Dollywood...Dollywood

What did we do this weekend...we took a impromptu trip to a little gem, Dollywood.  We passed Griffin off to Bob and Nana, David left work early, and we high tailed it to Pigeon Forge as soon as Hayden jumped of the bus.  I read somewhere that the park was open until 10pm, so we figured when we got there around 6pm we would have a few hours of fun.  Well, when I had checked there website, it was before there summer schedule changed to reflect them closing at 7pm.  We didn't let it stop us, we had an hour and basically the park to ourselves.  Hayden rode a few BIG roller coasters and then was told he was not big enough to ride another big one so David insisted we leave and go buy a different pair of shoes to give him a little lift.  We left Dollywood, grabbed dinner, bought new shoes, and headed back to the hotel for swimming.  The next day we were there at 10am when the park opened and we went all day long.  We had a handful of tears as Hayden didn't want to ride some of the bigger rides (after we bought the new shoes so he could ride them), but for the most part we had an amazing day.  We rode rides, ate way overpriced food, rode a train, watched Hayden participate in a magic show, braved a torrential rain storm, and closed the park down.  We picked up pizza that night, swam and then crashed hard.  The next morning we drove up to Gatlinburg, just to say we did it and then went to Wonderworks, a children's museum. They both had a blast.  Hayden did this awesome indoor, ropes course and Emerson was happy blowing bubbles.  It wasn't until David and Hayden laid on the "bed of nails" that Emerson freaked out.  She was pretty much traumatized to the point we had to leave.  We then drove through UT campus to show the kids, they were less than impressed so we headed home so I could kiss those sweet Griffin cheeks.  It was a awesome trip and the kids are still talking and even singing about Dollywood....Dollywood.