Harvell Family Vacation

It had been a long time since my entire family had been on a vacation together, so we decided to get together over the long 4th of July weekend this summer in Gatlinburg. Growing up, my family spent many long weekends camping, hiking, rafting, or canoeing- so what a better way to spend quality family time together then go to the mountains as a family again!

Chase and I left on Thursday morning and headed east following Mary Leigh, Nick and the boys- First stop, Cookeville... We can't go through Cookeville with out a trip to the dirtbike store. :) It was so cute seeing the boys so excited about seeing "CYCLES!!!!!"

Then we ate lunch with our "other family" the Bohannons (well most of them, anyway). They were our parents while Chase and I were in college. It was so good to catch up with them, and seeing the girls.

Then it was off to Gatlinburg...

We headed straight to our hotel to check in- then everyone (minus Robert and Emily who were not there yet) loaded up to go eat at the Apple Barn. No trip to Gatlinburg is complete with out a dinner at Apple Barn.

Yummy!

Then we headed back to our cabin where Robert and Emily arrived. We hung out a little while before hitting the sack. We had a big day of shopping ahead!

Can I get a Whoop Whoop for 50% off the entire store at Banana Republic and Gap with a an additional 15% coupon!!! Major Score! Lets just say we did our fair share of boosting the economy that day...

That nights dinner was at Bubba Gump's.

Then it was on to walking the strip.

and moonshine tastings... yes you heard me right.... white lighting, corn whisky, grape, apple, and peach.

They will light you on fire!!!!

On Saturday most of the group went white water rafting. MawMaw PawPaw and I stayed back with the boys since they could not go.

The rafting group had a good time, no one fell out and they only saw 1 snake... apparently a water moccasin per Chase because any snake in or near water is an extremely poisonous water moccasin. They bought the cd of pictures. I will post those when we get them.

Bates, Brodie, MawMaw, and I had quite a fun morning as well... Ate breakfast. Went for a walk in our PJ's. Went swimming, got in the "hot pool" aka hot tub. Walked the strip. Napped 2 hours (well Bates did any way). And played in the creek.

Sunday morning we all got up and ate breakfast as a big happy family (minus the Brown's that over slept)- then us kids went for a hike in the Great Smokey Mountains. We hiked 1300 feet in 2.1 miles to the top of the chimney tops with 2 toddlers on our backs. (I use the term "our" loosely seeing as I did not actually carry either one of them)

Yes- that is Chase RUNNING up the mountain with a 25 pound toddler on his back!

What a view at the top!!!!

I was not allowed to scale the rock face to the very top, but a camera did!

Group shot at the top of the mountain

Then we loaded up and headed the 2.1 miles back down the mountain. It took us a mere 35 minutes to go down the same trail that took us 2 1/2 hours to get up!

We had such a fun trip!!! I was great spending some long over due quality time with the family. It was a wonderful weekend was full of laughs,  good stories, and great memories.