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Friday, October 30, 2015

Gavin's Halloween Walk & Party at School

I took a vacation day on Friday from work so I could hang out with Gavin at school for his Halloween party.  We started the afternoon off with lunch.  PSA:  School lunch pizza definitely doesn't taste the same as it did when I was in school.  Blah!  



And then a little bit later it was workout time to get this kid in this blue ninja costume.  My sister sent me a text earlier saying good luck with the costume and if I can't figure it out, just look at the picture.  Seriously!?!  There is 875 pieces to this costume!  Next year let him be a ghost - one white sheet!!  HAHA!  


Once everyone was changed into their costumes and given their treat bags, along with some instruction, we were out the door on a little jaunt through Rockport to collect and eat candy!  Businesses and some individuals were lined up and down Main Street passing out candy to all of the elementary school kids in Gavin's school.  




A few familiar faces of friends and family!





  

After the trick-or-treating on Main Street, we headed back to the school for a Halloween party!  




Gavin with his teacher.  This picture cost me THREE Mixels and a box of Trolli gummy worms!  I don't know why he has to be a stinker like that!  


I've always loved making treat bags at Halloween time.  I'm sure it goes back to the time when we were kids growing up and mom made treat bags to pass out to the kids!  So needless to say, I was uber-excited to make treat bags for Gavin's class party today.  I had those babies stuffed full of goodness!  Each bag had a pencil, coloring book, M&M's, Laffy Taffy, Nerds, SweetTarts, Starburst, Bubble Gum, Lifesaver gummies, Skittles, and Suckers, and then some had stickers, erasers, and vampire teeth!  




Happy Halloween!!

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Gatlinburg Vacay 2015: Day 8, Saturday, October 24

I'm sad to say this is our last day of vacation and it's time to pack up and head home :(  I'm definitely going to miss being here, but I'm looking forward to being back at home with all of my furbabies.  We didn't get to do everything I had planned for us to do, so we'll have to come back and do them, and lots more that I'll find for us to do, along with some of our old favorite places to visit!

We got up pretty early this morning and got ready, finished packing, and then loaded up the car.  When the Glenn's travel, we look like the Clampett's with all of the stuff we take!  This picture is minus the set of golf clubs, camera bag, cooler, snack bag, and 85 jackets and coats that were already in the car!



Time always got away from us and we never had a chance to stop at any of the pull-offs for pictures in front of the signs, so here is a quick one taken with the selfie stick on our last morning.  My camera and lens won't stay on the tri-pod I have, or the one I borrowed for vacation, so this was it.  I'm so glad I bought that selfie stick!  HAHA!!


The whole week, we never got a chance to stop for breakfast at any of the pancake houses either, so we made a stop at the Log Cabin Pancake House.  We ate here one time while on our last vacation and it was yummy so this is where I wanted to go this morning.


As usual, the line was out the door and once inside the place was PACKED with people!


Shawn ordered a sausage and cheese omelet and strawberry crepes, and then I ordered the spicy apple french toast breakfast that comes with sausage links, and I added two hard fried eggs  The food was just as yummy as I remembered it.





After dealing with the traffic trying to get to the restaurant, the traffic trying to get out of the restaurant, and then the traffic at the gas station, I was ready to get the heck out of dodge!  We both wanted to make a stop at the outlet malls, but after all that, I turned that car on the Dolly Parton Parkway and took the back roads all the way into Seiverville to avoid all that mess.  I definitely don't have the patience to sit in all that traffic.  I'm so thankful that we never really encountered any of the traffic that most people talk about while we were here.  

I found this Snickers candy bar's wrapper appropriate for my mood at one of our stops on the way home and bought it!  I had a headache the whole way home!


We were blessed with absolutely beautiful weather the whole week, except the day we left and it rained and was cloudy the whole way home.  


We got home around 6:00 p.m. and came in to discover this ham bone in this house with Nan and all of our furbabies!



Yes, you can say they missed their mommy! And their mommy missed them. Hershey and Reese are laying on me, Molly is close by, and Sassy is laying there thinking "I'm glad you are home Stace, now get your dogs away from my mom!"  


I would say that Molly has missed me the most!  She hasn't stopped talking to me and telling me about it since the moment we came in the house.  


I always like to get right on top of the laundry once we come back from vacation, otherwise it'll take me forever to get it going.  Thankful that the ham bone was at my house.  He was a big helper to me!




After unpacking, loving on my animals, and doing laundry, me and little man hit the hay and he was snug as a bug in a rug sleeping in Uncle Shawn's spot!


