Snow? Will travel!

We were toying with the idea of going to Gatlinburg for this "holiday" weekend, but I am not officially off (inservice day that I am not a part of, though) and I am just now getting back in the swing of things after Katie's weeklong illness.  We decided not to go and the decision was made pretty easy since Lance is busy, we are trying to save money for our Disney trip this summer, and it would mean a chance to catch up on some errands and chores and not having to take a vacation day.  Well, that good decision was changed pretty quickly when they predicted just a 30% chance of snow for Gatlinburg on Friday.  We had been checking the weather all week and talking about how nice it would be to enjoy one last snow, but we were pretty confident that Spring would arrive with no more winter weather.  Friday the radar finally showed that snow might actually be in the area, and that although it wouldn't make it to Nashville it would be in Gatlinburg.  Lance and I were wishy washy on going all day and when we called our favorite chalet rental company and found that they had a cancellation, that we could rent for two nights only (to get back on Sunday which worked out best for everyone), that the fee was an affordable last-minute deal, and that the place available was high enough on the mountain that the elevation would increase snow chances, we changed our mind and ddecided to go. 

It turned out to be a great decision, despite the fact that I left all of my hastily prepared and packed clothes at home except my bathing suit, underwear and t-shirt that I threw in the kid's bag.  I did manage to get the kid's stuff and we didn't do anything "fancy" enough to require more than all that I had which was jeans, Lance's sweatshirt and my jacket.  We did have a fabulous time, though, even if it was low-key.  We got into town right when it started snowing and hung out at the chalet Friday night around a fire watching the snow and the kids had a blast with all of that and especially exploring the chalet.  On Saturday we went to breakfast, the National Park and Cades Cove Area (our original destination - Newfound Gap was closed due to ice and snow).  That afternoon/evening we went to a great dinner where all but Tyler enjoyed rainbow trout - Tyler really enjoyed the massive salad bar offerings, though.  We went back to the chalet for the evening and the highlight for the kid's was getting in the hot tub and them being big enough to touch the bottom. That was my highlight for the weekend too, I think.  Sitting in the hot tub with my family, enjoying great conversation and lots of laughs, in the snow! 

We all really liked spending time with dad.  Since he works on weekends we don't get as many outings with him as we like and this weekend gave us plenty of great dad time! 

 

 

Breakfast at the Applebarn this morning was delicious!  It was about a 30 minute wait and lunch was being served by the time we got there (with breakfast items on the menu still - Eastern time zone is hard to get used to), but the apple fritters themselves are enough to make the wait worth it!

 

Our visit to Cades Cove was very cold, but very fun even if our check engine light (ugh) did decide to come on and stay on right when we got to the Cades Cove scenic loop!

 

It really was a fantastic, short family getaway.  The area was super crowded and we felt a little guilty being there when it probably wasn't the most responsible thing to do, but that made us stay in a bit more and do less stuff which meant some really fun times just hanging out all together!