I will start this post with an update on potty training and then move on to an account of our Toll family vacation to the Smoky Mountains. Potty training with Samantha has been going really well. There are many days where she even stays dry for her nap, which is great. However, the last few days she has not had a bowel movement (sorry guys, I know more poop talk!). We weren't sure if it was because she didn't want to go on the potty or because she was constipated again. However, on Saturday night before we went on vacation, she finally went. We were so glad that she did as it had been three days, and we were so glad we didn't have to deal with this on our six hour car ride the next day. We decided to give her a special treat for going poo poo in the potty, so even though she had just taken a bath and was ready for bed, we took her to get a Frosty at Wendy's. She was quite the sight in her pajamas and wet hair, but she was so excited and proud of her accomplishment, it was worth it to encourage her in this way.
Sunday morning it was time to head out on our drive to the Smoky Mountains for the annual Toll family vacation. I look forward to this every year, and this year we were so excited for Samantha and Alaina to get a whole week of playing with each other. We had most everything packed up on Saturday night, so on Sunday morning we just got up, did a few last minute things, and got on the road a little after 9 a.m. Our plan was to drive for a couple hours and stop at a Chuy's around Louisville for lunch. Chuy's is one of our favorite restaurants from our four years of living in Texas, so we were excited about driving through that area and having a good lunch before continuing on in our drive. Samantha made it the whole two hours to the restaurant with no accidents and no stopping to use the potty. We were so proud of her. :) The best part of lunch for her was the push pop she got at the end. It was the first time she had ever had something like that, and she thoroughly enjoyed it, eating almost every last bite.
After lunch, we put Samantha in a pull up in anticipation of a good afternoon nap in the car. We watched some of Toy Story 2 on the portable DVD player that we borrowed from a friend, read some stories, and I climbed into the front seat so that she could take a nap. She was pretty sleepy and took a decent nap in the car, which we were thankful for.
All family members got down to Tennessee, to the office where we had to check in to our cabin, right around the same time. Samantha was SO excited to see Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jeni, Alaina, and Uncle Timmy. She had been talking about our vacation to the Smoky Mountains for a long time, and it was finally here.
We drove through the curvy, mountain roads and up the steep hill to our cabin. That night we just got settled in, had dinner, and played in the house. Ben, Samantha, and I chose a room on the top floor with a big jacuzzi tub in the bathroom and a special little nook where we could put Samantha's pack and play. The log cabin house was very nice and had plenty of room for all of us. We each had a bedroom with a bathroom en suite, which was also a plus. And, the house had two decks on different levels with rocking chairs and an amazing view of the mountains.
Monday morning, we all decided to drive into the park on go on a trail that was fairly easy and accessible for strollers. I moved Samantha's car seat into Jeni's car so that the girls could ride together, giving them more time to interact, but it was funny to see them together like that. As I have mentioned before on this blog, Samantha likes to talk and interact with us, sometimes almost too much, especially in the car. Alaina, on the other hand, is very quiet in the car, will just sit and look out the window, and oftentimes falls asleep in her car seat. So, those character traits of each girl played out in the car while they were together. Samantha wanted to talk to and interact with Alaina, and Alaina largely ignored Samantha and was content just looking out the window.
We finally got to the trail and started our trek up. We tried to keep Samantha in her stroller for most of the time, but she was getting pretty antsy by the time we were about halfway up so she got out and walked for a little while. Once we got up to the top of the trail, we got to see Laurel Falls. These falls are very beautiful, but they are also very popular, and there were a lot of people there, making it kind of hard to get around. Despite the crowd, the girls got time to play in the water a little bit, and we got a nice family picture taken of all of us.
After our morning walk, the girls were ready to get back to the house for lunch and a nice afternoon nap. It was kind of nice having the girls with us to direct our schedule in that way. We were plenty busy throughout the whole week, but we also had built in rest time back at the house each afternoon.
We had plans to go to the pool that was for the use of people in the cabin rentals that evening, but Samantha was being pretty fussy and cranky that evening, especially at dinnertime, so we decided not to take her that day. We told her that if she was more respectful the next day at dinner, we would take her then. That made her pretty upset for awhile, but Samantha knows that we stick to our word and that we expect her to be respectful to us and other people. So instead of swimming that night, we took a little stroller ride on the streets around our cabin and let the girls take a bath together in the giant jacuzzi tub in our bathroom.