Vacation is over, and reality has set in.  We had a GREAT time on vacation and can't wait to go back.  Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mountains are one of my favorite places to be.  We were so blessed with awesome weather and sights.  Seeing all those bears definitely thrilled me!  I also loved exploring all of the new places we went, restaurants we tried, and making new memories.  But most of all I loved spending some quality time with my husband.  We both work hard, and work different hours, so we don't get to spend alot of time together.  I'm thankful for God putting him in my life at just the right time.  God's timing is always perfect!  


Gatlinburg Vacay 2015: Day 7, Friday, October 23

Today was our last full day of vacation.  Shawn had plans to golf this morning at Seiverville Country Club and I was going to drop him off and then hopefully make another trip to Cades Cove while he was golfing.  Thursday evening's situation with the car changed those plans for me :( As we were getting in the car to leave Cherokee, North Carolina - 42 miles away from our motel - the check engine light came on in the Acadia.  I instantly got stomach cramps and was afraid to drive the car.  See we just had a new transmission put in the car literally 3 days before we left for vacation.  While we've been gone this week, I had noticed earlier in the week that the car was making a whirling/puttering sound when we were going up the mountains, and Shawn mentioned that maybe we had gotten a hole in the exhaust.  Shawn said the check engine light probably came on because of that and that everything was going to be fine.  I wasn't so sure.  We've had more problems then I care to talk about with the Acadia and anytime a light comes on on the dash, I'm a nervous wreck!  

Because of last nights car situation, this morning I opted to stay at the motel so I could sleep in and get caught up on my pictures and blogging and told him to take the car golfing, and then after he got finished golfing, he was going to take the car by AutoZone and have them hook it up to their code machine.  The machine gave us a code that said the intake manifold system was open.  Whatever that means.  Shawn called our mechanic and also the GM dealer in Knoxville, and they both said it was fine to drive for the rest of our vacation and on the way home, and to just bring it in to the shop when we get back, so that's what we'll do.

After he got back from golfing around 2:30 p.m., he picked me up and we headed to a late lunch at No Way Jose's Cantina.  We ate there Saturday night when we got in town and it was so yummy that I had been craving it again and wanted to eat there one more time before we left town.  We ate at their location in Pigeon Forge on this particular day and the food and everything was just as delicious as the Gatlinburg location.  And Shawn and I both ordered the exact same meals.  I definitely recommend this place if you are in the area!







After lunch, we drove the back roads over to the Greenbrier picnic area and the Pittman Center area.  I put the Pittman area in the GPS and it took us the backroads around Gatlinburg which is what I wanted.  And when I say back roads, I seriously mean back roads.  It's definitely not the roads I thought it was going to take us on.  These were some of the narrowest 2 lane roads I've ever seen in my life, around the mountains and up and down the mountains.  There was some definitely amazing views though!




At the Pittman Center there was supposed to be a covered bridge, however we never could find it, and honestly I'm not even sure we were even  in the correct area of the Pittman Center!  We ended up just turning onto the highway and headed to Greenbrier.

Greenbrier is an off-the-beaten-path part of the park that is often forgotten about it.  There is about 6 miles of gravel roads that run along Little Pigeon River and beautiful views!  The roads also take you to two popular trailheads, and there is some nice picnic areas in here.  Definitely a return spot the next time we are in the area.







It was our last night of vacation and Shawn had been wanting to play putt-putt at this mountainside course for a while.  They have two 18-hole courses so we paid for both and off we went.  Even though it was a little chilly outside, fat girl here had to take her jacket off cause I was sweating up a storm climbing all the steps up the side of the mountain that are on these courses!  I won the first game we played and Shawn won the second game we played.  



This hole on the first course definitely gave us a challenge!  HAHA!!  See that leaf on the board on the left side of the picture?  Well my ball hit it and rolled back into that corner and got stuck.  There was no way to get it either.  So Shawn took his ball and gave it a good hit hoping to knock my ball out, only he hit his ball so hard, it went off the course and went rolling down the hill.  So there we were, stuck in the middle of the putt-putt course and no balls.  HAHA!!  Thankfully some girls came along behind us and the taller one was able to lean over the railing and use her club to push my ball giving it a nudge and moving it back onto the course.  It was definitely a challenge and a workout by all four of us to get that ball! Shawn and I had to finish that course sharing my pink golf ball!  On the next course we played, Shawn picked up an extra ball just in case!



Since we had a late lunch, we had a late dinner.  Not many places are open that late and we happened upon the Happy Days Diner for dinner.  I had the Cadillac cheeseburger and loaded fries, and then Shawn had the Speedster burger with grilled onions and mushrooms and regular fries.  It was good and someplace we'd definitely return to.






We stopped in a parking lot and watched the Ferris wheel changes colors for a few minutes and then headed back to the hotel to start packing and get to bed.