Life as a Leach

Go to the National Park, they said.  You can't miss that, they said.  It will be fun, they said.   We really didn't plan on going to the National Park, mostly because we really can't do any hiking with Abby...but at the demanding urging of many people, we decided to go.   Lesson learned.  Our kids don't like nature.  They complained the entire time and were so bored.  We drove an 8 mile loop going 10 miles an hour, thanks to the driver of a truck in front of us who really, really liked nature.  So yeah...not the highlight of the trip! But I did get a few pictures that make it kind of look like it was fun.  :)   This was pretty cool though--our friend's ancestors immigrated here and this was their cabin.  :) 20 hours later, we emerged from the National Park and redeemed the day with a yummy dinner.  :)

For one of her Abby's special activities, she chose for the two of us to go up in the sky wheel.  I have never been in one, so I was kind of excited too!   We had some great views of Gatlinburg, and it was nice to watch Abby marvel at the scenery.  Fun memory!

The wolf was attacking the raccoon :)

We spent the better part of a day at Ripley's Aquarium, which is a really cool place to visit. This was another activity in our Family Passport, so we were thrilled to be able to go.  The highlights were the penguin exhibit, Pearl Harbor exhibit, and the mermaid show! This was such a cool fish tank!  You felt like you were inside! They had some really cool tanks! This is the climbing structure I wrote about before where Caleb protected Abby.  :) This mermaid show was soooooo cool!  The girls were really fun and did all kinds of tricks under water.  Abby was totally mesmerized! Caleb thoroughly enjoyed this Pearl Harbor display.  He is so into learning about wars! The penguin exhibit was so fun!  the penguins were really active and the kids loved being "in" the enclosure. The 360 tank was really neat, but a little too enclosed for