The next day, we decided to go on a scenic driving tour of the mountains with intentions to stop and let the girls play in the water and have a picnic lunch. We moved Samantha's car seat into Grandma and Grandpa's car so that Aunt Jeni wouldn't have to deal with "chatty Kathy," and Ben and I actually rode with Jeni and Alaina, giving Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Timmy the opportunity to talk to Samantha in the other car. (Don't get me wrong. I love that Samantha is expressive and likes to communicate with others. It's just funny. What else can you expect from a child of two teachers? Of course she likes to talk, she heard me talk to my students for nine months while in the womb.)
The scenery was beautiful, and it was so peaceful driving through the mountains on the gravel road, seeing the butterflies fly and dance in the road in front of us, and feeling the cool mountain air coming in through the windows. I loving seeing God's Creation. It makes me marvel at the greatness and power of our God, and makes me question how anyone can see beautiful sights such as these and yet deny that God created them exactly how they are for a very specific purpose.
After Samantha's somewhat fussy day yesterday and fussy morning, we thought she might be teething because we have noticed her lower gums on both sides have been pretty swollen lately, and she has been sucking on her fingers a lot more than normal as well. We decided to give her some ibuprofen before dinner to see if that helped her mood a little better and to see if it helped lessen the pain so that she could eat a good dinner. It seemed to work, as she did a much better job being respectful, and therefore earned herself a trip to the pool.
Samantha has started a new habit in the pool that Daddy and I are not too thrilled about. She tries to be a big girl and swim like she sees others doing. The problem is, she doesn't know how to swim and if she tries it in deep enough water, she gets too far under the water and can't get back up. It seems like Samantha has no fear. She is not afraid at all to throw herself into the water and dunk her head. However, it is dangerous for her to do that and scary for us who have to keep pulling her up from underwater. These next few pictures are a record of this new habit.
First, she tries to swim and then falls beneath the surface of the water...
Then, I have to pull her up and make sure that she is okay.
Then, I have a heart to heart with her, talking about how she can't dunk herself underwater, especially in the water that is too deep for her to get back up again by herself. What we've been trying lately to solve this problem is to tell her that she can't go underwater like that until she takes swim lessons and they teach her how to hold her breath underwater and come back up to the surface. This seems to work sometimes, but not all the time. Oh, our fearless little girl.
After Samantha was done swimming in the water, she decided the next fun activity would be moving the pool chairs to a different location. She started moving the chairs from where we were down to a different area.
Then, she took those chairs that she just moved and systematically moved them farther down, one by one, almost in the same order that she had moved them originally. When we asked her what she was doing, she said, "I'm moving chairs!" Of course, what else would a two year old want to do at at pool but to move the pool chairs?
The next day, July 17th (my birthday), we had a morning activity chosen just for the girls to enjoy. We went to a local petting zoo. I think the grown ups liked it, too. There were your normal petting zoo animals there, like goats, but they also had deer, a camel, a kangaroo, a zonkey (apparently a mix between a zebra and a donkey), and even some reindeer.
We had a great time in the goat area. The employees said to only feed the animals from outside the fence because otherwise they will surround you trying to get at the food. That was wise advice because these animals were searching for food everywhere they could. They even started to eat Daddy's pants and Samantha's shirt! Mommy picked up a baby goat, and Samantha did her best at holding it for a few seconds by herself. She loved watching the little baby goats. Little baby things are her favorites right now.
After seeing and petting the goats, we saw some roosters walking along, and then went over to feed the deer.
After showing Samantha how to feed them by holding her hand out flat with the food in the palm of her hand, she wanted to try it and did a really good job. She wasn't scared at all to hold her hand out the deer, and she thought it was pretty funny to feel them lick the food out of her hands.
Our next stop was feeding the camel, but only Grandma and Mommy did that since the camel was so tall and had such a big mouth.
After seeing the camel and a few other animals, we rounded the corner to the reindeer. There was a sign that said, "Reindeer love apples!" and there was a little stand where you could buy an apple for $1 to feed to the reindeer. We bought an apple for both Samantha and Alaina, and Samantha LOVED feeding the apple pieces to the reindeer. She kept saying, "Yum, yum, mmm...mmm..." as the reindeer gobbled up the apple from her fingers.
After feeding the reindeer, we stopped by the goats one more time to feed them the rest of the food in our cup. Samantha didn't want to use food from the cup, but instead insisted on picking up the small kernels of corn that had fallen on the ground from others feeding the goats. She would hold the kernel pinched between her fingers and hold it out to the goats. Even though I told her to hold it flat in her hand so they could lick it off, Samantha wanted to do it her way (imagine that from a two year old?). Most of the time it was okay, but one time a goat must have bitten her finger a little bit, and she started crying. She was fine and there wasn't even a mark, but for a while longer that day she kept talking about the goat that bit her finger and that it would "hurt for a little while."
