Smoky Mountain Getaway

View from Shuckstack Mountain Fire Tower

As mentioned before, we love getting out and visiting the National Parks, so a few weeks ago we had the pleasure of taking a 6 day/7 night family vacation up in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. When we take vacations where a lot of driving is required, we attempt to leave as early in the morning as we can. We usually shoot for 5 AM, but end up leaving closer to 6 because I am the mom and lets be real--5 AM just isn't always going to happen when we have an almost 3 year old and a 7 month old! This trip though we were all amazingly in the car by 5:10--car packed, baby fed, toddler ready to continue sleeping, husband impressed. He goes to start the car and we were on our way that dreadful 'click click click' of a dead battery had us looking at each other like we were being Punk'd. Yeah, not a sound you want to hear at 5 in the morning as you are about to leave for vacation! No worries though right? We have another car, we can just give it a jump and assess the problem later. WRONG. The jumper cable was in the dead SUV, under the floor boards, UNDER THE LUGGAGE. Did you know that you can't lift a power tail gate when the battery is dead? Luckily I have an awesome dad, and he came to the rescue that morning giving us the jump we needed to get on the road.

During the drive, we keep our toddler entertained with books, games on the Kindle Fire, and movies. He is really into The Music Man right now, so he pretty much watched that movie for the entire drive. We purchased these SoundBot for Kids headphones earlier this year for another road trip, and we love them. They are blue tooth so you can sync them to any device, and they are specifically made for children so there is a volume cap which doesn't allow the headphones to get too loud. They allow him to watch his movie, the baby to the sleep, and for us to keep our sanity by listening to the music we choose. We also try to keep stops minimal and only stop for quick meals or coffee breaks. Since I am breastfeeding, I try to pump while the baby is sleeping so I can give him a bottle when he gets hungry rather than stopping and wasting 15-20 minutes every 2 hours or so. I will nurse him as usual though whenever we do stop, because the bottle doesn't always do the trick. The trip up took us about 11 hours, and aside from getting gas, we only stopped twice.

(Side note: Comotomo is a great bottle to use with a breastfed baby. It is the ONLY bottle my first son would take after trying at least 7 other types, so with Cade there was no question or trial and error when it came to choosing a bottle. He took it for the first time without a protest, mom win!)

We love our Comotomo!

When we go up to the mountains, we are all about the cabin life so we rented a GREAT place with an AMAZING view for this trip. For us, a view is always a must, and this cabin did not disappoint. We stayed in Robinsonville roughly 20 minutes from Fontana Dam, and our cabin overlooked the Tennessee River--which feeds into Fontana Lake, as well as the National Park-my husband was pretty stoked about this factor. This place was pretty much in the middle of nowhere on a gravel road where cell phones don't work and GPS tells you to use caution---it was perfect! It wasn't a huge cabin, but there was just enough room. It had 3 bedrooms--2 upstairs where we and the kids stayed, and the master downstairs where my in-laws slept when they came a few days later. There was a pool table/ping pong table inside which doubled as a dining room table, rockers on the back porch, and a hot tub and fire pit out on the lawn area for enjoying the view.

Day 1 in a nutshell was spent crying over a dead car battery, driving, grocery shopping (for my husband) and unpacking so we weren't living out of our suitcases for the duration of the trip. We tried having the boys sleep in the same room that first night, but the baby woke up numerous times so we ended up moving him into our room for the remainder of the trip. The first night was really windy, with gusts up to 40 mph, as Hurricane Matthew was sitting on the other coast, so we weren't able to enjoy the hot tub or fire pit that evening. "Early" to bed was the plan!

Day 2 -

On the trail heading back from the dock.

We knew we wouldn't want to get out and do too much on this day after driving the day before, so we really just hung around the cabin, enjoying the outdoors and cool [freezing] weather. The cabin owners do have a trail down to the river with a dock and have a boat, jet skis, and kayaks for the renters to be able to enjoy on the river and lake. We only rented the kayaks-which we ended up not using, but we did make our way down to the dock on this day. In the Fall/Winter months, they lower Lake Fontana by 50 feet, so it was a really neat sight to see the lake that low and just how steep the edges are, but for this reason we weren't able to enjoy sitting out on the dock since it was dry and very steep. We took a drive over to the dam as we had a hike planned later that week that crosses it. I haven't been to a dam in probably 15 years so it was really neat to see and learn about. The "holes" freaked out our toddler, and he kept saying for the duration of the trip that he didn't want to go in them. Why he would think he would go in them is beyond me!

View from dock--pontoon boat and boathouse on the right.

Enjoying the weather and planning our first hike.

Rocking on the front porch, keeping warm.

Walking across Fontana Dam.

Big "holes" my toddler worried about, it was impossible to see to the bottom.

Day 3 was our first big hiking day, but I will share that story as well as the remainder of our trip in the next post.

