A Selph Family Trip~ Part 1... Arrival and Dollywood

For the past few years, the Selph side of the family has taken a trip to the Gatlinburg/Piegeon Forge area during the Spring. It's a nice looong weekend for us and just a fun time for the whole fam to be together for multiple days. This year was filled with cousins laughing (and occasionally fighting... but not that much), amusement park rides, busy kiddos, game nights, laughing til we cried (mainly just me though), Pops birthday, an Alpine slide, our first taste of frozen custard, a little man who decided to disown me (boo), and lots and lots of beautiful scenery along winding mountain roads. It was fun. It was memorable. It was an adventure.

We arrived in Gatlinburg on Thursday evening just in time for supper. And I cannot brag on my boys longrideinthecar behavior enough. They both did amazing! Mama and daddy were SO thankful. And proud. We enjoyed settling in for the night, catching up with everyone, watching the kiddos open Easter goodies from Nana and Pops, getting all the kids to bed, and playing a new game. I told Terrell on the way home yesterday that my favorite part of the trip was playing a game every night. I always ended up laughing so hard and it just felt good to have that much fun.

Friday morning we were up bright and early and ready to go to Dollywood! Garrison was only 14 months old the last time we went so we were pretty excited about his reaction to everything. Austin got to enjoy it all from the stroller this year, (except for his one ride on the carousel) and he did great. He was laid back and content and happy almost the entire day.

It was cold when we arrived but the day turned out beautiful. We couldn't have asked for better weather.

Garrison ended up riding quite a bit with Shannon. And he was really sweet and protective and big brotherly with her too.

There was one time that we got all 3 of the older cousins to ride the same ride and Nana requested that we put Austin in the bee to make his picture and then take him out so he could watch. He's only 7 months old so we knew he couldn't ride. However, the man "running" the ride decided to strap him in and attempt to talk us into letting him ride. Terrell was watching from a distance and practically pulled me down trying to get my attention to make sure I did NOT let Austin ride. Daddy is even more protective than mama. Who knew?

For most of the day everyone was scattered about the kiddie section of Dollywood, but after the bee ride, we got a group picture of the whole gang. You can't see Shannon really good, but we're all there. =)

Garrison loved driving daddy around in the car. =)

Garrison was the one and only member of the family to get Pops on a ride. I don't think it took that much convincing though. If you look closely you can see the top of my little man's head. Terrell joked that he didn't think their tea cup ever made 1 full revolution. Haha!

Austin took a short nap in his stroller that afternoon. He was pooped. He slept all the way back to the house too. People watching and strolling around and taking a bottle outside at Dollywood are very exhausting.

The Redings minus Shannon. Terrell, Garrison and I rode this one too. It was SO fun.. for us. It was our last ride of the day before the train ride and by that point, a certain 3 year old was melting.

Austin loved the train ride. So did Garrison. He just decided to make a bunch of crazy faces. He'll thank me one day for not posting a single one to the World Wide Web.

Of course the boys were exhausted after a full day at Dollywood. (So were mama and daddy.) And of course Garrison fell asleep 10 minutes from the house. So of course Terrell stayed in the car with him in hopes that a catnap would help in avoiding a meltdown. Of course it didn't though. Bummer. It wasn't a full blown meltdown so I guess we dodged a bullet there, because it definitely could have been worse. I'm not sure if my child is the only one who can't handle a full day of playing hard without a nap or what. Man does it take it's toll on him. Gracious. The good news is that we were able to get both of them bathed and pretty much ready for bed before the rest of the family arrived with our dinner. The evening was smooth sailing, another game was played, and fun was had by all. Yay for a great first half of our trip!