Nearest Green Distillery

Michael had the opportunity to visit for investors day at Nearest Green Distillery. Luckily I got to go with him. My dad babysat the kids for the morning while we drove the hour to the Distillery, took a tour, listened to the talk to investors (which included Jeffrey Wright from the Hunger Games), and had a tasting with lunch. 

Whisky isn't really my thing, but I really enjoyed learning about the history and taking a tour of the facility. It is a cool company!

It was fun to try something different!

Golf Camp

The boys participated in golf camp this summer thanks to Big. Conor and Peyton really loved it and want to continue to play. Patrick wasn't very fond of the sport, but I think he will come around some day.  

It was a morning camp, so we ate lunch afterwards and went swimming with cousins.

After a hot last day of golf we headed to the Coldstone Creamery opening. The kids had a chance to win free ice cream for a year. And Patrick hit the bean bag tic tac toe to win!

A sign of some delicious ice cream on a hot day!

It was really great for the boys to learn to play golf for a week. I am so glad Big signed them up!

Great Smoky Mountains Summer Vacation (Part 2)

We had planned to visit the National Park today and do some hiking. However, we were a little concerned about Patrick getting dehydrated and rented an ATV last minute.  We had never been to the Cades Cove area and decided to take the ATV to explore. It was packed! It is a one way in and one way out road, so you can't pass other cars. We definitely had to stop multiple times for people to search for bears for 30 minutes or so. 

We stopped at a few of the churches and log cabins to check them out on the way. 

The ATV was so fun. I wish we had been more prepared. Michael's phone died and my phone didn't have music downloaded onto it. There is no cell service in the park, so unless you have it already downloaded you can't listen to it. We also didn't pack a cooler. If we did it again, we would make sure music was downloaded on our phones and we had a big cooler!  

We stopped at a creek to play for a little bit before we had to turn in our ATV. Playing in the creek and skipping rocks is always the kids favorite part. 

Cades Cove is so pretty and I am really glad we went to see it. However, I don't think I would do it twice. It takes such a long time and you can't predict how long others in front of you will stop and look around!

We had never done a dinner show in Pigeon Forge and decided to try one out. The Pirate Dinner Show was right next to our hotel. We let Caitie get a princess mermaid makeover before the show started. 

It was a good show and I thought the actors were really talented. We did have trouble paying attention because there was so much going on and we had to help the kids cut some of their food. I would have liked a little bit of time to eat before the show started. Michael and I thought the food was great, but the kids were not fond of the food. No one liked the dessert, which is really saying something from this crew!

Caitie was begging to go on the Ferris Wheel afterwards, so we took a trip.

Since no one liked the dessert we got ice cream cones and sat outside and watched the fountains one last time! 

The next morning we went into the National Park to take a picture with our usual sign and play in the river a little bit before heading home. It's a little bit of a tradition for us to go to the Smoky Mountains in the summer, so I was glad we could make it happen this summer amongst all the chaos!

It was a fun couple days in one of our favorite places!

Great Smoky Mountains Summer Vacation (Part 1)

On Tuesday we left Cincinnati and headed towards Knoxville. Before we went on this part of the trip we talked with Patrick and asked if he felt okay to continue on with the rest of the trip. He said he felt fine and really wanted to go to the Smoky Mountains. The doctor had warned us that the IV fluids and the medication Patrick was prescribed would cause Patrick to use the restroom very frequently. He encouraged us to stop as many times as he needed. We ended up stopping 8 times on the way from Cincinnati to Knoxville. It took quite a long time to get there! 

We stopped for a really late lunch at Sam and Andy's. Michael's parents met at Sam & Andy's.

We visited with Michael's grandparents for a while. We knew Michael's grandfather was getting quite sick so it was nice to be able to visit with him on a day that he felt okay. I think he enjoyed seeing the kids. After the visit we drove to the Smoky Mountains. We were staying at Margaritaville at the island. We walked around the island, watched the fountains and swam in the pool for the rest of the night. 

The next morning we woke up early for our day at Soaky Mountain Water Park.  We got a Cabana so Patrick could rest if he needed to. He was still supposed to be taking it easy until he thought he had passed the kidney stones.  We lucked out with great weather! Overcast and not too hot! Perfect weather for Patrick and definitely eased my mind a little bit.

I hung with Caitie in the toddler area for a good bit of the afternoon while the boys went on some big slides. The boys absolutely loved the new water roller coaster this year called the Edge. 

We stayed until close as usual! It was a really fun day!