Brica By-My-Side Safety Harness Backpack

One of our goals is to visit as many National Parks as we can over our lifetime, so every year we try to make it a point to visit one and do some sightseeing and/or mountain hiking. As a couple, we have been visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for years and have recently started branching out to others. Last year we visited Acadia National Park in Maine, and the year before we spent time in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. The last two National Park visits included our first son who spent most of his time in carriers on dads back. Since our son is getting older at just shy of 3 years old, we really enjoy watching him explore new places on his own, so when planning our trip this year, we though that some of the easier hikes would be great for him to be on foot and for dad to get a break.

Being a mother, I of course only imagine my child flying off the side of a mountain--even on flat ground. I told my husband that I wanted to find a backpack that would allow us to keep track of him and close by with some sort of strap. Bring in the Brica By-My-Side Safety Harness Backpack. The backpack comes in two color choices, pink & grey or green & blue. We chose the green & blue for our son, and the price was only $9.89 on amazon, the pink runs about $1 more. The parent strap is optional and attaches to the bottom of the backpack with a swivel clip. This seemed like a great option for us as the trails we plan to let him explore on will not be very difficult, but we can still keep him close by if he were to trip or fall.

This backpack is the perfect size for our 2.5 year old son and the straps still have a little give left. It goes on like a normal backpack, but it has a buckle that goes across the child's chest to keep the pack from slipping off. When we first got the pack in the mail, my son put it on and wouldn't take it off, he loved having his own backpack that was his size.

We tried out the backpack last weekend when we took a day trip to Disney just to see how it would go. I would say it went about as expected with letting a 2.5 year old "loose" at Disney! As the amazon reviews state, it will take some learning and getting used to. Right now he is in that stage where he completely does not pay attention to where he is walking and is constantly turning around or looking elsewhere. With the harness though, we can at least pull him in and keep him from meeting the legs (or crotches) of too many strangers. He liked to test the boundaries with us to see just how much we'd put up with so that was fun.

On the trails, he will be able to carry his own water and snacks which will give him a sense of independence...what toddler doesn't want to be independent?! My only reserve about the bag is the placement of the hook for the parent strap. Being that it is located at the bottom of the bag, the bag slides on his back if pulled so it isn't very taut like we would like, with time though I think we will both become accustomed to it.

We're definitely looking forward to trying it out on our trip, and I will be sure to include a short review of its use once we do. :-)

Adventures at Disney - PART 2

Adventures at Disney - Part 2 - Baby swap, Dining, Parades & Fireworks

We fell in love with Walt Disney World long before we had our kids, but bringing our little ones to Disney is now the best part of our experience. Dax has been going since he was about 6 months old, and each trip has brought something new for him to enjoy. Through most major milestone ages from 6 month - 2 1/2 years, we've been able to look forward to him experiencing a new ride or have something spark his interest that he didn't notice previously. Dax currently LOVES Pirates of the Caribbean and is a must do anytime we visit. He also loves Dumbo, Tomorrowland Speedway, and the Mad Tea Party at the Magic Kingdom, and Grand Fiesta Tour at Epcot, just to name a few! Most attractions are friendly for all ages. In fact, even our 7 month old enjoys riding along with us. He has been on quite a few rides starting from just 3 months old, including Pirates--which has a drop! 

Of course not all attractions are kid friendly, and due to the fact that our kids our very young (and short), they couldn't tag along on some of the bigger attractions that have height restrictions. On a normal visit, we skip over those rides and stick to the ones that our kids can join us on, but since we had my in-laws along for the trip, we were able to try out  the "baby swap" system. We had Fast Passes (FP) for Soarin' Over the World, but it was a ride our kids could not accompany us on, so when we told the cast member at that FP stand, she handed my in-laws a pass that would allow my husband and I to go on after they did, and literally swap the kids. We kept the kids busy while they rode, and then my in-laws entertained them while we rode. It was a neat way to extend our FP time as well, since by the time we got in line, our return time was well over. We also used this system for Test Track. Keep this in mind if you're running a little late as the "Baby Swap Pass" can be used anytime that day.

Even though we did take advantage of the FP, there were unusually light crowds this weekend, even for the "slow season," which made it very easy for us to experience a lot of attractions during our 4 days. I think our longest stand-by wait time we experience was 40 minutes, and that was for the newly opened Frozen ride at the Norway Pavilion in Epcot--that we were able to ride TWICE. The lines weren't usually as long as they seemed, and we even realized that the app was not always giving us accurate wait times. We could usually tell just by looking at a line if it was going to be a quick wait or not. Even with opening weekend of the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot, the food lines were so short that we didn't really have to wait at all to order and get our food sampling--at lunch time! Believe it or not, there are slower times to visit Disney World still, including late August, early to mid September, early December, and most of February. (By the way, the Spanakopita from Greece and Cheddar Cheese Soup from Canada are to die for and I think I ate the Spanakopita before she even handed it to me, here's your hand back ma'am!)

