Babies Make Four: Gatlinburg 2015

A few months ago, our friends reached out to us with a proposition that it might be fun for us to all rent a cabin in Tennessee for a weekend soon and get a way for a little bit. It would be 3 couples and 3 kids ranging in ages 4 months to 2 years. With all the little ones, it becomes increasingly difficult for us to all get together nowadays!

So we signed up, we planned for things we could do (Aquarium, eating out, eating in!) And we anxiously waited for our weekend away. Only to run into several hurdles along the way... Our friend Rob got sick with a fever, a few doctor trips later and still a fever, it was determined that they wouldn't get to go. We were all bummed, but with a deposit already paid the remaining families decided to keep the plans and continue on. I picked up the dinner to make for Friday night from Amber, Rob's wife, and we talked about how sad we were that they couldn't go.

That afternoon Dillon and I packed up the car to the brim. We told an excited Luke that we were going on a trip and that we would go to the Aquarium the next day to see fish and we would have a full weekend. The Creggers would be leaving a little later and we would meet them at the cabin.

We piled in the car, started up some music, got some Dunkin Donuts coffee and headed out on the highway. Luke started napping and Dillon and I passed the time. I turned around to check on Luke somewhere around the Tennessee line and he promptly vomited allllll over himself. Luckily, we were passing an exit right as this happened and Dillon thought fast and pulled over. I tried to clean out the carseat as best I could and we had a diaper/wardrobe change on the side of I-40. I hadn't heard of anyone at daycare with the stomach bug so I prayed it was something he had eaten or maybe even car sickness.

We made it into Gatlinburg with no other "occurrences" until we drove past a McDonald's and round II hit. One more wardrobe change and a rush to the cabin later and we had made it. We spent the first evening doing loads of laundry, giving the carseat a thorough cleaning and preparing food for the next day.

Saturday morning we all woke up and had breakfast, in no hurry to get out of the house. The cabin was toasty warm and I was still waiting to see if the tummy bug was hanging around (thankfully, it wasn't). We drank coffee and walked in the woods around the cabin. Baby Josie took a nap and we got ready to go out for lunch and the aquarium. After Josie's nap, we packed up and headed out. Traffic was crowded and we had a hard time finding parking and someplace to eat. We finally ended up at Mountain's Edge Grill, where the atmosphere was strange and the food was mediocre. Luke almost fell asleep on his chair and we decided that maybe now wasn't the best time to go to the aquarium. We headed back to the cabin where we all napped. In fact, Luke napped for over 4 hours. We decided to not go back out and made tacos for dinner.

While it sounds like it wasn't a good trip, it actually was. We caught up with our friends, we relaxed and we weren't rushed. We took naps that we usually don't get to take and we stayed up late which we don't always get to do. We enjoyed it so much that we talked about doing it again next year. Even though it wasn't what we had planned it was what we needed. Some time away, some time relaxing and a beautiful fall weekend!