Thanksgiving Gatlinburg Trip 2008

We started back with our yearly tradition that Jeremy & I started when we got married of going to Gatlinburg for Thanksgiving; we have missed the last 2 years since Madi was born. We had a blast!! We stayed in downtown Gatlinburg for the first time ever and it was great to be able to walk everywhere! We had lots of family fun and cannot wait until our next family vacation...

Traditional family pic in front of the National Park sign...


I just had to wonder up in the woods a bit and take these pics of the beautiful stream and snow...




Hanging out in our room...


We went to the aquarium. It was really nice. Our favorite part was the tunnel where you are surrounded by the aquarium, it was really neat!









You know it is good when it comes on a stick and a beautiful little box, this was a yummy carmel covered rice krispy treat...


Our sweet girls napping together...


There was snow on the mountain!! We were so excited to see it and know that we were going to get to play in it. We were able to stop at Clingmans Dome because the road going up to it was closed. We walked out the road a bit and played in the snow for about 30 minutes. It was so much fun!!








Every night we would walk downtown Gatlinburg and do a little shopping; mainly for carmel corn, candy, taffy, fudge, and of course yummy lolly pops...


Thanksgiving day we had an amazing dinner at the Applebarn...


We drove over the mountain into Cherokee, NC and played at the park by the river. It was beautiful. We watched a fisherman catch trout after trout, and Madi had to find her a stick and act like she was fishing too. There was a bamboo forest there that had the biggest bamboo I have ever seen...













We went to the Dixie Stampede. I can't even begin to tell you how much Madi loved it. She stood in the seat between Jeremy & I and was in awe. I cried several times just looking at her little innocent face taking it all in and lighting up when the horses ran fast or did something. It was our favorite thing we did the whole vacation. Graci liked all the lights and snow in the show also, but she slept most of the time. Madi got a horse there and named it Dixie, you see in the photos that it did not leaver her side the entire trip. This is the only pictures we have because they do not allow you to take photos during the show...


The mountains were breathtaking...




We visited Cades Cove. We saw LOTS of deer, Madi loved it!!