A Dollywood Christmas

This year for Christmas my parents are giving us Dollywood Season passes, and they gave them to us early so we could go while they're open for Christmas!  So on Thursday, December 6th, we decided to head to Pigeon Forge to check it out.  It has been about 11 years since I've been to Dollywood and at least that long for John, so we were excited to go and to take our boys for the first time!  The day we were planning to go, John came home from work and suggested that we just spend the night in Pigeon Forge and have some more time to do stuff up there.  So an impromptu overnight trip it was, and it worked out perfectly! 

We all LOVED Dollywood.  It was hard to get any decent picture since it was dark the majority of the time we were there, and since we were outside they just didn't turn out too well.  Although it was cold, it wasn't so cold that all the rides were shut down-so we got to do all the rides we wanted! 

 

We had Carter all bundled up.

He had on his Santa outfit under

all of that.  He was so bundled it was

hard for him to move.  He was so happy

the whole time riding around looking at

the lights.

After a little while he actually dozed

off for a few minutes all bundled

up and snug in the stroller.

Dawson LOVED riding the rides while we were

there.  Here he is riding the carousel.  He picked

the horse for himself, and then he picked the

goat with horns beside him for me to ride.  Gee,

thanks!  :)  He also told me to pretend there was

a zebra chasing the goat I as riding and make mine

go faster so it didn't get me.  Silly boy!

Dawson is in the front in this ride.

He rode this Bumble Bee Ride all by himself. 

John helped him get buckled and said that

Dawson looked at the bee and said, "Don't

sting me, bee!  Okay?" before he got in!

I was surprised by how much Dawson loved all

the rides.  He even rode his first roller coaster...TWO

times!?  He rode once with Daddy and then again with

me.  It went fast and was a had a couple of drops, but

he loved it!  I was so happy that he enjoys

riding the rides like John and I do. 

He also enjoyed the Amazing Flying Elephant Ride,

The Duck Ride, and several others-these were just the favorites.

Santa was in his workshop at Dollywood so we stopped in to see him while we were there.  There was also a Christmas parade that went through Dollywood, so we stopped at 8:00 to watch it.  Before we left John and I wanted to ride the Wild Eagle, Dollywood's newest roller coaster.  John rode first while the boys and I checked out an extravagant model railroad set up.  Dawson was in heaven because not only were there a lot of trains and tracks, but one of the trains was even hauling John Deere equipment.  The men working this could tell how much Dawson loved it, and they asked him if he would like to operate the control for the railroad crossing.  Of course he wanted to!  Then we switched and I rode the Wild Eagle. John and I agreed that it's a great roller coaster!

We took a short break from rides because

Dawson wanted to play a game...I know

these things are rigged, but Dawson

ACTUALLY won, no cheating, he won!

This was the winning toss!  He won a stuffed

animal snowman.  He was so happy!

Carter and I were enjoying looking

at some of the lights.

Before we left Dollywood we stopped in their

huge candy store, and we found this entire wall

of different kinds of gummies.  We told Dawson

he could pick a pack, and this as a major decision!

He was like a kid in a candy shop!  :)

Gummies are his very favorite thing right now!

The boy's Advent gift for the day was a

pair of matching Christmas pajamas with feet!

So here they are watching The Cat in the Hat

on tv in their pajamas in the hotel after waking up!

I love these sweet faces.

This picture is a little out of order,

but when we got to the hotel, Dawson

insisted upon pulling our suitcase

so Daddy could carry the pack n play.

He was such a good boy, he pulled

it all the way from the car up to our room.

THEN he did the same thing when we checked

out.  He really does love to help!  So sweet.

 

While in Pigeon Forge we also made some time for a little outlet shopping.  Yay!  Our hotel also had a great pool with a waterfall, so before we checked out we all went for a long swim.  Carter is such a water baby that he kicks his legs in the water and smiles the whole time he's in the pool!  Dawson had fun jumping in the water and swimming around with us too!  Our impromptu overnight trip to Pigeon Forge turned out really well even with all four of us in one room (and Carter still not sleeping well at night-he didn't wake Dawson).  We had a blast at Dollywood, and I'm already trying to figure out if we can squeeze in another visit between now and Christmas!!  :)