Memorial Day Weekend

Shark

Mommy and Allie


Sawfish

Daddy and Allie in the shark tunnel

Turtle

Allie with a HUGE shark jaw

Allie and her penguin friend

Daddy and Allie in the penguin tunnel

On Memorial Day weekend, we went to Gatlinburg for a couple of days. We stayed at Wilderness in the Smokies. This is a resort with an indoor and outdoor waterparks. We arrived on Friday evening around 8pm and decided to go ahead and get dressed and go to the indoor waterpark. We swam till it closed at 10pm. Allie loved it! The next morning, we got up and ate breakfast then headed back to the waterparks. We spent the entire morning swimming and doing the lazy river. Allie loved the toddler area and the wave pool. Late afternoon and evening we were back at the pool until closing. It was such a fun day. I was surprised how Allie wasn't scared at all. She was putting her face in the water and going down the slides (most of the time...sometimes she would want Mommy or Daddy to hold her hand).

There was a FlowRider at the indoor waterpark. This is a standing wave for people to bodyboard or surf. Kevin did the bodyboard first and did great! I tried and I thought I did really well too (Kevin says I did fine but I think I did great). On Sunday we made sure to get there at opening (we wanted to get in some swimming before we went into Gatlinburg and then headed home). Since the line wasn't long for the FlowRider, Kevin did the bodyboard several times. He then decided to do the flowboard (a smaller version of a surf board). He was able to stand up the first time and by the 3rd try he was surfing for a couple of minutes. That was the best first time try that I saw the whole time we were there! I did the bodyboard 1 more time. This time I tried to get on my knees but I wiped out about 3-4 times. It was still LOTS of fun! Allie liked watching us try.

After the waterpark on Sunday, we went to Ripley's Aquarium. Allie enjoyed seeing the fish but I think her favorite was the penguin house. Kevin and I seemed to like the tunnel through the shark tank better than Allie. It was really cool having the sharks swim all around you. The penguin house was fun too. The penguins could swim under the floor and you could crawl through a tunnel to the middle of the exhibit. Kevin took Allie through the tunnel. Allie liked being so close to the penguins.

No pictures from the waterparks...I didn't want to take our camera around all that spraying water and a 2 yr old. :) What a fun weekend!!!