A Very Quick Weekend

The Gang's All Here!

Reah loved the animals

Joey, Carlie and the kids came to visit for the weekend and it went by way too fast for my tastes!  We really had a great time visiting with them and are so grateful that they are this close.

They got here Friday evening about 9:30 so we all put of swimming suits and headed to the gym pool for an hour of swimming.  My hopes were that the kids would have some fun and get some of their wiggles out after the long car trip.  Gideon, Glory, Levi, and Reah had a great time but Scarlett was so tired that she was pretty miserable.  Afterwards we came home, had some hot chocolate and crashed.

The next morning Rich wanted to just get up and got get donuts are Krispy Kreme but since it was on our way out of town I suggested that we all go together...but it was more like herding cats to get us all ready to go in any kind of speed.  By the time we left it was time for lunch so we just hit Mr. Gatti's for the pizza buffet in Knoxville instead.

A few weeks earlier I had gone to the Smokey's with some friends and the traffic hadn't been bad at all.  A week previous to that the traffic had been absolutely horrendous - taking nearly an hour to go 1 mile.  I reasoned that since my trip had been later, most of the tourist season was past and so going to the mountains (foothills by western standards - LOL) would be lovely, fun, and easy.  NOT!!!  Traffic was so bad that the police actually closed the road in the park to Gatlinburg.  There was also no cell phone service in the park so when we found ourselves separated from Joey and Carlie we just hoped for the best.  Ironically, as we were entering the Kade's Cove Loop (an 11 mile loop of one way traffic to see scenic sites, old churches and cemeteries, bears, etc.) a traffic sign indicated that it was a 3 hour trip to go the 11 miles but we thought that Joey and Carlie were ahead of us so we entered the loop.  We were so surprised when just a few hundred feet into the loop we found Joey - he was driving the wrong way to get out of the loop!  I have no idea how he was able to turn his van around as the road is just one lane - but he managed it somehow!  That's Joey for you!  Carlie was so embarrassed...cars were bumper to bumper and people would ask him if he realized he was going the wrong way and he would tell them, "Yeah, but I'm not wasting three hours for this!"  Rich and I were already committed and we couldn't find a place to duplicate Joey's move but we found a cutoff that allowed us to only go two miles back to the Ranger Station and Souvenier Store.  When we got there we found that Carlie, Joey, Gideon, Levi, and Reah were walking down the road.  They returned to the store and we made potty stops and I told Carlie that when the other drivers had seen what Joey was doing they would see the door magnets on the car showing he was a Ron Paul supporter and would just consider the source!  LOL

From the store back to Gatlinburg was 26 miles but we ended up taking the Pigeon Forge cut-off and heading back that direction as we had tickets for the Hatfields and the McCoys Dinner Theater.  We needed to kill some time so we ended up at McDonalds for an ice cream and then hit a strip mall. 

About 7 pm we headed over to the theater to pick up our tickets and waited outside where they had rocking chairs and a sort of petting zoo type of deal, and then in the gift shop for pictures and to be seated.

Levi did NOT want his picture taken!

Once we got seated the wait staff started bringing our food - creamy vegetable soup, fried chicken, pulled pork, beans, cole slaw, corn bread biscuits, mashed "taters", and chocolate pudding for dessert.  Our drinks were served in Mason Jars and the kids thought that was pretty fun.

The show was fun, light-hearted and while the kids didn't get ALL the "Jeff Foxworthy"-style jokes, they did get much of what was going on.  They had never heard of the feud of the Hatfield's and the McCoys and so we had shared with them some of the backstory before we even got to the theater so that they would have some kind of reference point.  There was fun music with banjos, guitars, bass fiddle, jug, fiddles, and great singers.  They also had fun dancers that were tappers and they could really make music with their feet - they were awesome.  And of course, the Tennessee twang fit right in to the dramatic effects of the production. LOL  Couldn't tell on bit if it was real or just for effect!

By the time we got home it was nearly midnight and it had been a very long day.  The kids were out like lights!  I still had a R.S. lesson to finish preparing and Rich had some things to do for Young Men so we didn't get to sleep until about 2 am.  Love having an 11:30 meeting time - although Rich's start at 10!

We went to church, came home and had lunch and then drove to Knoxville to visit Grandma B's grave, and returned home to fix dinner.  Bob came over and ate with us too.  Bedtime was past due but Gideon, Joey, Rich and I played a round of Phase 10 just because. 

This morning everyone helped Joey and Carlie collect their things and then we headed over to Firehouse Subs for lunch before they took off.  They returned here to get Storm and the kids got some last handfuls of candy from the "candy box" - they seemed to like it just like our other grandchildren that have been here! LOL We had hugs and kisses and waved as they drove out of the drive way...bittersweet!  They called about 8 pm this evening to tell us they had arrived home safely....  Time with family...is there anything better????  If there is I can't imagine it!!!!