Pigeon Forge Forth

Our goal was to make it to Pigeon Forge in time to watch fireworks.  We did great!  Mike had a campground reserved for us.  We were a little too early for check in, so we decided to find this footlong corn dog place Jeff Scott told us about.  It is in Gatlinberg, which is really close to Pigeon Forge.  B-I-G mistake!  The traffic was horrible!  We were stuck on little roads with a giant motorhome.  It was scary!  I'm so glad I wasn't driving.  We did find the place Jeff was telling about, but there was absolutely no where to park, so we just drove back to the campground.

Mike got everything set up, then we went and caught a trolley into Pigeon Forge.  We stopped at MagiQuest first thing.  Our family loves MagiQuest!  It was fun, but I love the ones at Great Wolf Lodge more. You get more bang for your buck there.  This was an hour game, you just can't complete it that quickly.  It was still fun though.  This one had secret passages and secret rooms.  We were also able to play at the dueling stations.  They had to give us different wands, because the 'loaner' ones we were using weren't working.  (We didn't even think of bringing our wands on this trip!)  The only problem with the dueling was one of the wands was WAY more powerful than the other one. Quite an advantage.

Jorja, Maysen, Preston, Stockton, Mike

 With filters

 Maysen and Stockton dueling (Jorja patiently waiting)

We also got to play a pirate miniature golf game.  Jorja got a hole in one!  It was amazing!  Although, many of us got hole in ones later in the game, which made Jorja's hole in one less impressive.

Jorja's hole in one

 Jorja

 Stockton, Preston, Maysen, Stephanie, Jorja

 Stockton

 Jorja - I thought she was celebrating,

but she was just making hand puppets.

 Preston's hole in one!

 Stephanie's hole in one

 Stephanie & Preston celebrating their

hole in ones on the same hole!

 Stephanie also got a hole in one on this hole.

 Mike's hole in one

 Stockton's hole in one

We then played a laser light room dodging game.  Stockton was the fastest.  Next was the giant mirror maze.  That was huge and so confusing!  It was fun though.  Mike and I met in the disco room for some dancing.  Mike found his way out soon after that.  I heard him say, "Oh look!  Trees!"  We knew trees were at the end.  I tried to find him, but could not.  I did find Stockton later in the disco room and he danced with me.  That was fun.  I was the very last to find my way out. It wasn't as fun being in there once I was all alone.  I was so relieved when I found the trees, but it still took me forever to find my way!

When we finished we headed over to Denny's.  It was in the Christmas village, so it had Christmas decorations everywhere.  I was hoping we could order Rudolph pancakes, but I guess they didn't do a Christmas menu.  They did take forever.  We were there for an hour and a half.  We waited almost an hour for our food.  We hurried to the trolley stop when we finished.  There was another group waiting there.  They said that the trolley was stopping early today because of the Fourth of July. Yikes!  It would be a three hour walk back to our campground.  They called and were told that a trolley would be there in thirty minutes.  We were told that was twenty minutes ago.  We waited, and waited, and waited.  Someone called again and they said that all the trolleys had stopped until the fireworks were over.  NOOOO!!!!  We didn't know what to do.  Now we were afraid we would miss the trolley once they started going.  Maysen really wanted to see fireworks this year.  That is why we chose this campground.  It said you could see fireworks from it. We walked to the end of the street and could kind of see the top of the fireworks.  Lame.  The other family ended calling a taxi.  We waited and rode the trolley for 50 cents a person.  It was such a relief to get back to the motorhome.

Jorja, Preston, Maysen and Stockton

waiting for the trolley

Joe and Cathy

I found a few pictures I missed from MagiQuest yesterday.  Preston & Jorja fighting a dragon.  They both defeated the dragon, but it took a long time!

Preston & Mike

 Jorja

I texted Brett this morning and told him we slept in Gary, Indiana.  I was wondering if he served any of his mission there.  He wrote back, "You shouldn't sleep or ever stop in Gary, Indiana.  It was annexed from our mission because it was too dangerous.  The Chicago Mission covered it though.  You will be close to Michigan City, Indiana.  I did serve there."  Whoops.  Luckily we had no problems and were unaware that Gary was dangerous.  It looked less sketchy than other parts of Indiana we drove through.  We drove up to Michigan this morning, went in the state a mile and turned around.  Now we can put a sticker on.  It was about an hour out of our way, but in the long run it will be faster than coming back later.

Our next stop was to drive to Joe & Cathy's house.  They live in Ohio. The last time we saw them was about five years ago when we came for John & Cassie's wedding.  Did we drive completely out of our way to see them?  Yes, yes we did.  Was it worth it?  Yes, yes it was.

 Our map

It was SO GOOD to see Joe & Cathy!  They are one of the friends that when you are with them it seems like no time has gone by at all.  I sure do miss living across the street from them.  We got to see Nick, who has grown so much!  Jack was at a camp, so we didn't get to see how much he has changed.  Joe cooked us delicious food.  Smoked fish & steak.  I am not a fish fan, but I really liked this.

