Our 1st Family Vacation

We went on our 1st ever family vacation last week to Gatlinburg, TN.  Surprisingly, the drive wasn't too bad.  Granted going there, not knowing what to expect, with the crazy steep winding roads, I was a bit terrified. And Mike was most likely very annoyed with my being terrified.  But once we were there, it wasn't bad.  It is amazing how quickly you get use to the roads. Granted I think it would take me a few visits there before I would be caught dead driving around there! We stopped over in Fairborn, OH Tuesday night, to have breakfast with Keira's great-grandparents.  On our way to the hotel we passed by the Air Force base.  I was in awe. I want to go back so bad now, to go to the museum and stare at the base and cool planes.  It really was truly amazing, and that was just from passing by in the dark! In Gatlinburg, we went to the Ripley's Aquarium (rated the #1 aquarium and no joke, it was so awesome, I don't know if I could EVER step foot at the Shedd again, it really was that much better!). We also to the Guiness Museum of World Records and the Ripley's Believe it or not museum - It was really cool, but I feel like those are things you do once and never really have to do again, so I guess that's checked off the list.  We really enjoyed walking around downtown Gatlinburg.  "Mountain" people and their dogs are funny to watch.  Good food there too - well at least the deep fried treats were! The cabin was amazing - I would love to live there... well except for the drive up to it and the bugs... I guess I'm saying that I really loved the openness and the way the sun made it happy :) I imagine on gloomy days it would really suck. It made me want a house. REAL BAD. Lots of good stuff happened, and it out weighed the bad stuff (aka my meltdown on Wednesday night: Apparently I shouldn't be messed with after being in a car for 6 hours and having not eaten, who knew?) I would definitely do it again, and I learned something about myself too - which learning is always good - I am apparently a push-over, and don't stand up for myself as much as I thought once that I did. Maybe I have taken the "is this the hill you want to die on?" approach too far.  I also learned that when I have energy I get things done, but when they are un-done, I get very annoyed.  I'm sure that Keira growing up and us having more children will tame that in me, but I really can't stand things being destroyed after they were just cleaned - especially by adults.  I think that yesterday (monday) and today (tuesday) have actually been more relaxing than the entire vacation was.  But at least now I know that "vacation" has many meanings to different people. And to me, its about relaxing, "sharing the load" of what responsibilities are unavoidable, doing some fun stuff, and eating good food. I am certainly happy to be home. I wonder if its too early to plan next year's vacation? LOL