Gatlinburg part one: Dollywood

We've been making an effort this summer to get out and explore a little bit of the country around us. Thanks to great groupon hotel deal we decided to start off with Gatlinburg, TN. This is one of the few family vacations we've been that haven't been to see, well, family. We had the BEST time! Our first day there we went to Dollywood. While I started out a bit skeptical it ended up being super fun.

As we walked in to the park Andrew asked Gavin to hold his hand (sooo sweet!)

Our boys are pretty tall for their age which meant we got to take them on a bunch of rides! It was a very hot day so we opted for a water ride first and we got SOAKED :)

{Dad and Andrew}

{Mom and Gavin}

 Next we road on a steam locomotive that goes all around the park. 

Merry-Go-Round

We tried to snap a picture mid-afternoon (read: typically quiet time) and this is the best we got. We couldn't help but laugh!

Andrew asked if he could give this dog a hug. haha!

We finally got to ride the race car ride the boys had been asking about and they were in heaven!

Our little owlets! This was right after we took them on a pretty big (for them) roller coaster. Andrew had been begging to go on it all day and of course when we got to the front of the line he decided he didn't want to go (interesting fact: ride operators can't send a kid on a ride who is crying, I'll let you imagine how we learned that little tidbit). So Nate and Gavin went and Andrew and I got off. Well of course as soon as he saw Gavin and Nate take off he changed his mind again so we went back and they were nice enough to put us on the next car that came. It was actually a pretty intense roller coaster and Andrew was terrified pretty much the whole time. Afterwards he said it was fun, but mostly scary. We were proud of him for facing his fear and trying something new. Gavin got scared, but thought it was more fun than scary.

Finally, we got completely soaked on this ride that involved squirt guns. It was super fun, but we were drenched by the end.

Nate was nice enough to offer shoulder rides when there were complaints of tired feet from our boys. Andrew thought going in the "shower" was great fun!

And someone was nice enough to snap a family picture for us!

The boys did much better than I thought they would and we ended up staying later at the park (almost until closing). They were so exhausted by the time we made it home that they basically just passed out.

Overall, we really loved Dollywood and would go back again!