Gatlinburg

The first weekend in March, we had a very nice but short getaway to Gatlinburg, TN. My aunt and uncle rented a 3 story cabin for a week and invited us and Ashley and her gang. Arden hadn't seen them in quite a while so I'm not sure if she even remembered them, but we got the meeting off to a bad start. We met at the rental co. parking lot before traveling up the mountain and Derek rolled down Arden's window so Auntie Becky and Uncle Paul could say hi to her and she freaked out, started crying and buried her head into her car seat. Poor baby. Luckily once we got to the cabin, it only took about 30 minutes for her to warm up, then she was best buds with her Auntie Becky. Arden started out calling her Auntie Ecky, but soon dropped the 'auntie' and now calls her 'Ecky'.


{Fun With Auntie Becky!}
My aunt is really good with kids and gave Arden 100% of her attention at the beginning and that's why Arden was so quick to warm up to her.

A few hours after we arrived, Ashley, Mark and Briggs came and we went out for dinner at a really good Italian Restaurant, then grocery shopping.



Day 2, it snowed for a good part of the day, so we stayed in and relaxed. That night, we went out to an absolutely amazing dinner at The Old Mill restaurant in Pigeon Forge. Your meal includes soup, salad, corn fritters, rolls and dessert. I got fried chicken and it was three huge chicken breasts with mashed potatoes and green beans.

On the way back to the cabin, we stopped at Krispy Kreme (hey, the light was on)and got a dozen fresh, warm, melt in your mouth glazed doughnuts and I'm pretty sure I ate all but 4....maybe 3. There really is nothing better.

Day 3, we all went into Gatlinburg and took the tramway to the top of the mountain at Ober Gatlinburg. There are lots of things to do up there (ice skating, tubing, skiing, alpine slide). We went into the very old game room and Arden didn't even need any money to have fun, she just had a blast running around acting like she was playing all the games. Aunt Becky played the games and won enough tickets to get Briggs and Arden prizes and Arden picked out a ball (of course) and was thrilled. Next they both rode the carousel a few times and we went back down the mountain and walked a long way to eat lunch (that's a story in itself) and got some delicious fudge and headed back to the cabin so Derek and I could pack up.


{Ober Gatlinburg}


It was so fun watching Briggs and Arden play together.
One night they went into the kitchen together whispering to each other (well Arden was probably doing all the talking with Briggs laughing) and tried as hard as they could to get the fridge open.

We all had so much fun and can't wait to do it again!

Arden notices the smallest details. I was leaving my Dr. appt this past Monday, and Arden was checking out all of the symbols on the front of the cars we walked by. When she got to a Ford car, she pointed to the symbol and said, "Ecky's Truck!" and did it again when she got to another Ford. I didn't know she paid that much attention. She's so smart.