A Day in the Mountains

Isn’t this such a beautiful view to wake up to? I would love to sit on my front porch in the cool mountains and drink my coffee every morning! Very peaceful 

Sweet Jewell 

This day we all kinda split up and did our own thing. Dorothy and Richard took Jolee and Jewell to Pigeon Forge to ride some rides. Jaina and I spent the day together and Justin and Tim spent the day together.

Jaina and I made our first stop at the Apple orchard. We looked around at all the canned food

Then went into the candy store for some chocolate and a Cheerwine. Cheerwine tastes like a flat cherry coke

Then we went and got our nails done. Jaina loves to get her nails done. I like to take her every now and then when I can. 

We headed to Walmart and then went back to Grandma’s

While we were out the other two were having a blast with Grandma and Richard. 

They got to ride lots of rides and play lots of games

Jolee is always a lucky winner 

Dorothy said Jewell loved the swings 

Later that evening back at Grandma’s we had dinner and hung out on the porch and talked

And listened to Jolee play her new guitar

And we roasted marshmallows 

They were yummy 😋 

The girls catching firefly’s

We had a great evening 

Ponderosa Ranch

While we were in Tennessee, we wanted to spend some one-on-one time with each of the girls. We both think it is important to spend that special time with them. We know they enjoy it and try as often as we can to do that with them. Since we spent the day in Gatlinburg with Jaina we wanted to spend some time with Jolee doing what she loves, horseback riding.

  We started our day at the Apple Orchard. We had breakfast there before heading to Pigeon Forge. This was our view at breakfast.

Our stop for the day was at the Ponderosa Ranch. It was a beautiful ranch tucked away in the mountains

Not only can you ride horses but feed animals, fish, relax and hunt for gems.

We first looked around at all the animals in the petting zoo

Then we looked at all the horses. The ranch probably houses at least 50 horses from small to very large

We went inside and got our tickets and then had to wait a long time before going on our trail ride

We finally got to ride. We were not allowed to take any photos or even have our phones with us on the trail ride. We each had a horse with a state name, Jolee's horse was named New Jersey, mine was New Hampshire and Justin's was Alabama. We rode for a full hour going 3miles up and down the mountain. 

It was my very first time to ride a horse. I won't lie I was a little nervous but got used to it after a while. I of course had to get the horse that was behaving badly. Every step he made he had to get off the trail to eat. This horse ate the entire time! I kept having to pull him away from the trees. He would not follow the same path as the other horses and wanted to make his own path and at the very end led me into the barn so he could eat instead of going to the ledge so I could get off of him! He was bad! lol

It also started raining on us at the end of our ride. We were all wet by the time we got back. Jolee had a blast and loved every minute of it. Such great memories made!

After the trail ride, we went over to the gem find so she could pan for gems

Another one of her favorite things 

I swear, this man......

I told him his eyes were gonna get stuck that way

She found lots of gems! 

She was one happy camper.

Then over to the petting zoo

She had a ball feeding the ponies, goats, chickens and donkey

After a full day of fun, we headed back to Grandma's house

While we were gone, Jaina got to sleep in, and Jewell went shopping with Richard. She got a new baby shark

Then we all went out to eat ribs. They were good!

Then back to Grandma's for some evening fun in the back yard

Nothing better than falling asleep in the porch swing after a full day of fun

A Day in Gatlinburg

Our first official full day we were in Tennessee we spent the morning on the front porch. 

Spending time outside is something everyone does in the mountains. Lots and lots of front and back porch time spent in nature, enjoying the weather, listening to nature and the birds and lots of thinking. 

Surprisingly while we were there it rained a lot on and off. Something we haven't seen in Texas in forever! So, it was nice to listen to the rain. 

One of the first things Jolee got when we arrived at Grandma's was a guitar. She has been talking about this guitar forever. I'm actually eager for her to spend some time learning how to play. 

That afternoon Grandma and Richard took Jolee and Jewell to Pigeon Forge to ride some rides and play games.

Jaina, Justin and I decided to go into Gatlinburg for the afternoon

We parked and walked the entire strip.

We have seen all of these shops time and time again for the last 13 years. Not much has changed in them but it was nice to spend some alone time with Jaina and enjoy some shooing together,

We went into the village first. Always my favorite part

Our first stop was the Donut Frier

I've actually never been in here. So, we got a chocolate donut and a piece of Baklava

My beautiful baby growing up on us. I still remember coming here to this village after her first birthday and buying a diaper bag with her name on it. 

We enjoyed our donuts and kept shopping

I will have to say it was HOT. After the rain it got humid and was almost 90 degrees outside, so it was kinda miserable walking around.

After shopping for a while, we stopped in and ate lunch at the Brewery 

Then we walked the other side of the street where I ran into Paula Dean yall!

She's looking a little paper thin..........LOL

And of course, we stopped in Ole Smoky Moonshine 

We had to show Jaina how moonshine is made

Then our last stop before going back to Grandma's was Kilwin's for an ice cream. I LOVE their ice cream, it's the best

Back to Grandma's

That evening we sat outside and enjoyed watching the girls play

Grandma said the girls had alot of fun riding the swings and rides. They had dinner and got back around the same time we did. 

We enjoyed our first day in the mountains