The time my mom made Elaine drive to Tennessee...

We left Georgia in time so that we would return back to Knoxville by the afternoon because my mom and her friend Elaine were coming to visit us! Hooray! We made good time driving back and got to relax a bit before they called and said they were here. 

We met them at their hotel and then went out and got some dinner. We showed them our apartment and they showered Bianca with gifts, which she loved. They were tired then, so they headed back for the night...since we had a busy next couple of days planned for them!

The next day we picked them up at their hotel and we drove to Gatlinburg. We thought it'd be fun to show them real mountains so we drove up into the mountains and hung out. Bobby and I decided to walk up this trail to get to a look out place and stupidly decide to take Bianca with us. Yeah. It took a while, but we climbed it (sorry mom and Elaine!) and slowly made our way down the steep paths. They were just hanging out enjoying the views and sweating to death, since I forgot to leave the keys with them, oops!

(So polite, always shaking Elaine's hand)

 

(She had it tough)

Then we had some time to kill so we stopped to eat some Sonic and shop at this huge Christmas stop there! It was a lot of fun. It was filled with all sorts of neat Christmas decorations. 

We also got to see Santa sing! He sang a few songs for the kids and then they could go up there and visit with him...well Bianca liked the music,

 but as for saying hi to him...

Oh well! The things we do to that girl. ;) Our next stop was the highlight of our day: THE DIXIE STAMPEDE!!! It's a dinner musical show that Dolly Parton created. You could either be on the North side or the South side, and naturally the Yankees outnumbered the Southerners here 4-1, hehe. GO NORTH! It was an awesome show though! They had a pre-show where a hillbilly band performed. Bianca simply loved the music (takes after her mommy!)

The show was spectacular! Bianca sat so nicely through it. She loved all the lights and horses and buffalo. The food was good too. It was just like Medieval times where you don't get any silverware. It was funny watching my mom eat without any silverware. We all loved the show, even though the North lost. We got to show Bianca one of the horses close up after the show as well. What an awesome evening!

We picked them up early the next day as well because we were going to....DOLLYWOOD!!! Not only does she have a dinner show here, but a neat theme park, ha! It was a nice day to go, it wasn't TOO hot out. Bobby and I got to go on all of the rides we wanted to while Bianca hung out with Gram and Elaine. She was great for them too, just sat there or slept. 

We saw some shows there that were fun, like Dolly's family band and then another indoor show. We toured her tour bus, shopped, and erode the train around the park (Bianca's first and only ride here). 

We stayed until closing and then went to eat at Johnny Carinos yay! We were all exhausted by the end of the day, but everyone was surprised at how much fun we had here. Thanks, Dolly!

The next day we actually stayed around Knoxville for once (wow!). We were so sad, we wanted to go to this indoor skydiving place in Gatlinburg, BUT IT WAS CLOSED THE ENTIRE TIME MY MOM AND ELAINE WERE HERE!!! UGH! We wanted to do it, but of course you don't throw a 7 month old in there to skydive, so they were going to watch her while we did it. Sad! Anyways, we took them to downtown Knoxville to go up the Sunsphere. It took some convincing to get my mom up there, but she did it and liked it! Ha!

Then we got some food at The Tomato Head, a sandwich place which we LOVE! Some co-workers of Bobby's took us out to eat there earlier this summer and I love it down there! It was too hot to really walk around downtown a lot, so we went back to our place to relax a bit. Then my mom suggested we do something fun...play mini-golf! (Yet she never took me to do this as a kid!) It was a lot of fun! Elaine beat us all by a lot, followed by my mom, then Bobby, and in last place, me! Oh well! Bianca got so bored she dropped her water cup somewhere on the field, never to be found again. That girl!

And that concluded their trip to TN. It was a lot of fun to have them here, even if we were running around like crazy everyday trying to fit all of the fun stuff in. Thanks for coming!


(This trip to TN has been brought to you by Dolly Paton)