At Epcot, we didn't want to eat at a quick service restaurant with all of the great options currently available at the Food and Wine Festival, but finding something our toddler would enjoy that wasn't chicken fingers wasn't the easiest. Toddlers love mac n cheese right? WRONG. Well maybe just not the loaded mac n cheese from the Farm Fresh stand which I regretfully ended up having to eat both his and my husbands. It did have a little spice to it as well which most likely wasn't appealing to the toddler taste buds. He was hungry so we flipped through our Passport and ultimately strolled our way over to Germany as they had a potato au gratin meal with ham and cheese, and to our luck it was toddler approved! Most of our trip was spent in Epcot and there are so many great options that visiting multiple times is the only way you could taste everything without overdoing it and feeling guilty.

This go around, we only made one dining reservation (which you can do 180 days out from your visit if you're staying on Disney Property, or 90 days out if you're not) at the Polynesian Resort for The Spirit of Aloha dinner show. The family style Hawaiian food was pretty good, with endless portions of pulled pork, roasted chicken, ribs, veggies, and jasmine rice and all you could drink beer, wine and Sangria, but we weren't too impressed with the show. It was interesting to see the traditional dances of Hawaii, but mixed with a cheesy Disney-like storyline and filler dance numbers, some parts came off pretty boring if I am being honest. The fire dancer at the very end made the experience worthwhile at $65/person (kids ate free!). Our toddler didn't move his eyes from this man until he was finished. Glad we experienced the show, probably won't be back. Next time we'll opt for the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue over at Fort Wilderness.

Fire Dancer at The Spirit of Aloha

Our other meals in the parks were eaten at the quick service restaurants. As many times as we have visited the parks, you would think we would have learned to check menus before walking all the way across Magic Kingdom in the rain only to remember that Pecos Bill's Wild West Café in Frontierland now served Mexican cuisine instead of chicken and burgers like we were in the mood for. We then bee-lined it over to Tortuga Tavern in Adventureland only to find it not serving dinner that night (note to self: if serving times are missing when looking up an eatery on the My Disney Experience App, it probably means the restaurant currently isn't open!). We ended up at one of our favorites, Casey's Corner on Main Street. Between my husband, Dax, and I, we shared 2 Corn Dog Nugget Meals, it would be more than enough for all of us. Keep this in mind so you don't end up wasting food or money! Casey's doesn't quite have enough seating to accommodate the lunch and dinner crowds, but it's very convenient to the recently installed green-space around the center hub. Save the time and aggravation of trying to find a table and just spread out on the Astroturf lawn instead! Depending on the time you're eating, you might end up scoring an awesome spot for a parade or fireworks as well! We have learned that fireworks are best viewed from Main Street about halfway between the Casey's and the center hub. If you're too close to the castle, you miss the big picture of the show. The green-space was great because we were able to sit for the duration of the firework show and didn't have to worry about others squeezing in to and blocking our view.

The Main Street Electrical Parade is leaving Disney World (again), so we wanted to make sure our son got to see it (and us too of course). Normally we would stake out a parade spot at least 45 minutes ahead of time, but we got lucky and found an open spot just minutes before it began. I don't know which was better, watching my son in all of his amazement, waving at the characters and dancing, or my husband watching our son enjoy one of his favorite parades with the most genuine of happy smiles. I think I was experience first-hand one of those magical Disney moments that you see on their TV commercials.

Pointing to his favorite characters in the parade.

We left right after the parade with the rest of the world and found the monorail line to be backed up to the park's exit gates so we decided to take the ferry back to the parking lot. Best. Decision. Ever. The Ferries can fit more people more efficiently than the monorail can. They were running 3 ferry boats and both loading docks, so we boarded promptly, even being 3 ferries deep in the crowd. I imagine we would have waiting at least a half hour before being able to board a monorail. While celebrating our minor victory, our crying, leg shaking toddler reminded us, that we never took him potty between the fireworks and parade. There just wasn't anything for us to do as we said across the middle of Seven Seas Lagoon, about 5 minutes from our destination. Lesson learned--always take the kid potty when they ask, and always, ALWAYS, bring a change of clothes. Ugh, I am feeling awful about this again.

We saw a lot, and did a lot during our 4-day trip, but we also feel that we missed a lot on this trip too. Maybe because it was hotter than normal for the end of September, or maybe it was because it was our first multi-day trip with 2 little ones in tow. Or maybe there really is just so much to do and see that it is hard to cram it all in, especially when you're trying to keep a good pace that allows the kids to have a great time without over-doing it! 2 out of our 4 days we made our way back to the resort to let our kiddos get a good nap in, this allowed us to stay out a little later in the parks and avoid having grumpy kids. We also learned that if there is a 50/50 chance that our son will have an epic hour-long meltdown if we wake him up from his nap early...DON'T wake him up early from his nap!

Donald was telling us to go and he would keep the kid. We considered letting him!

Taking a Disney trip with 2 kids is TONS of work, and truthfully it was probably more work than it was relaxing for us, but we seriously had so much fun. The wonderment in our sons eyes is enough to keep us going again and again. Kids don't see the long lines for food, and the long waits for rides, the hoards of people that aren't watching where they're going. They see a HUGE castle, their favorite characters, dragons everywhere, and are using their imaginations without even realizing it. We are taking a break from the parks for awhile, but we can't wait until we return and become children again ourselves, just by watching and learning through our 2 boys.