A flashback from my first weekend in Pigeon Forge with Josh. We went Fall of 2007. We had known each other about 3 months and had reached the more than friends but still getting to know each other phase. It was all new and exciting because I had never been in a serious relationship, and we could tell it was headed that way.
Josh & I have now know each other for 2 years (official a few weeks ago on August 9
th). It's still fun and exciting, as we enjoy each other's company each and every day.
We returned to
Pigeon Forge this weekend for our first trip alone together as a married couple. All our vacations to Pigeon Forge up to this point had been with family (also a fun way to spend the weekend). We had a blast on our own though!
We left Friday morning, stopping along the way for breakfast at McDonald's. I'm a sucker for cinnamon rolls, cinnamon clusters, and anything of the like. So the Cinnamon Melt that they have at McDonald's is right up my alley. Sure, it's covered in butter & sugar, but I enjoy it as an occasional splurge. After that, we headed straight towards
Splash Country. Josh, ever the thrifty one, got us free tickets through the Coke Rewards that we had stored up. We enjoyed a few slides, the lazy river, & wave pool. We also marveled in disbelief at what I would have to deem one of the brattiest children I have ever experienced (and that is saying something!).
This girl was in the lazy river, squirting
passersby with her water gun. Where this is acceptable enough at a water park, she should have desisted when a woman politely asked her to stop. Did she? No, she started splashing her with water. The woman became upset with her (I was kind of annoyed with her at this point too). The girl proceeded to smart off to her, and say that she didn't have to worry about anything because she didn't know her parents, and the woman couldn't do anything about it. About the time the woman was going to take her by the arm & tote her off to said parents, the girl said she would stop. My sense of decency had sprung into effect by then, and although I was just an observer, I was going to grab the nearest lifeguard and turn the girl in myself if she hadn't stopped.
It sounds much milder in writing than it actually was. Like I told Josh, since her behavior was already so awful while she was unsupervised, her parent is either already wrapped around her finger or doesn't invest much in her to begin with. It's sad really, but probably true. I've never seen a child be that rude to an absolute stranger.
Fortunately that was our only negative experience, and overall we had a great time at Splash Country. After we changed in to dry clothes & left there, we took advantage of our season passes to
Dollywood and parking lot hopped over to the park. What did we do? We popped into the ice cream shop to share a triple scoop ice cream sundae, and I got one of the delicious
DollyWood cinnamon rolls from the bakery to take back to the room. They are
literally as big as my hand!
MMMMMMMMMMMMmmmm! Tram ride to tram ride, we only took 30 minutes.
After
Dollywood, we headed over to
Wyndam to check in to the resort. We got a great deal through a friend of the family who has timeshare points.
Here's a view of the main room.
There's a view of other rooms from the balcony.
Here's a slightly hazy view of the mountains.
We had a fantastic evening relaxing. After we had chilled out in the room a while, we went down to
TGIFRiday's and got a free appetizer with a coupon Josh had. We enjoyed dinner as well, and then shopped at a few outlets. Surprise, surprise! I had restraint and didn't spend a cent! We got a few necessities for Josh, and I made a mental note to look at
Naturalizers more closely next time we're there.
Saturday morning we slept in a little, checked out of the resort, and headed to Dollywood. We rode two roller coasters (skipping Mystery Mine - too jerky), Blazing Fury, & a spinning disk thing. We watched a show, Sha-kon-o-hey (it means "land of the blue smoke), and we grabbed another cinnamon roll on the way out. WooHoo!
After that we headed home, stopping at Turkey Creek in Knoxville to eat at Red Robin (with another coupon). Josh showed me a t.v. at Best Buy that we wants us to buy a year or two down the road (when the price goes down), and we drove around the parking lot looking at the shops since I hadn't been down there to shop before. We didn't get out. It takes money to buy things. Go figure.
I was a bit amazed to see a one-hour daycare in the plaza. Yes, very smart idea to charge high hourly rates to moms who want a break from their kids while they shop, but you couldn't pay me enough to run that place. Having kids you've never met for only a few hours, with constant turnover, crying, & separation anxiety? No thank you!
We got home about 7:30 Saturday night, and we spent a few hours cleaning, doing laundry, and tidying up in general. I had church yesterday, and Josh stayed home with water in his ear (It was making him dizzy & a bit motion sick). I spent the afternoon & evening nursing my allergies, which seem to be much better today.
I'm headed off to bed so I'm not too tired tomorrow. Sorry if there are too many typos. It's late, and the post is too long to proof right now. lol.
Sometimes it just takes perspective when it comes to how your day goes. There's something about full moons & rainy days at the childcare. Today was cloudy, so there were several classes which seemed a lot more rambunctious than usual. We had several teachers out sick, recovering from being sick, or coming down with something. It was like pulling teeth to get substitutes. The phone rang off the hook, and I really didn't get as much as I needed to accomplished because of the above.