The petting zoo was tons of fun, but we had another activity that Samantha would love just as much, if not more. They also had pony rides! Samantha was SO excited to get on a pony, that it was difficult for her to wait patiently for her turn. Alaina was a bit apprehensive about getting on her pony. Aunt Jeni tried a few times to get her comfortable sitting in the sadle, but Alaina kept wanting her Mommy to get on the pony with her, which of course she couldn't do. They ended up taking Alaina off and letting Samantha get on that pony whose name was Baby Doll. Samantha enjoyed herself immensely, and they let you ride around the trail three times.
Later that afternoon, after we got back to our cabin for lunch and putting the girls down for a nap, Grandma, Grandpa, Ben, and I went on an adventure of our own. Our cabin rental was associated with a zip line company, so we headed out to ride the six zip line course. It probably was a bit crazy that Ben went on the zip line, after just getting injured by riding a zip line, but the instructors in charge said his injury wouldn't be a problem because he wouldn't have to hold on. You are strapped in by a halter around your waist. Each line you go down, they encourage you to do something different. The first time going it was just getting over the fear of stepping off the edge of the platform. The second line, they encouraged you to take a running start off the platform. The third line, they encouraged you to let go of the handlebars and sail with your hands free. The fourth line, they encouraged you to turn yourself upside down as you rode. The fifth line, you rode together with a partner while holding onto each other. The sixth line, it was a race between you and your partner on two different lines. We had two guides with us, one was the sender and one was the catcher. Even though I was a little nervous stepping off the platform the first time, my nerves quickly left me, and I had a blast. I even went upside down a couple times which was really fun. What a special activity to do on my birthday!
Here is a picture of one of the platforms for the zip line.
And here's a view of one of the platforms from our rental house.
We got back out our rental house just about when Samantha was waking up from her nap, so it worked out really well. The girls had a great time interacting with each other and singing songs with Uncle Timmy and the rest of the family. Ben captured one of the Toll family renditions of "We're Going on a Bear Hunt." This was a very apt song for the location of our vacation.
Later that evening after dinner, the whole family decided to head out and drive to Cades Cove for a driving tour in the evening. The evening started off very nice. The girls enjoyed walking around an old house in the cool evening air. Samantha had a good time in the car looking out the window to see the trees and animals.
Brothers being silly together. Great pictures!
These next two pictures of the girls are blurry because they were dancing and running around the house in circles. Pretty sure people could hear us across the valley, but that's okay, they were having a good time. It was a good thing we let them get out and run around for awhile, too, even though we had no idea what would come next on our evening excursion.
As we were driving through the woods, I pointed out the lightning bugs flying around. I'm not sure what Samantha thought I was talking about, or if it was just because I said the word lightning, but she said, "Lightning bugs are scary. No talk about lightning bugs anymore." She says some of the funniest things sometimes. Nevertheless, we stopped talking about lightning bugs.
Further on in the drive, we could see the storm clouds rolling in. It started sprinkling and then changed to raining pretty hard. We decided to just head out of Cades Cove, but then ended up getting stuck in a very long back up of traffic and were there way past when we intended. Luckily, I thought ahead and grabbed the DVD player before we left, just in case we needed it. We put on a couple little shows for Samantha in the backseat, and that helped her to calm down and stay amused while we sat in traffic for probably close to forty-five minutes. We didn't get back to the vacation house until almost ten o'clock that night, with two tired little girls and tired parents, all ready for a good night's sleep.
Thursday morning, Grandma and Grandpa headed out for a longer hike by themselves, so the rest of us went out to the aquarium in Gatlinburg. It was definitely overpriced, but the girls had a lot of fun looking at all the interesting things it had to offer.
It was difficult to keep the girls together because they both moved at different paces and were interested in different things, but we had a great time exploring the aquarium together as a family.
One of the highlights of the day was the shark tunnel. You stood on a moving walkway that took you underneath the shark tank. So, as you were moving, fish, sting rays, and sharks swam right up above your head. It was pretty neat to see the animals that close up, and Samantha really enjoyed that aspect of it, too.
Another of her favorite things at the aquarium was the various fish tanks and tunnels that let you go inside or under the water. Samantha thought this one below was pretty awesome and had a hard time getting out to let other kids have a turn.
