Dollywood

Ever since we got our Dollywood season passes back in December from Ryan's grandparents, we have been wanting to go back, but the weather hasn't cooperated or we've been too busy to go as a family. (Ryan's parents took Gavin a couple weeks ago without us so he's becoming a regular Dollywood kid! :) ) 

So Ryan took the day after Memorial Day off and we went for the BBQ and Bluegrass Festival.

The day started off like this for Henley. And this is just in the parking lot. Pretty telling of how the rest of the day would go, the stinker! Ryan said, "You're going to have fun and you're going to like it!" Ha! :)

Here are the kiddos dancin' a jig to a bluegrass band:

The BBQ was pretty awesome! We kind of skipped breakfast and ate a really early lunch as soon as we got there. It worked out perfectly! Full bellies=happier kiddos to ride rides!

I could not be more impressed with daredevil Gavin. The trick is--don't ask him if he wants to ride the ride, just tell him, "We are going to ride this ride!" and he would do it! He LOVED this one!

Here's a video that shows him LAUGHING at this crazy ride!!

This is the only ride Henley let us put her on, and even still she started crying half-way through! Apparently she didn't get the memo that she was supposed to have fun today. :)

This crazy boy loves the Carnival area to play games. So we bought him a bucket of balls and he won this huge Smurf on one of his first throws! He had to get a ball into 1 colored cup and he made it!! 

He also won this Angry Bird on a different game! People--Ryan and I did not help him! I asked the guy if he gets more winners from adults with skill or kids accidentally getting it in and he said kids on accident. Hilarious!

Henley was SO TIRED so we rode the train during what would normally be her naptime. It was a well deserved rest for all of us!

I don't have a ton of pics of Henley because she was in a bad mood and wasn't feelin' any of the rides. Here she is dancing to the music after her rest on the train:

We found out on the train that there is a "Parent Swap" area on the adult rides where 1 parent waits with the kids in a designated area while the other parent rides the ride, then they switch. WOA! So my crazy husband convinced me to ride The Wild Eagle. OH MY WORD. I would like to point out that I haven't even ridden a normal, non-life-threatening roller coaster in about 10 years, so it literally took my breath away. I had NO CLUE what I was in for. The first huge drop went into a loop and I opened my mouth to scream and nothing came out. I was SHAKING by the end. Whew, I may be too old for roller coasters. :) This pictures doesn't do it justice:

I promised Gavin we could ride this ride next time. He loved shooting the people with water guns as they passed:

This was Gavin's perch for most of the day. It was so fun to have Ryan there with us!

And the kids looked like this before we even got out of the parking lot! 

Ryan and I are going back by ourselves to celebrate his 30th birthday! Can't wait! I'm sure he'll convince me to ride The Wild Eagle again. Oh my.