Home Sweet Home

After 3 hours in the car today we are finally home and unpacked. We are enjoying our last night of vacation as a family, Daddy has to go back to work tomorrow, but Momma has the next 2 days off.

When we got home we were so glad to see Gram, Megan especially. She missed her best friend and was so excited to tell her all about our trip (in Megan speak of course). Gram commented how much she has grown in the 9 days we were gone and it really is true. She is getting to be such a little person of her own, not just a baby.

Speaking of our little person, we were excited to see a sneak peak of some of the photos that MckMama did in Knoxville TN. We anxiously looked through through them and came across this cutie:

Does anyone recognize her??

What do you think? We LOVE it and can’t wait to see the rest of the pictures of Megan and our little family. I’ll share as soon as I can, but for now I am going to snuggle with my family and enjoy those last few hours of Storming the South 2011.

Storming the South Day 7

Due to the fact that I am really tired tonight and trying to pack up, as we leave tomorrow, this will be a short, picture heavy post.

Today we decided to check out 2 state parks not far from our resort. We started with the closest one which had a lovely lake to walk around and a bridge/dam that created a beautiful waterfall.

Don’t try this at home!! Megan and I did some serious off roading to check out the waterfall.

But the risk was worth it, what a view!!

Continuing with what turned out to be a waterfall themed day, we headed over to “the highest waterfall this side of the Rockies.”

Falls Creek Falls really is the highest waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains measuring an astounding 256 feet. It was truly breathtaking. For such a large waterfall it was hard to tell where the water went, it seemed to just go into the rocks below.

Over the past 7 days I have been amazed time and time again by the beauty of this great state of TN. We are sad to be leaving tomorrow. Everyone here is so friendly and nice and the time we have spent as a family is truly unforgettable.

Since this is our last night we decided that we couldn’t leave TN without trying some local Bar-B-Q, as well as indulging in some ice cream from a cute stand we saw on the way into town.

Both were absolutely wonderful, though I am ashamed to admit we did eat our ice-cream first. We had to be sure we had room.

Tomorrow we will be heading out in the morning for the first half of our trip home, we are hoping to spend the night in Indy again, as long as the weather and Buggy cooperate.

Storming the South Day 6

Look out Music City, the Stormes are heading your way!! Megan was up bright and early this morning, so we got an early jump on our trip to Nashville. It took us about 1.5 hours to get there and thankfully the Buggy slept most of the way. The one thing that this trip has taught us is that even the best 15 month old can get sick of her car seat.

On the advise of a fellow Wisconsinite turned TN resident that we met when she was assisting MckMama with the photo shoots on Tues, we headed to the Opryland Hotel. Since we knew nothing about it and are not that into country music our expectations were not that high. Therefore, when we walked through the doors from the $18 self parking lot, we were blown away.

The inside of the hotel is like an extravagant city, with botanical gardens, a river, shopping, and at least 10 restaurants. It would give even the glitziest Vegas casino/hotel a run for its money.

Most of the rooms overlook the botanical garden called the Cascades because of all the waterfalls.

After spending 2 hours exploring the hotel we headed to the next stop on our Music City Tour. It was raining in the morning, but luckily had cleared up by afternoon so that we could enjoy one of Nashville’s most well known parks.

Centennial Park is not just a beautiful place to enjoy the outdoors, but is also the home to “The Parthenon.”

This is a life-size replica of the monument in Greece.

It is not only in the middle of the Big City of Nashville, but also a lovely park with many ponds.

Megan loved talking to and feeding the ducks and we were lucky she only tried to eat one stick.

After the park we headed back “home,” which is what we call the condo since we have been here for so many days. We have been meaning to get down to the playground at the end of our condo row and finally found the time tonight. Being there with Megan and watching her enjoy the toys, especially the slide, makes us anxious for warmer weather to come to WI.

She rode the swing with Daddy

Drove the boat

And of course went up and down and up and down the slide. That girl has no fear!!

After a fall that scared her more than hurt her Megan was done with the playground, so we headed out for a nice walk around one of the lakes.

What a wonderful way to end an amazing day with those that I love the most in the world.

Tomorrow being our last full day in TN we are planning on exploring some of the many state parks that are right around our resort, hoping for the good weather to hold on for one more day.

Storming the South Day 5

Todays itinerary included a pontoon boat ride around a lake on the resort, doing some shopping, and a trip to the swimming pool. The weather here was in the 70’s and sunny, a perfect day for enjoying the Fairfield Glade nature.

