Our Home Away from Home | Family Vacation to Tennessee

For the last 4 years we’ve looked forward to traveling down to one of our most favorite places on Earth; Tennessee! We absolutely have enjoyed each and every trip thus far, and can’t wait to return. We have even talked about moving there some day, God-willing.

What do we love so much about Tennessee? Well, the people are super friendly, we LOVE the mountains and how beautiful they are, hiking and being outdoors, and the food. Overall, it’s just a really happy and relaxing place to be. My late grandparents traveled there all the time, so I think it’s just meant to be that we familiarize ourselves with this wonderful state. We have so much more to explore there!

For the last 3 years we rented a cabin to stay in. It’s always neat to see what your home away from home will look like, and cabins are just the cutest! This year we decided to rent one through Airbnb, and we were pretty pleased. However, when we arrived on our first day, we found that a lot of the cabins were destroyed by the fire (so devastating!). We truly couldn’t believe that our cabin had not been touched by the flames since the cabins on each side of us were under construction.

This trip was also a little different since it was just myself, Brandon, Kipton, and Sophie. Briana unfortunately couldn’t join us, but there will be plenty more trips that she’ll be able to go on. My parents and sister normally go with us, but they were also not along for this one. Hopefully we’ll get a big family trip planned for 2018/2019!

Each year seems more difficult to leave TN to come back home, so I just think we’re meant to be there. Enjoy some photos from our 2017 family trip to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN!

10/21/1710/22/17On Sunday we went to Ober Gatlinburg for the Fall Fest. Sophie got her face painted, we rode the scenic chairlift (just Sophie and I because poor Kipton is afraid of heights), ate yummy food, and went through a maze. 

These phone pictures do not do this view justice. It’s INCREDIBLE!Where’s Waldo?10/23/17What do you do when it rains in TN? Play air hockey or watch a movie! The rain didn’t last too long. We eventually headed to The Island in Pigeon Forge where the kids had a blast at the arcade, we did a little shopping, Brandon sampled some moonshine, we listened to an awesome bluegrass band, and we had pizza at Mellow Mushroom.10/24/17Here we are at the Cherokee Indian Museum in North Carolina. (This did not interest the kids, although they look rather entertained. LOL!) The town of Cherokee was kind of neat.Relaxing back at our little cabin was one of our favorite things to do.We went out later that evening to the main strip of Pigeon Forge for a snack. Any guesses as to what we had? 😉 (Blueberry cake donuts are THEBOMB.COM!)
10/25/17Exploring the Great Smoky Mountains National Park!Rock climbers!We found a cute little joint on the side of the road that allowed the kids to find gems. They loved it!We took a little walk through our cabin’s neighborhood, Gatlinburg Falls. Okay, maybe I should say HIKE because STEEP HILLS, y’all.
10/26/17More exploring in the national park, and then some shopping, sampling jams and jellies, and lunch at Delauder’s BBQ, a true hidden gem in Gatlinburg. The owners and staff were so friendly and the food was AMAZING! Try it out if you’re in the area.Later that evening we ventured out to downtown Gatlinburg where we did lots of walking, eating, and more moonshine sampling. There was even a bear sighting, and unfortunately the cops had to shoot it. The amount of people chasing after the bear was kind of shocking.10/27/17This was our last full day of vacation. We rode another super fun mountain coaster and played at this playground. We were not looking forward to leaving such a fun place, but we made some pretty neat memories and can’t wait to go back!

Until next time, TN! <3