The tunnel in the pictures below is one you could crawl through to see the penguins from below. Samantha crawled through this tunnel several times before it was time to go home.
Later that evening, once Samantha awoke from her nap, Ben and I headed out for a date night, partially in celebration of my birthday yesterday, partially just as an excuse to use the free babysitting service. Ben had researched good local restaurants in the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area for probably about two hours before deciding on this little, local Italian restaurant that actually was connected to a gas station, but had really good reviews. We decided we would be adventurous and try it out. However, after driving on some "two lane roads" that were more like one lane roads, we arrived at the restaurant and found a closed sign on the door. Not just closed for the day, but closed permanently. We were disappointed, but figured we'd look on Ben's phone and find another place to eat dinner. We were going to go to Ruby Tuesday, but as we pulled in the parking lot for that restaurant, we noticed a local New York Pizza restaurant that we decided to try out instead. It was pretty good, and we had a nice time talking and eating without entertaining, or I guess I should say being entertained, by a two year old.
After dinner, Ben and I went to a Tennessee Smokies baseball game. They are a AA affiliate of the Cubs, so it was interesting to see a couple of players that may end up making it to the major leagues some day. When we lived in Texas, we would go see the Round Rock Express minor league team play quite often because we enjoyed being outside, enjoying a game of baseball, and spending time together. It was nice to revisit that common pastime of ours. It was a lovely date night with my husband.
Samantha, of course, did great without us. It was raining back in that area, so the girls participated in a good rainy day activity: homemade play dough!
On Friday, our last day on vacation in the Smoky Mountains, we decided to go on the Roaring Fork Motor Tour. Grandma rode in the back seat with Samantha and did an excellent job of interacting and playing with her. (Samantha loves her grandparents.) We put on the Smoky Mountain hymn music CD that I checked out from our library, rolled down the windows, and enjoyed the beautiful drive through the woods, savoring our last views of the mountains before heading back to Indiana the next day.
Here are the two girls, cousins and friends. Vacations are worth it if only to get these two together for an extended period of time. They love each other. :)
Along the motor tour, they have places you can stop off at to look at a pretty view or an old house and grounds. The above picture and video below were taken at a building near an old house. This little building was probably a barn with stalls use for animals. The girls liked playing in them, particularly as Grandpa tried to take their picture through the slats in the wall.
For some reason, Samantha and Alaina thought it was fun to get underneath the coffee table in the living room of our vacation home. Here is Samantha on our last night in the house, and you can see the teddy bear by her left arm. That is a little souvenir we got for her. I was originally thinking of getting her an official looking Smoky the Bear, since Samantha had been practicing saying, "Only you can prevent forest fires" for a couple weeks before our trip, but I did not see anything like that around, so we decided to just settle on this bear. The bear has a pink hoodie on that says "Smoky Mountains" with a picture of mountains and a black bear, and we call her Smoky the Bear. Samantha loved it and carried it around with her for quite some time that day and many days after.
Our last rendezvous that night was to take the girls swimming in the pool again. They had a really good time playing in the water until we heard a rumble of thunder and saw a flash of lightning in the distance. The rain never actually reached where we were, but we could see the rain in the distance from the decks of our house. There was also a beautiful rainbow spreading across the sky. I always love rainbows because they remind me of the clear and evident promises of God, from Bible times to now.
It's always hard to leave some place so remarkably beautiful. I love going on vacations, seeing new places, being away from the responsibilities and commitments of home. Our family vacations are something I look forward to every year, and I am always disappointed when they end. We had a great time visiting the Smoky Mountains. The girls had a great time playing with each other. Everyone enjoyed the great weather and spectacular views of Creation provided by our vacation house.
Saturday morning, we got up and ready, finished packing up all of our things, and headed back home. We stopped for lunch at a Chick-fil-a, for one last chance to talk and have the girls interact with each other, and then drove the rest of the way home.
Samantha did a really good job in the car, but didn't nap quite as long as we would have liked. It always seems like trips back home take longer than the trips to your destination. Despite that, it's always good to be back home, too. After being in a house full of family for a week, our little apartment with just the three of us seemed empty and quiet. I think I am more of a people person than I let on sometimes. I think I would like living in more of a community, living in one place all together with several families, sharing in life and daily experiences together. However, you can't be on vacation permanently, right? Eventually you have to get back to real life. I think if I was really wealthy and could choose anything to do with my time and money, I would be a permanent traveler, visiting as many new places as possible. I love the thrill of discovering something new and forming unforgettable family moments. Until next year, here's to a great Toll family vacation!
