Leaving TN

As our trip wound down, we did a few small things before we left:

 We always drive through the tunnel and honk :)

We let the girls ride the carousel at the outlets one last time

And then we made our way home. We stopped at a Georgia rest stop with the girls so we could take a potty break and smell the flowers :)

Oconaluftee Visitor Center, North Carolina

We stayed an extra day in Tennessee so that our family could rest a little bit before our trip back home. On the Thursday before we came back home, we decided to drive into Cade's Cove :) You may wonder why I put a smiley face at the end of that last sentence. Well, it is because we got lost. We zigged when we should have zagged, as the Park Ranger said. We ended up in North Carolina. Oh well, no big deal. We went to the famed Oconaluftee Visitor Center :) Ha! It is now famous with us! 

When I finally convinced Jeremy that we were lost, we stopped at the nearest place we found (the Oconaluftee Visitor Center) and I went inside for directions. The park ranger showed me on a map that we were 1.5 hours out of our way but that we should just spend a few hours looking around the visitor's center since we were already here. Jeremy did not want to stay. When he found out we had gone the wrong way, he wanted to turn back around and head back to the hotel. I coaxed him into walking around the little village with the girls. He will never understand why I like the things I like :) 

The path up to the old village was really pretty so I took a photo. The photo doesn't do it justice :)

This little stinker was so mad because I asked her to turn around and smile for the camera. Neither one of my children enjoy taking pictures.

This little booger wanted her daddy's Coke Zero so bad! We didn't give it to her of course!

When we got back to the visitor center, Greta fell in love with this little grizzly! She kept going up to it and hugging it. It was so sweet!

Farewell Smokies!! On the way back into Gatlinburg, I got Jeremy to pull over at a scenic overlook so I could take one last picture. Until next year, Lord willing...

Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies

We have been to Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies several times but this was Greta's first time. It never gets old :) I love this aquarium! The soundtrack is awesome and very fitting for an aquarium. The exhibits are top notch and the children's interactive area is the best! This is a place that I can take my children to year after year because they learn something new with each stage of life that they are in :)

I will never forget the 1st time we went to this aquarium. It was just Jeremy and me. I was 25-26 weeks pregnant with Ava. We just walked through the exhibits and talked all about how we would bring our little girl the next year. And then the next year rolled around. Ava was about 8 months old when we took her on her first trip to this aquarium. She loved the seahorses. I remember standing at that exhibit with her for what seemed like a half hour. In reality, it was probably only a few minutes. We skipped a year at this aquarium because Greta was only 8 weeks old and was still on a pretty strenuous feeding/nap schedule. We just couldn't fit it in. Then this year came. Both girls were at a great stage for us to visit again. I expected the seahorses to be a big hit again, but they weren't. Instead, the girls loved crawling in and out of the see through tanks in the interactive area. We really did stay there for a half hour. Ava dressed up in little sea creature costumes and Greta explored her independence by trying to run from me! I look forward to many more memories we will make here!

Greta and the Penguins!!! She loved them!! She kept going up to the statue to hug and kiss it :)

I love the picture below because it really looks like Ava was studying the diagram. 

The dinosaur exhibit was going on at the aquarium! Yay!

And no Brooke Pate vacation would ever be complete without photos of flowers :) I do love them!