My son had his final competition in Gatlinburg this past weekend, so we decided to make it a family trip for our spring break and go up a few days early! I am so glad we did we had such a great time! We spent the first night at one of our favorite places to stay in Gatlinburg the smokies at the wilderness water resort! It is an awesome indoor water park! The kids love this place and honestly we would have stayed here the entire weekend but sadly they were booked. 😦 It was nice to be able to relax and enjoy some family time together!
The kids all ready to go swimming
D.j and I enjoyed some mother son time together in the pool! Last time we went to the wilderness I was pregnant with Little Jb so I wasn’t able to participate a whole lot..
Jayden and Daddy posing before we went down the largest indoor water slide in Tennessee!
D.j and sidney getting splashed by the water bucket
Bradly and sidney waiting on the waves at the wave pool!
Bradly enjoyed going down the water slide!
Of course we couldn’t have a family trip without having a little bit of education involved while having fun!!! So we decided instead of going go cart racing we would go to wonder works! This place was amazing! It’s a huge interactive museum for all ages. It was big and so much to do that we left went back to our hotel ate lunch went swimming, and came back to wonder works for the remainder of the night! We spent a total of about 6 hours at this place. They don’t close until Midnight! The kids loved it!
No matter where we go or who we are with my husband will find turn something into a competition with someone! It’s in his blood! So here he is challenging D.j to a wall climbing competition. It was really close I think they are still debating who actually won, I guess we will have to watch the video footage to see!
They had this amazing area were you could blow big huge bubbles. Of course you got to learn all about bubbles as well!
We laid on a bed of nails! and YES those are REAL nails! It was a weird feeling to actually lay on a bed of nails. They explained to us how thousands of nails and your body weight put together does not cause pressure or a puncture. Interesting we will have to read and learn more about this concept
They had this tunnel you had to walk through in order to enter the museum. The tunnel was an illusion that made you feel like the bridge were crossing was moving. We went through several times and then realized if we closed our eyes when we walked through the illusion was no longer there!
D.j, Lani, and Bradly had fun trying to lift themselves using only there arms! It’s a boy thing I suppose!
They had an earthquake simulation, This was fun, and right on time as I was able to explain to Jayden this is what happen to the people of Haiti. She was very interested in Haiti and learning about what happen when it first happened. So this was a great “real” way to show her and teach her about earthquakes. My husband of course was being himself and trying to save his coffee during the earthquake! LOL
After the earthquake we experienced a hurricane! D.j was amazed at how strong the winds were!
We had such a great time! I said on my facebook page it is moments like this I am so glad and blessed that I homeschool my children. Memories over attendance! It is a personal conviction of mine that no one remembers having perfect attendance nor do they give out scholarships for perfect attendance, but memories like these last a lifetime! Not only did we have great family time, but my kids learned so much. I apologize but I had to say this, because so often we get judge on our decision to homeschool our children, and so often people try to tell us what we should and shouldn’t be doing, and sometimes I find myself questioning my decision to homeschool, but then God blesses me with moments like these and I stop and ask for forgiveness for questioning my blessing and once again Thank God for choosing me. Homeschooling and being a stay home mother is a calling and a gift! That was my soap box… LOL 🙂
Tanyell Cole 