Dollywood! And other adventures with B-train

B wanted to come home in December, but also wanted to work as much as he could. So he decided to come home for a week before Christmas so that he could get hours before and after Christmas when most other employees would be gone. It was SO fun to have him home.

Meeting Bumble and Scoot for the first time.

He wasn't impressed.

I love B's silliness and miss having him around.

We never have time to do ALL our traditions while

B is at home, so I usually ask him which ones he

prefers that we do with him.

This year, one of them was gingerbread houses.

Or maybe we should just call them gingerbread creations,

since I'm the only one who makes an actual house. :)

Whitney made my least favorite cat, Bingus.

I really don't like him,

but her creation IS super cute.

Brandon made a model of his VW Passat that is on

it's last leg. Ha!

Caroline made a little creation of her on the silks.

Can you see it?

It took me a minute.

The green lines are her silks.

The red line is her legs in a split.

And she's hanging upside-down

with her yellow ponytail dangling.

So cute!

Andrew's getting ready to have a surgery to repair

his Achilles tendon in January. He made a little model

of his foot/heel demonstrating the work that Dr. Hewitt

will be doing next month.

Here's my little house.

It seems super boring compared to the rest of my family.

But I like just making houses. :)

We ended up having a couple different gift-opening sessions

over Christmas. 

We had a fake Christmas morning where

B got to open all of his gifts. And we opened a few family gifts.

Including Operation,

which was kinda fun to play.

It's hard!

B is a really good gift-giver.

He's very thoughtful.

He got Drew a Cam Newton football card.

He got me some fun lenses that I can

attach to my phone camera. They'll be perfect

to take on hikes.

We had fun testing out the fish-eye lens. Ha!

He got Whitney an awesome art book.

Bear got him a couple of albums for his turntable.

We also made sure to have our scrumptious Christmas Eve

feast with him before he left.

Love it.

Artichokes, crab legs, shrimp, mac and cheese, rolls,

mashed potatoes. And grasshopper pie for dessert. Mmmmm.

We also got to take a little road trip to Tennessee to visit Dollywood!

Yippee!

We had never been.

But it was FANTASTIC.

We had the best time!

The rides are awesome, but I have very few pics of them,

because I was too busy riding them.

You'll have to take my word for it.

At one of the gas stations we stopped at in TN,

they sold Red Velvet Milk.

Sounded too good to pass up.

And it WAS really good.

Super sweet, though.

We also passed a factory that makes Bush's beans.

And they have a GIANT can of baked beans outside.

One of the things that Dollywood is known for is 

their cinnamon bread that is made fresh daily.

It's not the traditional cinnamon bread.

Almost more like cinnamon rolls in a loaf form.

It was so hyped up that I decided we needed to try it.

I think the line to buy the bread was the longest line

I waited in the whole two days we were there....

It's crazy.

They also sell a 25 pound apple pie.

For $190 dollars.

Whoa.

And other yummy treats.

The cinnamon bread was good,

but to me it wasn't worth the 45 minutes I stood in line.

Call me crazy.

Swings with the girls.

Drew tried the basketball shooting game in the midway.

He won a Golden State Warriors banner

that we sold on eBay. :)

One of the perks of having big kids is you 

can split up for a while and do different parts 

of the park so that everyone is happy.

Loved having some time to myself with Andrew.

We also booked two separate hotel rooms,

which was kinda nice.

This is the Mystery Mine coaster.

It was one of our favorites. It's a super fine ride with some

twists and turns that you don't see coming.

I rode it twice with the kids,

but they wanted to do it even more than that.

It's herky jerky, so not a good ride for Drew. 

Hi, Care Bear, Whit, and B-train!

I love having all five of us together!

The park was all decked out for Christmas and it was gorgeous.

We got two-day passes.

The first day we stayed from open until it almost closed.

The second day we got there when it opened again,

but only stayed half a day and then drove home.

This family selfie didn't work so well.

Ha!

This was one of our FAVORITES,

called Fire Chaser express.

You get to go both forward and backward and it is SO FUN.

We probably rode it six or seven times while we were there.

This family pic worked a little better.

My kids are such good sports.

At one point B asked, "Mom, are we going

to have to take a picture in front of EVERY pretty

glowing thing?"

These were butterflies in the tree that I thought were really pretty.

The little main square is SO CUTE.

I'm not a fan of bumper cars.

I think I got whiplash on them once.

But everyone else was excited to do them.

So I got to be the photographer. :)

They had a blast.

Cool eagle statue.

Funnel Cakes.

Yes.

Y'all.

I don't know how he managed it,

but we talked Andrew into doing the Drop Line with us.

It is a 230 foot fall.

And he didn't even cry.

He had his eyes closed the whole time.

But still! I was super impressed!

That is high up there!!!

Hi, Whit, Bear, and B-train!

They wanted to do it twice,

but once was enough for me and Drew.

Our other favorite ride that I don't have any pics of

was the Wild Eagle. It is super fast and REALLY fun,

but hardly ever had a long line. At one point we rode

it back-to-back-to-back without even waiting.

It was awesome.

We went to one show. It was a Christmas-back-home-

in-the-Smokey-Mountains type show.

It was cheesy, but the performers were great.

The kids and I enjoyed it.

Andrew fell asleep at the beginning and napped

through most of the it.

We loved our time at Dollywood.

Would definitely be happy to go again.

One of the nights that B was in town,

the youth at church had a skating activity.

Hi, Piper, Caroline and KK!

And Whitney was working.

So we took B out to Celebration Station.

The place was pretty quiet.

We almost had it to ourselves.

Played some pool.

Dominated Space Invaders.

"Spade" is one of the other Advantage Players

around here, so we were happy to top his score. :)

Mariokart

We also raced outside in go-karts.

I won.

Ha! Apparently I cheated, but I didn't know I was supposed to wait

for the guys to start. So I just went as soon as they said I could

and I never turned back.

Also, B came home sick. He had COVID tested right before he flew, so he knew it wasn't COVID, but he had a huge swollen lymph node in his throat and felt pretty bad. On the day we were supposed to leave for Dollywood, I thought we were going to have to cancel our trip. I took him to an urgent care place and he was diagnosed as having an infected lymph node and the PA said it was OK for him to travel. So we picked up a prescription for antibiotics and a couple bottles of Gatorade and we hit the road. He was a trouper at Dollywood because many of the restraints for the rides come down over your shoulders and would hit him right in the lymph node when we jerked around. But he didn't complain much and walked all those miles with us. We walked over 8 miles the first day and about 5 miles the second. Speaking of troupers, I was honestly afraid we were going to have to rent a wheelchair for Andrew. His heels just can't handle walking long distance, especially when it's hilly like Dollywood is. But he hung in there like a champ and didn't complain, either. 

I'm grateful for these memories made with my five favorite people. B is still dating Morgan. Since her parents live in Nashville, I was honestly hoping that she might be able to meet us at Dollywood. But she was coming out the following week, so we didn't get to see her. Amusement parks are generally better with an even number of people. Maybe she can join us next time.

And B got his wish for his car to die. About two weeks after he went home, the Passat bit the bullet. He had already spent a big chunk of change to have the cooling system repaired. And then the transmission went out. So frustrating. He's been carless for a month and will be buying our van from us soon.