Family, Fun and Food Poisioning!!!!

Sorry, guys, it's been so long. Life has been crazy. Anyway, I figured I'd better blog about Gatlinburg. We had a great time. The first weekend we stayed in Townsend with two other families: Joe and LaDonna Covert, and Darrell and Michelle Jones. It was a great time of catching up, and relaxation. LaDonna also took our annual family pictures (the new ones you see pictured here on this page). It was fun, they turned out great, and it's always good to get that little "chore" behind us for another year. On Monday, we headed over to Pigeon Forge to find our other cabin that we had rented for the rest of our time away. The name of our cabin was "Mountaintop Splendor". Well...they didn't give it that name for nothin'. It was a long, steep, steep climb to the top, but it was really nice once we finally made it to the summit. Here is what awaited us when we finally "arrived".

On Monday afternoon we decided to go to Dollywood for the afternoon. If you go after 3:00 you get the next day free. Monday was very chilly (as you can see the children all have their coats on), so since the Festival of Nations was going on, we decided to do the "inside" things. We enjoyed several things that day. It was nice, and the kids really enjoyed it, as they had never been to Dollywood.

On Tuesday, the weather was a bit warmer, and we decided to go to Ripley's Aquarium. We spent several hours there enjoying all there is to see there. We ate a late lunch, then headed back to Pigeon Forge to ride go carts and then go to the Comedy Barn. On the way back to our cabin we stopped at Kroger and decided to grab some frozen dinners to fix back at the cabin, enjoy the hot tub, and relax for a while. We did that. Paul had decided on a chicken dinner, and while he was eating it, he mentioned that it tasted like it had been frozen and thawed several times, it tasted "mushy", as he put it. The bed that was in the master bedroom was not very comfortable, and was hurting my back, so I decided to sleep upstairs that night in a more comfortable bed. The next morning, I'm awakened to the sound of my dear husband being violently ill. Unknown to me, he had been up several times in the night, etc. Well...since Dollywood wasn't open on Tuesday, we were planning to go back for our "free" day on Wednesday. Now that he's sick, I'm wondering what to do. Do I go to Dollywood with the children by myself. The day was already paid for, and we didn't feel like we had gotten our money's worth on Monday. Besides, what about all of the rides (we hadn't ridden any on Monday because it was so cold). Needless to say, we all ended up going, while Paul sat in the van for a while, then later decided to accompany us in the park for awhile. We must have been a site. Paul rubbing his stomach every little while, parking himself frequently on a bench, and constantly looking for the nearest restroom. We are certain that it was food poisoning from the frozen dinner that he had eaten the night before. It was a bum way to end the vacation, but there must have been a reason.

Thursday morning we woke, and started the process of loading everything up to make the journey home. Oh, I forgot to tell you, Makayla threw up while we were in the park at Dollywood. As certain as we thought we were about Paul having food poisoning, we began to question if this could possibly be a virus of some sort. My prayer Wednesday night was that the Lord would get us home safely and without anyone else getting sick along the way. I was dreading the trip, but God answered both of those prayers. We arrived home about 5:45, unloaded the van, and Paul and Jonathan made a flying trip to Lafayette, as I had gotten a call while were away that they were out of gift baskets, and needed the next order ASAP. I was scheduled to deliver more on Monday, but they said they couldn't wait. So...Friday night I assembled 100 gift baskets, and fell into bed.

Here are some pictures of us on some of the rides that we enjoyed at Dollywood.

Makayla ready to get us "home". We're pretty well loaded up and ready to get home.

It was great to get away, and can't wait to do it again. Minus the food poisioning next time, please!

I have lots more to blog about, since it's been a month since I've written. I will try to get those things posted soon. But for now, since it's after 1:00 a.m. I best call it a day. Good night.