Dollywood Date

Every year in August, NFS gives all their employees/spouses a free ticket to Dollywood. The Family Fun Day was August 15th but we couldn't go that day due to previous plans. We were given the option to go earlier but if we went, we had to upgrade to season passes. We decided to go 8/8. The night before, I went to bed really early because I hadn't slept that morning when I got home. Seth came in to tell me goodnight and I said, "Why don't we go in the afternoon? That way all the little kids will be ready for naps and they will all be leaving." He said okay and that we could get up about 9 and run by a couple places before we went. Note: This was tax-free weekend :) Anyway, I was wide awake at 6:30 the next morning and of course he didn't want to get up then. Figures. I got up and got ready and played on the computer a little. I finally got him up and we were off. We had to run by the bank and the gas station before we could go so it was almost 10:15 by the time we left.

We got to Sevierville at about 12:00. Since it was tax-free, we decided to run by Bass Pro and see if we could find anything we couldn't live without. We did. They had their trail cameras on sale for $70! What a deal. We got one of those and a little book that has all the tracks of the animals in the Southeast. We have a Bass Pro credit card and we had store credit so we ended up getting the book for free! I love free stuff. We ran by the knife store next because Seth needed a little thing to put his knife in because it always falls out of his pocket. He forgot the knife at home so we ended up getting 2 just in case we got the wrong size. They were only $2 each so it wasn't a huge crisis. Then we were off to Dollywood.

Okay, I must tell you that going to Dollywood, or any theme park for that matter, isn't Seth's idea of a good time. He doesn't care for the roller coasters or all the people. Me on the other hand...I love it! I would go all the time if I could. Anyway, with only half a day in front of him, he went anyway. We had a good time but got a little wetter than we expected. Who ever thought Timber Tower was a water ride? Apparently not the people in seats 21 & 22. And of course, after that on a 90 degree day, you are just miserable and sticky the rest of the day. Yuck.

After Timber Tower...I mean, really?

We got there about 3:00ish, ate lunch and watched a show. By 4:30 the majority of the little kids were gone. I think the longest we waited in line for a ride was about 15 minutes. We got a whole bag of chocolate and vanilla taffy and a big bag of Kettle Korn. That was all I wanted, just those 2 things. We got to ride the train before we left and I had to sit on the outside. I got covered in little black specks. Seth told me, “I had to sit on the outside last time. This time is your turn (smirk).” We decided to upgrade our tickets so I/we could come back for the Fall Festival and to see the Christmas lights. I haven't seen the lights since I was probably 14 or so. I’m looking forward to it. I hope my taffy lasts until October.

The train ride

On the way home, we decided to stop at Burger King and eat dinner. When we came back out to the car, besides having two high schoolers sitting in their car playing their music super loud, we saw the biggest beetle I have ever seen. We wanted to move it into the grass (over my dead body was I touching it) because if I would have hit it with my car, that definitely would have been an insurance claim. We took this picture next to Seth’s foot so you can see how big it really was.

~shudder~