Gatlinburg

Some months back, my fun friend Amy had the wonderful idea to take a trip to the mountains

with our six (total) young children for one week. I, at the moment, thought, why not?! We (Amy, Amanda, Andrea) put our money down and looked forward to February 2010with excitement. It would be the week of Mardi Gras. Well, as the months passed by, I got a little more worried as the date got closer. What in the hell had I signed myself up for?!
Mandy and Amy

are used to pretending to be single moms as their husbands travel all year long. (I say that loosely because I was once a single mom and it's still much easier when you are being supported by a spouse, I know.) I, on the other hand, depend on Jude a lot for help with the kids. He is always there when I need him and pretty much takes over the parenting most evenings. The thought of doing the "parent thing" alone scared me silly. What in the world had I signed myself up for? Ten hours in the car with Amy and four kids, ages five, four, two and one. I wanted to run in the other direction, but I being the adventure seeker that I am, went.
Sunday, February 14th came and we loaded the VW Routan up and left the state of sanity, I mean, Louisiana. The trip up there wasn't that bad, actually. In fact, the entire trip was more fun than I expected. The cabin Amy booked was spectacular!

My only big problem of the week long event was Roman didn't sleep but every other night. The heater was hot and he didn't have a humidifier to help, which he has at home. One night he would toss and turn all night, sitting up and crying, always coughing, then the next night he would pass out from lack of total sleep. I was definitely grouchy on the nights he didn't sleep because my pregnant butt ONLY wants to sleep these days. We did do some fun things on the trip.
We went to downtown Gatlinburg and suckered ourselves into some dumb Mirror Maze for way too much money.

We took the kids swimming at the cool on site indoor water park.


Swimming inside, snowing outside.

Amy and Mandy both at some point took the kids outside to play in the real snow (vs. our fake south snow).



We went to Ober Gatlinburg

and did a bunch of fun things there, including animal viewing and ice skating (not me).



We played at the park on the grounds,

and at times the kids watched lots of television while we cooked and cleaned.
It was always an experience every where we went with the six kids and three adults. I reminded myself a few times that this trip was ALL about the kids.

One of the last days, we did manage to hit up the Serenity Spa and get massages, taking turns on who goes and who babysits. We also visited the Tanger Outlet Mall and I was able to purchase a few things that I wanted.
I was surprised at how well behaved Aiden was the entire trip. I guess he was in kid-heaven

and didn't have much to complain about. I think we only butted heads once, maybe twice, the entire week. Roman tried his best at being good and I give him a B for Behavior.
I did learn something from this trip. I learned a few things, actually. I love Amy and Mandy lots and lots. Those are two great girlfriends that I am so happy to have. I learned we all face different challenges in our parenting lives and we all do the BEST that we can:) I learned that girls are a lot more challenging than boys, and require a lot more mentally raising them. Girls are sassy, and probably more than I can handle at this point in my life with three boys already. That being said...I'll take another boy, please, God. Maybe I am truly not meant to have a girl. Growing up, I was a daddy's girl. My mom and I didn't develop an awesome relationship till I started having children of my own. I then realized how wonderful of a person she was. It's all adding up. lol
The trip was a success and on the drive home I was thinking, I could do this again, no problem. Thanks Amy and Mandy for the beautiful memories! Now, I need a vacation!!


In order, from oldest to youngest:
Xander

Hannah

Aiden

Roman

Eli

Laney

*Cullen stayed with his dad this week, as he was a tad too old for this crowd and he visited here in November with his dad and went to Disney in January.