I Pulled Off A Big One!

This past weekend I planned a little mini get-a-way for Ryan as a surprise. He had no clue where we were going, I just told him what items to pack and to be ready. I am so happy that I did not give it away and that he had a great time!!

Where did we go? Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg

As a child I grew up going here on family vacations. I love Dollywood today as much as I did 20 years ago. The mountains are always so beautiful and the area is very family friendly. Not only did I go there as a child but I helped take care of Jay and Olivia on many Cowan Family vacations there. The memories are endless. I always talk to Ryan about my memories there and through these talks found out that he had NEVER been. I knew I had to be the one to change that!

This was in 2008 ....Jay is now 16.

Cowan Family Vacation 

The weather was terrible and rained the entire weekend. We did not get to go to Dollywood but there is always another trip. However, we did make it to a couple of dinner shows, went site seeing, shopped, ate more homemade goodies than we needed to and acted like kids again by playing in an arcade all night. We did not have cell phone service for most of the trip which was actually really nice. Sometimes we need to relax, enjoy nature, and get away from all the emails, texting, and phone calls.

Our first stop was to tour the Titanic Museum. My feet were killing me after this because it is huge. The exhibit itself was great and actually had real artifacts from the boat. There was a violin that was played on the boat until it finally sank. He strapped it to his chest and it was salvaged even though he did not make it. The violin is only on exhibit for a few weeks and will then be sent back to London and auctioned off. They are saying that the numbers will start with six figures. We were not allowed to take pictures inside or I would have a picture to show you.

We found it interesting that they can make and sale moonshine in the middle of town. We of course had to check it out. I will say it was pretty interesting to watch it in person and see what all they do. The smell on the other hand...I was not a fan of!

Ryan loves history as I have mentioned before. He also loved when the series came out about the Hatfields and McCoys. Needless to say we went to the dinner show while on our trip. It was a lot of fun and the food was DELISH!

Traveling always involves good food. Here are a few of the things we had over our weekend trip!

The Apple Barn 

Pancake Pantry 

I am sure I am leaving out some fun things that we did but you at least get a glimpse of what I remember!! 

I'm off to Baton Rouge for the week for work. I hope to get another post in sometime while I am gone. After move ins of all of our residents I should be back a little more often. For now I'm giving all I can but I hope you at least enjoy that much of me! 

Have a great week!