to the parking lot, Carole voiced what we were all thinking..."I ate the whole bird!". David and Reid also met their new girlfriend, Misty, who is one of the trick riders in the show. She stands on the back of two horses (one foot on each) and go over a lit torch. She also does this while wearing a tight orange velour unitard. That probably helped how impressed they were with her.

After the show, we all went back to the cabin. Some of the kids watched movies, some adults watched movies, and some adults played cards for a while. Eventually, we all played cards for a while, and then everyone went their separate ways. More air hockey happened, and finally everyone went to sleep. Overall, this was a great day!

Day One--Monday, March 16

The plan was to drive 3 vehicles to the Gatlinburg area, with Debbie (our wonderful musician) driving a 4th vehicle which would be bringing her back home on Tuesday after our performance. Bonnie & Anthony were taking a car, Dave & Kelly were taking a van, and Glenn & Clara were taking a van. We (me & Anthony with 3 kids in tow) were leaving Birmingham at 9:30AM so that we would arrive in Gatlinburg early, check-in, get settled, etc. Dave van & Glenn van were leaving at 11:30AM.

That's not what happened.

You see, our car was picking up David and Lilly in Homewood, then travelling to Trussville to pick up Reid. Before we even got out of Homewood, the windshield wiper starting moving really slow. No big deal, right? Then it stopped. Anthony had gone out to Trussville earlier that morning, so I was driving with the two kids when it stopped. We pulled over in downtown Birmingham and pushed the wiper until it worked. It kept going until about the airport, when it stopped again. By the time we picked up Anthony and Reid, it had stopped going completely, and the decision was made to pick up another car to take. So, we drove all the way back to Pelham from Trussville to pick up my car to take (we had originally been in my dad's car). In case you're not familiar with the Birmingham area, Trussville to Pelham is about the longest distance you can go and still be in the Birmingham area.

So the 9:30 group got out of town around 11:45. The 11:30 group got out about 11:20. So the late group and the early group had swapped.

I talked to Kelly shortly after we left town and told her to take their time getting to Tennessee. So, the "late group" (which was now ahead of us) stopped at the Mayfield Dairy for a tour. They had a great time. I'm sure there are pictures somewhere.

Meanwhile, our car is trucking along, packed to the brim. Keep in mind that we have 2 adults, 3 full size kids, all of our stuff and most of the stuff for living in a cabin with 18 people for a week. It was not pretty. We finally made it to the Tennessee line and were stopped when Debbie (remember...driving her own car?) called and said that she had run out of gas and was waiting on AAA. We had already passed her, and she seemed to be doing OK, so we kept going.

Somehow, we all made it into the Galtinburg area around 6:30 or 7:00. All except Debbie, of course. AAA came to bring her gas and decided it was a timing belt issue instead, so she rented a van and was still on her way to Tennessee.

The good news is that after all the that, we checked into the most wonderful cabin ever...

We unloaded everything from the cars, got settled in and then all piled back into the cars to head into downtown Gatlinburg for the first time.

Tonight, we were scheduled to do the Amazing Mirror Maze and Blacklight Circus Mini-Golf. After a quick stop for McDonald's and Subway, we were on our way. We walked from our parking area, got a good look around the town, posed for a group picture and went in.

The mirror maze portion was first. The mirror maze in in blacklight, except for the parts when it goes almost totally dark. We all had a great time trying to figure out what was a mirror and what was actually another person. The great part was that we were able to do the mirror maze as many times as we wanted. Once was enough for me, but the kids, along with Glenn, Anthony and Dave, did it multiple times.

Apparently, I missed the best moment of the trip (in Anthony's opinion) when Emily ran full speed into one fo the mirrors. I can't blame her...it was really hard to tell. But they both had several more good laughs about it over the course of the trip, and Emily had a big bruise to prove that we had been through the mirror maze.

After everyone had successfully finished the mirror maze, everyone donned their 3D glasses for the blacklight mini golf portion of the combo. We all played in groups of 6. I know the "adult" group had a great time with this! We'd like to take this time to remind Ms. Carole that the ball is supposed to go toward the hole. :)

After we all finished mini-golf, we took a nice stroll down the almost-deserted streets of Gatlinburg back to the cars and headed back to the cabin. The adults all went to bed fairly quickly, while the kids played a little air hockey, maybe watched a movie and then headed to bed to get ready for our performance tomorrow morning!

Downtown Gatlinburg at Night

Gatlinburg Introductions

Introductions

Before we get started on each day of our trip to Gatlinburg, let's make sure everyone knows everyone in the group.

The Kids

From L to R: David (17), Megyn (17), Reid (16), Lilly (17), Jessica (15), Emily (14), Erin (18), Hannah (11), Danielle (14) and Julia (10).

The Adults
Some of the adults are more camera shy than others, so I'll do my best to post a picture of each here. You'll definitely see them all in some group shots.







Dave & Kelly (& Zoe)--Parents of Hannah
Pictured here are Dave & Zoe, since Kelly is usually behind a camera.







Glenn & Clara--Parents of Emily and Julia





Carole--Grandmother of Danielle (& local actress!)












Bonnie & Anthony--Parents of no one



The whole group stayed in one cabin and had a fabulous time! Now that you know everyone, let's get going on the trip!