Long time no blog...Gatlinburg trip

• I am a terrible blogger but anyway I have a few things to blog about...

• Wendy and her family took me to Gatlingburg for my birthday and we had so much fun!!! Thursday and Friday night she cooked dinner and both nights it was really good! We went to an upside down house called Wonder Works and it was a hands on experience. That was fun too! We lost Ben and they called a code 7 and made an announcement all over the building. Of course Ben didn't know he was lost, which I always find interesting in little ones. We of course were slightly freaked for a few minutes. He had back tracked to find his parents and was at the door waiting for them and said "ya'll come on" ha! Saturday the Page family took me to an awesome off the beaten path restaurant, that was delish! Home cooking at it's best. Yum! Do you see an eating theme here? Ha! We watched "Pride and Prejudice" one night, then Saturday night Caetie and I watched "Australia" for my 3rd time and her 1st. Caetie slept with me in my king size bed and we laughed for way too long each night. I jumped subjects so quickly that she said "You are soooo random"! I said welcome to my brain. Mom, Kim and I took a scenic 6 mile ride up the mountain 1 way only and the signs said, narrow, curvy road ahead. That was an understatement, we had some skewry moments I tell ya! We got such hysterical laughter that both of my sides hurt. Of course we raided homemade candy shops, Kim ate at Fannie Farkles ( I was afraid it would tear my tummy up). Caetie, Kim and I walked the Gatlinburg strip while Wendy and Danny went another direction. I bought stuff to send to Erika since Lance doesn't like the Mt's like our family does. I took Kim back to her chalet (her and mom were in their own) and Caetie and I went to ours because Wendy and Danny weren't ready to go home. Later on when I went back to get them, Caetie rode with me and it must have been a full moon cause I was singing loud with the windows rolled down on the strip. Hollering at people and just being extra crazy!!! Wendy said "your voice carries" and I am wondering where she has been for most of her life with me? The chalet we stayed it was really, really nice. 4 king suites with jacuzzi bath tubs in each room. Game room, pool table downstairs, hot tub on the back patio, nice kitchen fully stocked with most everything you need, washer, dryer and on and on! Two extra funny stories and I will go: When the Page family left Saturday for the indoor water park, I stayed home alone. Well when they were leaving Danny said I am going to dead bolt the door, which was fine by me. So they all left or so I thought. Next thing I hear is a blood curdling scream. I said "Hey" and Allie is hysterical and says I thought they locked me in here by myself. She was shaking she was so tore up. As I unlocked the deadbolt I calmly said "Let me give you a tidbit of information, let's just say you were dead bolted in here by yourself, don't panic". Danny and them must have realized Allie wasn't in the van and about the time I unlocked the door Danny was there to get her. They didn't even know anything about it till they returned and I told them. Then while Caetie and I were watching "Australia" here comes poor Allie from downstairs and she is crying again and says "I know there are bears downstairs under my bed, I can hear them" I said I don't think so, but would you like for me to go see? Of course she said yes, so I went downstairs to turn the light on, get down on the floor and lift up the bed skirt to check for Smokey the Bear. Now that is hilarious. Isn't it amazing how when we think something and it scares us it doesn't matter how irrational it is? Of course I was glad to put the fear to rest for her. Of course I wanted to say, Allie how did the bear get in, how come none of the adults heard or saw it, and why do you think it chose your bedroom? And what makes you think a bear could even fit under this bed, it's too low to the ground for anything of that size to get under here. But no I did the grandmotherly thing to do and shooed away the big bad bear that was under that bed.

• Can you tell I really, really, had a wonderful vacation. That part of TN holds many fond, family times in my life and I was glad to go back again. Oh I almost forgot, each of the grandchildren picked out and signed their own cards to give to me with money in each card. Wendy and Danny also gave a card that made me cry and usually our family cards are for laughter, it also had money in it too. I really appreciate the thought of this birthday gift, it was such a blessing!!!!!
• I remember a couple of other things: In the Wonder Works house there was this tunnel that said if you are prone to motion sickness use the left double doors. Well that is where I was headed and Toby says come on Grami. So here I go and Toby says hold my hand (how sweet). I was trying to focus on anything except the spinning room and Toby was saying open your eyes Grami, open your eyes! It was too funny, he wanted to hold my hand and help me, but force me to watch the horror of motion sickness. Ha!
• There was a sound lab in this hands on experience, so Kim and I decided to brave it. It lasts 6 minutes and you have your own private sound booth. There was room for 6 people. The ventilation was poor and it was stuffy in there, but anyway Kim says is everybody ready and pushes this button to start the sound lab. OH MY GOODNESS, that was the longest 6 minutes of my life. I tried for who knows how many minutes to talk myself out of panic. It was TOTAL DARKNESS!! Darkness like I have never experienced before. I was like oh boy if I try to find the door to get out, if when Kim pushed that button, we got locked temporarily in here, I am going to FREAK! I was closing my eyes since it was dark anyway and trying to wait out the 6 minutes, I couldn't do it. I got my cell phone out of my purse and flipped it open and shined it inside of Kim's compartment and say, "I can't handle this darkness" I shut it back but it wasn't but a few minutes later I opened it again and could not wait for that 6 minutes to be up!!!!!!!!!! I stood outside for a little while and watched grown men come out before the 6 minutes was up! HA! I was explaining it to Wendy so her, Danny, and Caetie went in! HA! She told me I realized I don't like darkness, she called it gross darkness lol!!!! She said if I hadn't of explained it to her, she couldn't have lasted either. Man what an experience that was!!!