Stephanie, Cathy, Joe, Mike

We were able to do some laundry while we were at their house.  That was very helpful.  Of course we had to play Pirates.  Joe, Cathy, Mike, Maysen and I started a game.  When Preston saw we had started playing he was pretty upset he wasn't invited.  He took over my hand and I worked on laundry.

Joe & Cathy, Preston, Maysen, Mike

Joe had bought some bear figurines.  He said that whoever lost the game would receive the 'Do Better Bear'.  For most of the game, it looked like Joe would get his own bear.  Mike ended up with the bear when Maysen sunk his ship and forced him out of the game.

Do Better Bear

I was working on getting the kids ready for bed.  I was kind of getting frustrated because I wanted to be with Joe & Cathy and everything was taking me forever.  Jorja was in the motorhome washing her face.  She asked if I would wait with her.  I said, "Really?  I haven't seen Joe and Cathy at all.  Are you sure you can't be without me."  I thought I would have to wait for her for a long time.  She ended up coming in a few minutes later.  It was obvious she came in because she crashed into the screen door and broke it.  It was so sad.  She sat outside crying until we were able to get the door off the hinges so she could come in.  She had taken her contacts out and she wasn't familiar with screen doors, she just didn't expect it.  She was pretty embarrassed.

After we finally got the kids to bed, Cathy and I stayed up until around 1:30 talking.  I sure do miss her!  We talked a lot about books and Cathy's job.  She gets to teach the gifted kids in her school district, 3rd-5th grade.  She loves it.  Sounds like a perfect job for her.  It was hard to say goodnight, because who knows when we will see each other again. Hopefully it won't take another five years!

Great Wolf Lodge Wisconsin Dells

What a great day we had!  We started off with a huge breakfast.  It was part of the package, so that was great.  We packed up and checked out of our room, then headed for the waterpark.  Preston and I found a room we never noticed as we were leaving the park yesterday.  That made it nice, because we were able to do a lot of new things.  Boy was that fun!  I brought my camera in for just a bit.  Yesterday the kids would lay down before the bucket would dump.  I wanted a picture of them doing that, so I made them do it first thing.  The first pictures are from my cell.

Stockton, Preston, Maysen, Jorja ~ before

 During

 After ~ Look at Maysen's hair!

Here is the same bucket dump, but Mike took these pictures with the big camera.  Man those kids got drenched!

 Stockton

 Stockton & Jorja

 Jorja, Preston, Stockton

 Jorja

 Stockton & Jorja

 Stockton

 Jorja

 Stockton

There was a wave pool in the other room.  Preston LOVED that!  He kept asking to go back.  The kids were so good to humor him so often.

Mike, Preston, Jorja, Stockton, Maysen

 Preston, Jorja, Mike, Stockton, Maysen

 Stockton, Jorja, Mike, Preston

 Stockton, Jorja

 Jorja, Preston & Mike

 Mike & Preston

 Preston & Stockton

 Maysen

On the website for this park, there were pictures of a racing slide.  We had no idea where it was.  Luckily when Mike was in the wave pool he spotted it!  We spent a long time there!  It was so much fun!  Plus there is a tube ride before the final drop.  That was a lot of fun.

Mike

 Looks pretty even between Stockton, Jorja & Maysen

 Stockton pulls ahead!

 Stockton, Jorja, Maysen

 There's Preston!

 Preston, Stockton, Jorja

 Preston, Stockton, Jorja, Maysen

We played for most of the day in the waterpark.  When we finished we cleaned ourselves up and headed back for another round of Magiquest.

Mike, Preston, Maysen, Stockton, Jorja

Such a fun time.  I'm so glad we stopped to do this.  Jorja says we need to come back when she is 13 so she can have a wristband that will also be a room key.....and let her charge stuff.  Yikes!  Not sure that would be a good idea!  One annoying thing that happened was yesterday when we got to Great Wolf Lodge I was gathering up all the swim suits. Stockton's was gone!  I had packed one in his drawer, but it wasn't one of his favorites.  When he came home from dive camp, I hurried and did his and Jorja's laundry.  I asked Stockton which suit he would like. Anyway, I could not find it.  I finally decided I must have gone to switch the suits and gotten distracted after I took one out and before I put the other one in.  As you can see from the pictures, a swim suit at Great Wolf Lodge is a must!  We ended up buying him a new suit. Anyway, when we were packing up I found his suit!  It was a little damp, so I had put it somewhere else.  I am getting really annoyed with my memory. At least Stockton uses swim suits all the time, so no big deal.

We left around 8:00 with the hopes of getting past Chicago before we stopped.  I had gotten Preston & Jorja put to bed, but I let them watch a movie in their bunks.  Preston chose The Emperors New Grove.  Jorja watched Bugs Bunny.  Around 10:00 I was able to get all the kids to sleep.  I sat up front with Mike.  It was pretty scary!  There were so many toll roads.  The toll places were skinny for the motorhome to get through.  Plus, there were a ton of cars!  Going super fast!  If there are that many cars close to midnight, I would not want to try and drive this in a motorhome during the day!  Mike drove until Gary, Indiana.  We got there just past midnight.  We pulled into a truck stop and were very thankful to go to bed!