Saturday, November 21, 2020

Dollywood

We were so excited to be blessed by tickets to Dollywood!! The kids have been asking to go, but knew it wasn't going to happen. Then, we were given tickets! What a fun day it was!

Before entering the park, everyone had their temperature taken. Then they gave you this bracelet.
Jonathan and the girls rode the Thunderhead (big roller coaster in the background) while Benjamin took Hudson on the little kid one. 
Celebratory photo afterward...unfortunately Hudson did NOT like the little one either. Proud of him for trying it, but he takes after his daddy...not big roller coaster fans.
The girls are definitely the thrill seekers of the family. This was one of their favorite rides...the Drop Line.
Yeah, no thank you. Free fall from here does not look fun to me :)
Cuteness...All of my baby birds.
Regan and Lauren wanted to try the Wild Eagle. This was their celebratory photo. It was their first upside down roller coaster. They are hooked.
The bird show (the last one of the year) This was top on their favorite list for the day. Hudson said that the bald eagle was his favorite part of Dollywood. It was fun to see all the birds up close.
A squirrel ran into the facility and this hawk saw it before any of us! 
The two little owls were adorable.

The bald eagle named America.
The kids were very excited that they let us get pictures after the show with the bald eagle.





The train. We didn't get to ride it because we didn't know that you had to get tickets (free) with a time to ride. At least we got to see it.
Someone was bored waiting in line to see Santa :)
They had each of the kids write letters to Santa.

Then they mailed them.

After mailing the letters, they got to go "see" Santa. We waited in this big room where it was "snowing" and we talked to the elf in charge of the line.
Since the big kids had done several roller coasters already, we headed to the county fair for some Hudson sized rides. He wanted to do the planes first.
Surprisingly, he wanted to ride the kid free fall. This is my max limit to free fall rides ;) Benjamin had gone with Jonathan to get a corndog because he was "STARVING" He made it back just in time to take pictures for us.
Regan said while on the ride, "Do you like it Hudson? Did it tickle your tummy?" He said, "Yeah, it made everything tickle." Turns out that this ride made his top 5 list.
Now the rest of us were hungry. Jonathan stopped to get some hot cinnamon bread to share. I can't believe we have never had it before. It was amazing!
The main request of Hudson was bumper cars. All of the kids had fun.


He was laser focused :)
So, I splurged and bought some cotton candy. I actually didn't eat it until we were headed home. WE just took the masks off for a quick picture. 
Hudson's next request was driving the cars. He got to do this twice.


Benjamin and Lauren
Lauren
The lights were so much fun.
We took selfies while his siblings did a couple night time roller coasters. They got to do several because someone left the park early and gave us their express pass cards to skip the lines. Awesome!
The did it one more time. Crazy girls.
Benjamin liked the Fire Chaser the best.
Hudson didn't ride the Wild Eagle, but he loved the statue advertising the ride. He even got a jacket with a bald eagle on it...he was freezing and didn't have a heavier jacket than what he was already wearing. It's a hair big, but not too much. The price was better than a lot of regular stores, so we got it for him. Glad he's warm! :)
waiting on Regan and Lauren to get off the Wild Eagle at night.


We needed some food! I had no idea that there were footlong corndogs! Hilarious!
Katherine has always been a french fry fan!
His SECOND footlong! He's going to break the bank if he keeps eating so much ;)
Someone offered to take a family photo for us. :)
Icecream for these two...rainbow sherbert, cookie dough, mint chocolate chip

These two got shirts at the gift shop. I love all the memories that they have made together.
I bought the photo pass at the beginning so that all that I can get all of the professional photos, too. 
Santa checking the nice list. I see all my kids made the list!
Hudson was checking it out very closely!
Santa 2020 style...we got to see hime through a class window since he has to quarantine. ;)
Lauren and Regan
Katherine, Regan, Jonathan, Lauren

Hudson bought a Dollywood mug. He chose perfectly. He's been drinking hot chocolate many mornings to warm himself up.
Fire Chaser (me and the older kids)
The Scrambler
Three of us don't fit in it like we used to! 
Fireworks to end the day