Introducing… Elliot and Winston!

My family makes a yearly trip to the Smoky Mountains. This year Elliot got to join the festivities. He was the first baby at the cabin in 23 years!

Uncle Art finished up work at about 9AM n Wednesday and came on up to Knoxville to hang out with Elliot some. He got to experience Elliot’s “I am so tired, but I won’t sleep!” state. I was counting down the hours at work before I got home to start vacation. Then I had to work an extra hour… Bother. I finally got home and we went to Bayou Bay for dinner. Elliot was pretty fussy. Then we went home and played Rock Band Blitz, a new download title which gave us more Rock Band songs.

We got up the next morning and packed. We filled up our car with all of Elliot’s and our things so we had to put the food in Art’s car. We went to Osaka for lunch and ate delicious buffet sushi. I gave Elliot some nanner pudding, which he enjoyed. We stopped by Papa Murphy’s to pick up pizza and then headed up to the cabin. The drive was treacherous but our view was amazing!

We got unloaded and had a look around. Elliot was the first to throw up on the deck. We waited for our other cabin goers to arrive. Logan found football on TV and Art did his P90 workout. I went to feed Elliot and took a nap. When I woke up, my parents and Peggy and Kenny had arrived. We ate pizza and visited. Then I started Elliot’s bedtime routine and we fell asleep pretty early. In the rush to pack all of Elliot’s things, I forgot my toothbrush. Interestingly, Tom also forgot his. Jeremy stopped and picked us up toothbrushes and saved our pearly whites.

Elliot woke us up every morning around 6:30AM. That morning we went out and sat on the deck and drank coffee. Mary came and sat with us. Elliot turned the deck into a “poop deck” which Logan and I swabbed. Mary and Joe went off to run Cades Cove while the rest of us got ready to go to The Old Mill for lunch, one of my mom’s favorite places to eat. Gam Gam and Slappy met us there. While I was dividing Gingy’s and my lunch, Elliot was under the impression that I was going to give him some food so he opened his mouth every time I spooned some over to her plate. Elliot did enjoy some southern style mashed potatoes. Also, Uncle Tom made him a hat!

After lunch, I went out with Elliot to try to find a place to breastfeed. I didn’t find one but I did find a family trying to feed some ducks while a flock of pigeons swooped in to take to food. It was pretty entertaining. The rest of our party came out and chased pigeons around for awhile.

Then we headed up to Gatlinburg. We stopped by Tom’s winery for some tasting. Then we went to a hiking store and saw some five finger shoes, cool hammocks, and a pack you can carry a baby in. We may have to get one when Elliot grows out of the Bjorn, which could be soon!

We headed to the Ole Smoky Moonshine still but got caught in the rain. So we stopped at the Ober Gatlinburg Tram area and went shopping for candy. At this point Elliot was very hungry and I was getting desperate to feed, so I fed him in public. Humorously, Logan and Art each gave me their shirt so that Elliot and I could be draped. The rain let up and we went over to the still briefly. Art got peach moonshine.

We came back to the Cabin and got read for UT’s first football game this season against NC State. My mom had made chicken spaghetti, which was delicious. Everyone was in Orange!

Everyone cheered after the first touchdown, which scared Elliot! After that, Elliot took a relaxing bath with Gam Gam and Gingy’s help and then he and I feel asleep in my parent’s room on the lower floor of the cabin, away from the noise. At about 1AM I was having a dream where someone was singing a low pitched “Aaaaaa” over and over again, which turned out to be Uncle Art’s snoring. So Elliot and I headed back up to our room. Also, UT won!

Elliot woke me up early again with some head butting. I took him outside where daddy was already sitting at the deck. We had some coffee and changed a diaper. Tom was up early too after having slept about 12 hours.

Logan, Tom, Aunt Mary, Elliot, and I decided to go to Cades Cove for a run/walk/bike ride. Mary rode the loop on her bike and Logan ran the Spark’s Lane loop while Tom and I walked with Elliot around the Spark’s Lane loop. After walking down the sunny Spark’s Lane, Elliot was pretty thirsty, so I got to feed him in the middle of the woods. Aren’t these little milk bags convenient?

