Gatlinburg trip 2015!

So, to kick off our 2015 Christmas season...we headed to Gatlinburg!

I couldnt think of a better way to kick it off!

Thanks to Ben and Gran, we enjoyed a very nice trip with tons of Christmas lights, shopping, sightseeing, eating candy, riding Ober, and enjoying the Dixie Stampede!

Everything in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg were lit up with Christmas lights and decorations! The girls....and I...were amazed!

To say it was packed...is an understatement!..............but we didnt let the crowd stop us from having fun!
We made great time getting there so we celebrated by having lunch at Outback! This was my view while we waited on our food! LOVE! :)

And..my side of the table too!

The girls were sooooo fascinated by the buildings! I have to say..they were super neat to see!

Trying to explain this 'witches castle' to Lily was cracking me up because she just didnt get it! :)

My little family of four....as snowmen! :) {Alexis wanted to be the 'Mom' Snowman!} :)

Gran and Ben ended up getting there on Friday too so we went to the cutest place that has Christmas all year around! The Christmas Place!..and of course, it had a TON of Christmas things. Gran got the girls a stuffed animal. They were in Heaven!

We finished off the day with shopping at the Outlets and then eating dinner. {After we went to three different places to try and eat, yeah....remember I said it was crowded! Yep, it was!}We rode around and looked at all the fun and pretty Christmas lights everywhere before calling it a night! :)
Ella Jingle still made her way to Gatlinburg! :)

We woke up bright and early on Saturday and enjoyed the Apple Barn before hitting the shops!

There was a craft show at the Civic Center so we popped in there and looked around and shopped. While we were in there, there was a Cheer Competition going on too so there were tons and tons of cheerleaders of all different ages getting ready to perform. Alexis was in Heaven again! She begged to watch the competition but we left before it started. She still got to watch some of the squads warm-up and loved watching all of that!

We went up to Ober! It was so neat to be so high over the mountains! Alexis and Lily said they were flying like Tinkerbell! :)

When we made it to the top, there were a ton of things to do! We decided to Ice Skate {per Alexis' request} since she said she loved it when we took her over Thanksgiving!
Look how tiny these skates are! SOOOO cute! :)

My little family skating! Alexis went from not wanting me to let go of her {when we went the first time in Birmingham} to skating all by herself this time! She did awesome!! Also, Lily did great too for her first time to ever skate! And let me tell you.....I was sweating like everything and worn out when we were finished! Trying to keep Lily up was hard....but fun too! :)

On our way back down to 'earth!' Our view! The girls thought it was so cool to 'fly!'

And of course....more shopping and hitting more candy shops!

My two cute animals!

This was a little side area called The Village and it was so cute and decorated sooo cute for Christmas too! The girls loved running around and looking at all of the decorations!

We had a great little trip with Ben and Gran! This was our last picture before heading to the hotel to rest and freshen up before meeting Ben and Gran at the Dixie Stampede to watch the show and eat dinner!
Lily was cracking me up!....she said she was Santa and was going to drive the sleigh as we took the picture!!

We made a quick stop at the Smokie Moutain Opry because this to me was the most beautiful building of them all decorated. The pictures just doesnt do it justice. It was sooo pretty!

Us four! :)

Look how tall the toy soldiers are!

We made it to the Dixie Stampede! This was my first time to ever go and it was a great show! Tyler cracked me up because he didnt know that you dont have utensils..........so needless to say when the veggie soup was poured, he looked over at me and asked where the spoon was! Ohhh..I just laughed! He slowly figured it out!.......that we were in the 'olden times as Alexis says!' :)

She loved drinking her slushy out of a boot! :)
Alexis cracks me up too in this picture! Before I could take the picture of her, she stuck the cherry stem back in her drink to 'Act like it is in there so it looks cool even though I already ate the cherry, Mommy!'...oh me, too funny!

To my right side of the table..........

And...to my left side! :)

It was a great show and great experience. They did their 'Christmas Show' and it was good! We were the 'red team' on our side and it was fun to 'compete' against the 'green side' {we were the red girls with the red flags on the horses!}

The true meaning of Christmas!
We hit the sack after the show and enjoyed Cracker Barrel with Gran and Ben before heading home! To our surprise...it wasnt a bad drive so we made it home in time for the girls to go see the 'Best Christmas Pageant Ever' play while Tyler and I unpacked and I did laundry! {I think the girls got the better end of the stick!} :) :)
And now, as I sit here updating my blog....it is Monday night and I have made it through my first day back to work this week!...and Im not slowing down yet!...we have a lot more Christmas fun coming up this week!
I love this time of year! :)