Nick and I took the kids on our first family vacation last week! We've been on vacations with Dom before but we've always had someone else with us. Like Nick's mom or Nick's family or just someone. But this was a vacation, just us. It was tough, but well worth it.
We went to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, TN and had a BLAST. Dominick loved it. Except the extremely long car ride part. That part he hated. Actually, but the time we got there, he was screaming to go back to "Dommie's House". It was sad. But the next day made up for it.
We left on Tuesday morning and got there Tuesday night at about 11:00 eastern time. We stopped a lot. A LOT a lot. I guess that's what happens when you drive that far with two kiddos.
So we didn't do anything on Tuesday really.
Wednesday morning we took the kids to the condo pool and Dom loved it. We just signed him up for swim lessons (which he starts on Tuesday) and he loves the pool. We actually couldn't get him out of the pool. Then I hit up the local "Food City" and got some groceries and we ordered pizza from Big Daddy's Pizzeria. We laid low for the rest of the day and then took the kids to a kid's amusement park in the evening.
Holy cow, it was the coolest thing Dom had ever done. He did swings and airplanes and a train and a sizzler and the carousel and the train again. Then Nick and I wanted to do the big 3 level go cart track so we each got a ticket and were going to take turns watching the kids and riding, but Dom wouldn't let us go without him. He rode the big huge scary go cart ride with Nick once and with me once. This kid is a little dare devil.
That was enough for one night. Then on Thursday we took the kids to "Splash Country" which is Dollywood's water park. I didn't do much but sit in the shade with AJ, but Nick and Dom did some rides. They did the Mountain Twist family raft slide and a few other slides. Then Dom and I did the lazy river. Then Dom played in the kids area for like an hour. After the water park we decided to drive to Gatlinburg and check out the mountains. It was beautiful. Their strip was awesome too. Hard Rock Cafe and other bar/clubs. It would be a place to go without the kids some time. :)
Friday was time to leave. We chose a short trip on purpose but then it seemed too short and the drive too long. So we packed up and left Pigeon Forge and drove to Louisville, KY and decided to stay there for the night. We got tickets to see the "Louisville Bats" play. They are the Cincinnati Reds AAA team. It was a fun night with the kids and nice weather. After the game (well we only stayed for 6 innings...the kids got restless) we went to Joe's Crab Shack on the water. Then we went back to the hotel and crashed.
We got back on the road Saturday morning and was home by 4:30 pm.
I had a great time but a family vacation with two very young ones and no other help is TOUGH. I'm SO glad we did it but we might need to enlist in some help next vacation, whenever that may be!
All in all, our first family vacation was a success!
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