Smokey Mountains- Part 2

After hiking in the mountains and having lunch on Saturday, Daddy let me drop into a few antique stores (where we found some awesome old books- Marky read "Beowolf" on the ride home Monday). Then we took the children to a little amusement park where they had a ball!







Sissy took little Charlie up in the airplane-





Brother took him on the ferris wheel-



















After the amusement park we went to dinner. I mentioned before how the children all know ALL THE WORDS to the Battle of the Alamo and so when we passed the Alamo Steakhouse they went crazy and begged to go. :)
 

Now this was Charlie's like fourth or fifth day without a nap and he was DONE. He totally freaked out and screamed, and Marc kept taking him outside. Finally the sweet hostess (who had already cleaned up the water he spilled) just GAVE US their "specials" menu so he could write on it. He finally stopped screaming and focused on something. They just sat it on the floor by his high chair and let him play.







We got home to the cabin and put Charlie to bed and then let the children play in the game room.



The next morning we stayed in the cabin and enjoyed the games and the porch while we packed to go home.







We were sad to say goodbye to the beautiful Smokey Mountains-



And Charlie was still not the happiest traveler, but he worked on keeping himself occupied-



When we finally stopped for lunch at a Ruby Tuesday's in Tennessee Charlie again was pretty awful.  The manager was beyond kind and said he himself had six kids and knew how hard it was.  I explained we had been in the car all day for days and Charlie was worn out.  He said, "well, you know there is a Mayfield Dairy Factory two miles up the road, right?"    We knew we had to go there and let Charlie stretch his little legs.













Charlie rallied his spirits and was able to keep his hairnet on and do the whole tour, which included showing us how they pour the plastic molds for the milk jugs and how they make all the milk and ice cream.



He did manage to fall asleep for about 20 minutes on the ride home.  That's the entire total of his car sleeping out of like 20 hours of driving.  Our children will NOT sleep in a car- it is crazy.



It was a crazy weekend, but I'm glad we got to see Memaw and Pawpaw, and I'm extra glad that Marc's work trip was cancelled and we could take Sunday to rest in the mountains.