Vacation to Gatlinburg, TN

 We took a family vacation to Gatlinburg, TN this summer and had a wonderful time!!  We rented a house in the mountains and most of these pictures are from the deck off the dining room -- it was amazing!  We went white-water-rafting, visited an aquarium, did lots of hiking, went to a dinner show at the Dixie Stampede, raced cars at an amusement park, visited friends in Knoxville, and we even got to see Michael on our way home!  It was a busy week, but it was a ton of fun!  :)

 

 This bear was less than five feet from the road and it never even looked up at us.  It was so cool!!  :)

 And we saw another bear with a little cub just down the hill from us!

This was such a cool picture with the giant crab upfront and the kids in the background!

 The aquarium had a tube that the kids could crawl through and watch the penguins up close.  We nearly had to drag Emily away from this area, she loved it so much!  :)

 Alex's favorite part was the sting-ray tank -- it had to be at least 15 feet tall and then 30 feet wide.  

There were some huge creatures in there!!

 Then they had this moving sidewalk with sharks and fish swimming all around -- it was a highlight!

 We went "mining" one day too.  The kids were so excited every time they found a treasure!

 We had some long days and this is how Alex rode home after rafting!  :)

 Clingman's Dome -- you could see for miles in the Smoky Mountain National Park.  Well, we could have had it not been so foggy.  But despite the lack of a view, we had a great hike!  :)

    

The Dixie Stampede -- Dolly Parton

The kids rode their first roller coaster and LOVED it!
We had to force them off the ride after going five or six times straight.

Good friends!!  :)

 

It was a great trip!  :)