We got back and Elliot took a little nap. Then, Tom, Art, Grandpa, Gingy, Aunt Mary, Jeremy, Ryan, Elliot, and I all went to the Y to do some swimming and to see how Elliot liked the creek. He rode around in his boat while the sun was shining but had a questionable expression on his face. After I took him out of the cold water he did not particularly want to get back in, so Grandpa and I took him on a walk down river while the guys played Frisbee. A lady at the upper end of the swimming area warned us that they had seen a snake and that they thought it might be a Water Moccasin. Grandpa and I decided to head on back with the baby and to not tell Gingy or Aunt Mary about the possible snake in order to avoid a freak out!

When we got back, Elliot and I took a little nap. Then we got up but still felt tired so we went back and took a longer nap. I finally got up at about 8 and had some of Jeff and Cindy’s BBQ, which was yummy. Then I got in the hot tub with Art, Tom, Cousin Haley, Pseudocousins Jeremy and Jessica and their spouses Laura and Ryan. It was very relaxing. I told them about how becoming a mom suddenly makes you feel very old… Anyways, Elliot got up briefly around 11, so we headed up to our room and got settled down to sleep.

The next morning there was that familiar head butting. I got up and headed out to the deck again with Elliot. Jeff came up (he had been awake reading his kindle) and played with Elliot. Aunt Mary came out and did some physical therapy with Elliot. She showed us how he could “Rock on all 4s” and walk wobbly with support through his shoulders.

We got the group together for a picture and then headed to Reagan’s House of Pancakes for breakfast buffet.

After the meal, Logan and Elliot took the short walk up hill to his parents house to get some baby lotion. We picked them up and then headed to Ober Gatlinburg, where Tom had gotten us VIP passes with his work. We parked at the bottom and got in the tram line.

Elliot got a bit warm and tired while we waited for the tram and so I tried to feed him as we stood in line. It didn’t work. So Gingy gave him cap fulls of Fruit2O water to suck on.

The tram ride was neat. We traveled up ski mountain to the amusement park. Elliot got a little freaked out by the rocking that happened every time we crossed a tower, but Logan and I kept saying things like “Whee! This is fun!”

Logan and I headed straight to the lounge upon arrival to feed Elliot. When we came back outside, everyone had got to the Alpine Slide. My mom was still at the bottom of the lift so she and I hopped on and rode up to the top. We saw several in our group reach the finish while we were on the lift so I got their pictures.

Mom and I enjoyed the slide except that we got stuck behind some slow riders. Logan and I went inside so Logan could go ice skate.

Elliot and I looked at the shops. I bought him a cowboy hat to go with his outfit. Then we met us with Aunt Mary and Haley and went to the wildlife encounter area to see the bears.

When we came back in, Uncle Art was skating too.

Elliot and I tried the Merry-Go-Round, but after 3 rotations decided that he didn’t like it.

Logan, Aunt Mary, Haley, Elliot, and I went to the lounge to get a snack. The rest of our party slowly joined us. Then the storm hit! There was heavy rain and lightning and the tram stopped running. This made everyone in the park suddenly desperate to get on the tram, so once the rain stopped the line was extremely long. Our party sat in the lounge watching the Louisville vs. Kentucky game and deciding what to do. Eventually, Tom got on a shuttle to the bottom and drove his car back to the top of ski mountain. He then took two other drivers (Jeff and Grandpa) to the bottom to get the vans and get the rest of us. All the while, Elliot was exhausted and not too happy about it. Once we finally got him napped, diapered, fed, and burped he started to cheer up. Jessica did manage to soothe him for a while so that mommy could relax a bit.

We finally got back. I put Elliot in his costume and got this picture. He actually liked wearing the hat alright.

Elliot was still pretty upset later that evening, but once we got him well fed he finally settled down and went to sleep. I ate dinner and stayed up a little later while he was still asleep. The storm rose up again, interrupting conversation on the deck, so I went on inside and went to bed.

Elliot woke me up again early and I stayed in with him and Logan since the deck was wet. We got packed up and helped clean up the cabin. Grandpa got some video footage of our vacation that morning. We said our goodbyes and got on the road. My immediate family and Aunt Peggy and Uncle Kenny stopped at Aubrey’s to eat lunch. Elliot enjoyed pears and thick potato chips. Art’s car was having problems so Cindy and Jeff came to the rescue. We said our goodbyes again and headed home. Elliot was asleep when we arrived home, giving us the perfect chance to unload, start laundry, and get settled in.