The resort offers daily pontoon rides around Dartmoor Lake, this was Megan’s first time on a boat and she did surprisingly well. The ride lasted about an hour and there wasn’t a lot of room, but all the retirees on board thought she was great and were happy to entertain her.

She really enjoyed standing on the seat and looking out at the lake

The only tricky thing was making sure she didn’t throw anything in

This lake is not for the penny pincher, houses surrounding it go for $400,000 at the least and go up to $5 million.

Mike and I are thinking about buying a vacation home, anyone want to pitch in?

A pleasant surprise when we arrived at the lake was the small beach that was open to resort guests. Megan has never been to the beach before, so it was a great opportunity. She wasn’t too sure about walking around on the sand.

But once she started walking with Daddy, all bets were off and she thought the sand was really fun

Touching and running her hands through the sand was so much fun…

She thought maybe eating it would be too, Not so much!! Overall, her first boat and beach experience were great, hopefully next time we can leave the sand at the beach and not take it home in our tummies.

Following dinner we headed over to the indoor pool to burn off some of Buggy’s energy before bed. The pool is really big so even when there are a lot of families there you still have room to play. Megan loves floating around in her tube…

and of course playing with the beach ball, which she calls a “Baa”. No better way to end a fun day then a relaxing swim with the family.

Tomorrow we are off to Nashville, we can’t wait to see what adventures await us in the Music City.

Storming the South Day 4

Gatlinburg or bust was our motto of the day. We headed east with the goal of seeing some mountains, exploring Gatlinburg, and possibly doing some “easy” hiking. Little did we know that the Smoky Mountain National Park version of “easy” hiking involved a 1.3mile climb STRAIGHT up the mountain. Well, maybe not straight, but it sure seemed that way to this out of shape family. The benefit of this hike was that it led to an amazing waterfall and gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains and nature.

Climbing up

Long way down and we weren’t even at the top yet

By the waterfall, Megan was mesmerized by it, we could barely get her to look away

The rushing water, it really was worth the climb

Our abbreviated exploration of downtown Gatlinburg served as reinforcement of our decision to stay in a smaller resort town. Just being in the throngs of tourists, shops, and attractions for a short time was overwhelming. It was definitely fun to visit, but we wouldn’t want to “live” there.

Megan did run into an old friend in one of the shops

We also had a great lunch, here are Megan and Daddy enjoying a Southern Catfish Sandwich (she really liked it)

Last of all I just thought I’d show you how bad Megan has it:

The  poor girl hasn’t any toys to play with or people to talk to in the car, so she has to resort to playing with her socks. It really is sad isn’t it

Storming the South Day 3

Today was a very busy and exciting day here in the South. We headed out bright and early to the nearby town of Knoxville, TN. Little did we know, that the time changed on our way there and we were not nearly as early as we thought. Since we had our photo shoot at 2:20 losing an hour called for some quick rearranging of plans. We ended up grabbing a quick lunch at a little hole in the wall café and heading right over to the Botanical Gardens to meet MckMama.

For those of you who don’t know her, MckMama is big in the blogosphere. I heard her called “the Oprah of the blogging world” today and think that is really fitting. She is actually from MN, our neighbor to the west, but is here in TN on a cross country RVing adventure with her 5 children, 1 husband, and puppy. That is one full RV! When we heard that she was going to be in TN taking photos while we were here, we just knew it was a once in a lifetime experience that we couldn’t pass up.

Here we are outside one of the really beautiful old buildings at the gardens. Megan may look shy, but she fell in love with Jennifer right away and gave her some of her heart warming smiles. Unfortunately the rest of the MckFam was off exploring a nearby cave, so we didn’t get to meet them, maybe some other time. Our photo shoot was a blast and the time just flew by, I can’t wait to see the awesome shots that I know were captured.

We were able to wander around the gardens on our own some and Megan thought it was great, there were tons of new things to explore:

Like grass, she’s not sure she likes to walk on it, but thinks it’s fun to touch.

Then there were sticks which she thought looked like a good snack. YUM Fiber!

Or maybe they are better to lead a parade with:

:

Nope, right the first time, they make a really good snack.

It was great to just spend time enjoying each other in such a beautiful setting. Everything happens for a reason and without the photo shoot and meeting MckMama we never would have found this place or had this time enjoying nature as a family.

Thanks for the Great opportunity!!!