Birthday Weekend, Continued...The Great Smoky Mountains!

Back in May, 2010, Keith and his groomsmen visited Gatlinburg for Keith's bachelor party weekend.  While there, they had visited the Smoky Mountains, but I had never been.

It was such a beautiful day, and I didn't want to waste a second of it.

What a better way to spend a day than climbing a mountain, right? :)

 

As we headed up the mountain, we would stop for
breath-taking views and amazing pictures. Like this one ;)

At the top (almost!) ;)
This is as far as we could go with our car.

 

Snow at the top of the mountain
 

We parked Fiona and started climbing!

A mile and half to be exact!

It was a tough climb--

I hope there aren't any hills like that

when I'm running the Flying Pig Marathon!

We made it!!

 

It was extremely windy up there!

 

I love being in 2 places at once!

 

 

 

After the Smokies, we quickly headed back to the cabin, 

changed, and headed to the Dixie Stampede.
The Dixie Stampede is a dinner theater show that I have
always loved going to since I was little.
I've been to the Dixie Stampede in both Gatlinburg and Myrtle Beach.
This was Keith's first experience, and I definitely don't think it will be his last!

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of the evening

because you are only allowed to take pictures before and after

the show.

Of course I stayed up until midnight (just barely!)
to welcome in my birthday!
Happy 28th to me!

My BiRtHdAy WeEkEnD, Day 2

As many of you know, I LOVE to sleep!

Sleeping could quite possibly be one of my most favorite things to do.

It doesn't matter what time I go to bed, I could easily sleep 12+ hours.

(Do I have a problem?!?!)

It's funny, though, when you're on vacation, you don't mind getting up so early! ha

The second day of our trip, we woke up and headed to Dixie Stampede to pick up our tickets for the show that night and our Aquarium tickets.

While we were there, we walked the grounds and met some of the stars of tonight's show!

This is Poncho:  

The only horse that would show us his face and not his butt.

The Dixie Stampede was already set up for their Christmas Show!

We then headed to Hard Rock Cafe Gatlinburg.

 

   

 

 

After our delicious meal, we traveled to Ripley's Believe it or Not! Aquarium.

This was the gorgeous view from our parking space.

 

We saw and learned so many cool things!

Giant Sea Turtle

Saw Shark

Scary!

Look at all of those stingrays!

Keith petting a stingray

 It took us about 2 hours to tour the Aquarium.

But I wasn't ready to head home yet!

Next stop: The Smoky Mountains!

(Which needs a whole post of its own!)

Birthday Weekend

As I have expressed before, this school year is a tough one for me!  

As Keith and I were discussing my birthday wish list, I decided to scrap the presents and wished for a weekend get-a-way instead.  

Being the fantastic husband that he is, Keith planned a fun weekend to 

Gatlinburg, Tennessee 

November 5-7th!

 

Here's the view from our cabin's porch!

 

Keith is getting the big bug off of our hot tub!

  

I quickly found my favorite spot of the weekend! 

There were two rocking chairs over looking the beautiful mountains...

so peaceful!

Fiona the Ford was a beast this weekend! Our cabin was located at the top of a 

VERY steep hill!

It was no trouble for Fiona though!

For dinner, we ate at the Smokey Mountain Brewery and Restaurant!

So delicious!

 Keith tested out the sampler....

                 

....and I had the BEST pumpkin beer I've ever tasted!

If pumpkin pie could be liquid, this is what it would have tasted like!

After dinner we walked the town!

We had to stop and take a picture of this since Keith's sister, Keri,

calls him "dude" all of the time!

This pic's for you Keri!

We then stopped and sampled moonshine!

After the beer at the brewery and the samples of moonshine,

we were feeling great!

Our next stop was the Sky Lift.

Whenever anyone talks about Gatlinburg,

I always hear that they did the Sky Lift.

I've never been on it, so I talked Keith into going!

 

It was fun, but definitely not worth the $26 we paid to go.

If you're going to Gatlinburg, skip the Sky Lift.

We then headed home to jump in our hot tub!

 

After the hot tub, we decided to make a fire in our fire place.

My original idea was to make S'Mores, but after everything

we ate at dinner, I was toooooo stuffed!

It looks pretty though!

Off to bed for a night of sweet dreams of what's to come tomorrow!

Blog Hiatus

Hello again blogger world!  After close to two months away from my blog (eek!) I've decided to revisit our blog.  I thought the best place to start was by shedding our summer look (good-bye cute giraffe background) and donning a fabulous fall one.  I hope to stay more up to date with this blog, but I am also managing a classroom blog which keeps me quite busy.  

Motivate me blogger friends!