Gatlinburg Day 3

Day 3 

We woke up to a BEAUTIFUL site. Pictures can not even come close to capturing it's beauty!

 Although we had lots of snow up on the mountain at the bottom it wasn't nearly as bad and all streets were clear.

Baby A was feeling ok as long as she had pain reliever in her so we decided to head to the aquarium. I know I went against ALL "rules" about keeping your child in when sick but come on we were on vacation so that meant all rules went out the door as long as the kids were feeling ok.

Since we hung out at the cabin to see how Baby A would feel and also to see what the snow was going to do, we got started a little later than we had planned. The new plan was to eat lunch at a place in downtown Gatlinburg and then head on to the Aquarium. Well the first parking garage was full and that left us driving around for a while trying to find a place to park. Snow was still steadily coming down so we walked the streets of Gatlinburg in the snow. Kinda fun, REALLY cold but definitely memorable!

So by now it was lunch time and to make the best of our time we decided on another new plan which was  to just eat at the aquarium food court and then go on and see the aquarium. The problem with that new plan was this... the aquarium was PACKED!! I guess because of all the snow everybody had the same idea to do something indoors. Oh My Goodness the people!! The other problem... there is no way (well no clear/ obvious way) to get to the food area without going through the entire aquarium first. So we were corralled like cattle through the entire aquarium with extremely hungry children and one sick toddler. We did try and make the best of it though and here are some of the pictures from our quick run through

 It's a little dark but that's a HUGE sea turtle

 Riding through the underwater tunnel

 Baby A would not look at the camera at all

 We tried three times and got nothing

 Two seconds after trying those 3 times we see this swim by:

 

 She had her eye on the HUGE shark swimming towards us LOL!

 

 The boys were in heaven watching the sharks swim right over our heads. 

I think they would have sat and watched them all day long!

 

After the underwater tunnel we went and saw the new Dinosaur exhibit. That was Baby A's favorite part of the whole aquarium. She didn't want to get too close to them but she really liked watching them move. Sadly I got zero pictures of that exhibit. 

We went to the horseshoe crab exhibit and Scooter and Tim were the bravest ones. They picked one up and I think Baby A and Rascal touched one but I stayed away!

 We ate some mediocre food at the food area and then headed out to find that is was snowing HARD. Hard enough to make us very nervous about trying to get back up the mountain. We started walking to our car and hit a couple places to shop and sight see. The boys had to get their picture made with the Dukes of Hazard car.

 

About 30 minutes after we left the aquarium the snow lightened up and we decided to do a little more sight seeing and shopping. 

We went to the Smoky Mountain National Park information center where there was a small museum and a gift shop.

 

 This picture cracked us up. Rascal was being silly and look at those pair of big blue eyes standing beside him. I LOVE that she is his shadow.

 

 Another picture of silly rascal. My kids were excited to see this stuffed fox since we have a red fox that runs through our yard quite often (last week it ran through our yard while the kids played in the yard).

We decided since the snow had stopped that we would eat an early dinner at The Old Mill and then head back to the cabin to sit by the fire and let the boys play in the hot tub again.

 

 

 Silly picture!

We had just gotten our food when Baby A became VERY whiny. I let her sit in my lap and tried to keep her content. I had almost finished my meal when she did the gag like she was going to throw up again. Not wanting to ruin every one's meal I took her to the van and we sat there while the boys and Tim finished their meal. Then it was back to the cabin for the night.

 We let Baby A get in the hot tub for just a few minutes but it wasn't nearly as long as she wanted to stay in it. Thankfully we got her mind off it with a little Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on TV. 

That night I was WORN. SLAM. OUT!! So I sat next to the fire and cuddled my girls. It was heavenly.

We all went to bed and I think all 5 (plus Lucy) slept the entire night without waking up once. 

What a miracle!