I’ve been away. I don’t like to say when I’m going away in advance so the whole world isn’t aware of when my home is empty. Although my husband tweeted the whole time and we determined the only thing of value left at home was maybe the TV. My favorite jewelry was with me, my kid and husband were with me, the laptops were with us…

So anyway, the family made a list of what we wanted to get out of vacation.
Brian – Hiking, terrain, outdoors
Raffi – Ropes course or zip line, outdoors
Alice and Wendy – a new theme park and family game night

I also surprised the kids and said I would research recipes and we could have a different, new dessert every night while on vacation.

We opted for Tennessee for a few reasons – it’s driving distance from home, the weather is summery but not HOT-hot like Florida, and we could do all of the things from the list above by being near Dollywood and the Smoky Mountains.

Brian filled out some online forms and got a bunch of brochures sent to our house about Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, TN. After a day on the beach reading through the material I suggested we look at rental cabins online instead of 4 people in a one-room hotel room for 5-7 days. I wanted the real mountain feel, the privacy in the bedroom, a large shower if possible. So we started a new vacation list – what we would all want from a rental home. Using size, budget and location as the narrowing-down features, we made a top 10 list of available rental properties and emailed our top 3 for more photos and info. The first guy we heard back from offered us 7 days for the price of 5 – and no maid service fee. It was a 2 bedroom in Gatlinburg with a gorgeous view. The kids would share a bedroom but have separate beds and their own TV. We would have a Jacuzzi tub inside and hot tub outside. A basement featured darts and ping pong. The kitchen opened up into a great room so we could be together while cooking meals. As a special surprise we decided to buy Guitar Hero and 2 guitars so we could jam as a family on the nights we were home.

Dollywood had a great special – come after 3pm and the next day is free! And the park featured both a zip line and a ropes course, which knocked off my list. We set aside Wed 3pm-8pm for the Dollywood ropes course, and then we could spend all day Thurs there on rides and in shows.

We had 3 days set aside for hiking in the Smoky Mountains. We went to eh Sugarland Visitors Center to learn about avoiding bears and snakes. We hiked the Laurel Falls trail first since it is an easy one (there was even a wheelchair bound woman on the trail), but it ends in a natural waterfall which we figured the kids had never seen.

We went to hike the Chimney Tops trail, and after seeing the nearby swimming holes and rocks to hop on, we decided to spend another day there with food, swimsuits and towels with us.

On Thanksgiving we always stay home just the 4 of us and eat too much and play video games or board games. Brian said he wanted 4th of July to be like Thanksgiving - staying in our Mountain Chalet all day. We called it Fakes-giving, and made Chocolate Mess in the crock pot for good eats and a better aroma. We also brought the game Cranium with us and played that a few times. The kids liked the Play-Doh clues the best.

We had a near death hiking experience, a wasp sting and a lot of creepy millipedes! That was the bad. Oh, and the hot tub was broken but the owner let us know that a few days early and offered us $75 back. The good was LOTS of space and quiet, a view of fireworks from the chalet on July 2-4, a view of gorgeous mountains and trees at all other times, a grill on the porch for easy dinners, access to the roof for Wendy to text her friends and feel like she got away when she wanted to, yoga on the rocks by a waterfall in the middle of the Smoky Mountains, pancakes of many flavors and good old fashioned family bonding.

If you need a place to stay in Gatlinburg, I can give you a link to the chalet we stayed at. Photos coming TOMORROW!