Spring Break 2009

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This year we actually went somewhere for Spring Break. We joined our friends, the Hills and the Koehlers for a week in Pigeon Forge, Tenn with all of us in one cabin. Dana, Tina, and I spent an ungodly amount of time picking which cabin we wanted. Steve said we took longer to make decisions than the federal government and I agreed with him. We finally chose a place and got a great deal. We had a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom cabin so each family had a bedroom and bathroom all of their own. The 2 boys got a bedroom and there was a community bathroom for everyone's use. It had 3 levels and looked perfect. Well, about 5 days before we left, we got an email from Dana saying that she had gotten some bad news from the owners-the cabin had flooded and would not be available for rent the week we needed it. They have other units, but the only thing available that would hold all of us was the 7 bedroom. They would give us a deal, but it was still going to be a lot more money than we had planned. Tina and I were so bummed. I did NOT have time to start this timely decision making process again and with it so close to Spring Break, I didn't think we would have many options. Tina spent several hours making calls and looking online and found us another place. In the meantime, Dana called to tell us "April Fools!" I about killed her. She got us good!!!! It never even dawned on me that she may be pulling a prank on us. Well, you know what they say about paybacks, right? :)
Anyways, we were able to go enjoy the cabin. The women and children went up on Monday and the men joined us on Thursday. This worked out really nicely for everyone. It started snowing as soon as we got up there, so we just enjoyed the snow, the cabin, and each other the first day. It snowed hard at times, but there wasn't that much accumulation. We also dyed Easter eggs with all the kids. Can you believe we had no messes?
Wednesday, we went to Dollywood where they had a deal if you come in after 3, you get in free the next day. We rode all the roller coasters and rides that day. We all have brave kids, so they all rode everything. That was nice too. They had some really cool coasters and rides there. The next day was beautiful weather and we did some of the other stuff there. We went in Dolly Parton's tour bus and did some of the shows. And then we rode all the rides again. And some again. The guys were there when we got home that night.
Friday, the Koehlers went to Gatlinburg and Steve and Dale took the kids to Wonderworks. They all had a lot of fun there and played laser tag together while Dana and I enjoyed the peace and quiet of the cabin and got to read some of our books. Saturday morning, the men took the kids to ride go carts. At the end of the first race, Jennifer got hit by another cart and it really shook her up. The men ended up calling me to come down and rescue Jennifer from them so they could go have some fun. She was fin, just a sore back and a lot of tears. But I was able to take some pictures while I was there. :)
Then we all went to Cades Cove ( a national park) where we drove through and saw a lot of deer and wild turkey and other animals. We even saw a black bear at one point. We did our Easter egg hunt here with a ton of eggs and candy. Some of the eggs even had money in them. We had some trouble getting out of the park which resulted in us going on a very sharp road for a 12 mile trek that was supposed to take an hour. With Dale pushing Chris, we made it in about 40 minutes. Poor Dana & Steve had all the girls(who were hungry and had headaches) with no cell phone service and no TV. But we made it out alive!
Sunday, we packed up and Mr. Steve did the resurrection eggs with the kids. He does such a great job explaining things to them. Then we all headed to First Baptist Church of Sevierville, TN. We had an wonderful service praising our Lord and Savior on Easter morning. Then we all headed to Outback for lunch. It was certainly not our normal Easter, but was memorable in its own way. If you have seven minutes to watch the video, you can see some of the pictures from the week. We had a great time and we are still friends even after spending the whole week together. :)