Dollywood

In March, we vacationed with my family to somewhere new for us. When we found out I was pregnant in October of last year, and due in early June of this year, we knew we wouldn't be able to go on the beach trip that my family had planned for mid June, and would need to plan something for earlier in the year if we were going to do anything together. Enter the Smoky Mountains, a destination that very few of us had ever been, and Dollywood, a substitution for Disney World. :) We booked a cabin in Gatlinburg that's owned by some friends, and headed to the mountains! 

The kids were in Heaven to be at an amusement park with their cousins!

Caroline bought this cowboy hat and wore it the whole second day. Haha! She's a country girl at heart! 

 

 

 

Amanda and I unintentionally matched both days. :) 

 

 

 

Almost 30 weeks pregnant, and totally exhausted. 😜 

No surprise, but George loved the cars!  

 

 

 

I did a lot of waiting around with the younger kids while everyone else did rides, and I can't say I had the best attitude about it the whole time. I found it extremely difficult to babysit a toddler at an amusement park while 3rd trimester pregnant. I had to remind myself that just because I couldn't participate didn't mean that Caleb and the kids should miss out on the fun! 

 

 

 

 

Gigantic chocolate covered marshmallows were the treats the kids chose! 😋 

 

George did a whoooooole lot of this while we waited. He really was patient! I strolled him around until he fell asleep each day, but he didn't nap long. Considering how tired he was, he did really well!  

I'm really not wanting to sound negative or complain too much, but this trip was hard for me, and Dollywood was not my favorite place. This was largely influenced by the fact that I could only do 2 rides in the whole park, and I know I would have had a much different experience had I not been pregnant. Maybe one day we'll go back and I'll get to experience it more fully. But as it stands, the heat, the miles of walking on hilly terrain, and the waiting around with a cranky and tired 2 year old while Caleb got to live his best amusement park life did NOT bring out the best in me. Haha! In fact, I had a crazy psycho pregnant woman meltdown at the end of our second day, complete with hysterical crying in public, and just about left Caleb stranded in the mountains. I'm already able to laugh about it, which is more than I thought would ever happen at the time. So I'll just leave it at that and say "all's well that ends well"! 😊