Photo Diary of Days By Gone

Here's a view of the weather we were able to enjoy for the majority of G'ma Jan & G'pa Michael's visit. Cloudy, Rainy & the occasional outbreak of Sun. At least the temps were in the 80s and super muggy. Yay!Dinner at Smokey Bones in Peachtree City. Michael's grand-daughter and her husband live in Columbus, GA so they drove up to have dinner with us one night. Look! Tyler is actually looking at the camera.

Braves Game, from the Chop House Restaurant.

We slaughtered them Rockies that night.

(Meanwhile, back at home, the kids were enjoying the evening with Papa John's pepperoni pizza and Miss Morgan as a baby-sitter.) Thursday we left town for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

We armed the kids with DVDs and Headphones for the car ride.

Our first stop was at the Smoky Mountain foothills. We stopped to see Tallulah Falls. My favorite part of this stop was to discover the movie "Deliverance" was filmed there. Too COOL!

We went off hiking to explore the Falls and surrounding Gorge.

We didn't go quite that far though.

Soon it was time for lunch. I think it was called "Meg's Diner"

It was an awesome dive.

the boys

the girlsand back ...On the Road Again...

next stop: the North Carolina and Tennessee State Line

(don't believe me? then check out the pic below)

many thanks to the Rockefellers, back in the day, for donating to this park

Lauren gives 2 Thumbs Up

shall we hike to Maine??

the fam on the border

G'pa Michael and G'ma Jan in front of the Smoky Mountains

I love the Smoky Mountains...they remind me of the North West and the beautiful mountains and passes we have out there.

We explored Gatlinburg, TN before settling down for the night in Pigeon Forge.

Gatlinburg is an awesome little town, despite being SEVERELY touristy. The pictures just don't do it justice.On Friday we hit up DOLLYWOOD!!

It was a beautiful day and it wasn't very crowded at all.

It was perfect.

Here we are taking over the fountain.

Lauren and I in a Pink Cadillac.

Matt, Tyler and the turquoise cruiser are somewhere behind us.

G'pa Michael and G'ma Jan on a fun water ride.Tyler thought this was the Coolest Thing Ever.

the Merry-Go-Round

Lauren as a Dollywood "chick"

We took the DW 192 train around the theme park. This was a real coal-burning train. Matt even got a piece of coal dust lodged in his eye. Lucky Guy.

Tyler tried on a Davy Crockett hat

he wanted us to see the tail too.

(business up front...party in the back)

He couldn't decide....Cowboy or Coonskin?

Before we left Matt and I took advantage and went on a couple of big kid roller coasters. Here we are riding the Mystery Mine Coaster. I'm in the back row in the pink shirt.

Crazy Fun.

That night we admired our "dirty hotel floor feet"

and then took a swim in the pool. Although you can't tell from the picture Tyler was a Water Dog. All he wanted to do was jump into Matt's arms from the side of the pool...over and over again.

The next day we were off across Tennessee heading to Nashville. The kids were exhausted from all the previous excitement.

In Nashville we had dinner at the Big River Grill. Lauren and G'pa Michael pose for the picture. G'pa is a bit red after eating some jalapeno nachos. =)

This fountain is just outside our Hotel.

from our back windows of he hotel we could see the back of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

after some exciting days Matt took a nap while Tyler...

and Lauren played in bed without him knowing.

On our last full day in Nashville we tried to tour the Grand Ole Opry but found they weren't offering tours that day. Go Figure. We did get a couple of pictures...

....before heading to the Opry Mills to shop and eat some dinner.

At the supersized mall, Lauren and Tyler found a school bus they just needed to drive.

Later that night G'pa and G'ma watched the kids so Matt and I could go out on the town. We went the the Wildhorse Saloon

where I was attacked by this statue of a horse

after the Wild Horse we stopped by Bailey's to watch the Lakers win and then we crammed ourselves in and listened to some local flavor at Tootsie's. It was a very fun night.

On the way home we drove through Lynchburg, TN to tour the Jack

Daniel's distillery.

these are the simple steps to make Tennesee Whiskey

G'pa Michael and G'ma Jan pose with Jack himself...all 5 feet 3 inches of him.

And this concludes my photo diary. G'ma Jan and G'pa Michael caught their morning flight back to Boise today and arrived home without any problems. We really enjoyed having them and miss them already.