Fall in the Mountains

Happy Anniversary to Jason's parents!
They have been married for 53 years today!

In order to celebrate, they wanted to go to Pigeon Forge, TN and invited Jason and I to go with them. We, of course, said yes! It's an absolutely beautiful time of year to be in the mountains.

We took the Blue Ridge Parkway through the Smoky Mountains. The leaves have definitely changed and everything was beautiful. We stopped at Waterrock Knob Overlook to take a few pictures.

After lunch in Gatlinburg, we went to Ober Gatlinburg to ride the sky tram. The sky tram takes you from downtown Gatlinburg up the mountain to the ski resort area. From there you can take a ski lift up to the very top of the mountain. It was so much fun. The scenery was breathtaking. We even saw a deer feeding on the side of the mountain under us.

View from the top!

Jason's Parents at the top

Us at the top

From the very top of the ski lift

On the Ski Lift

View from the sky tram

After checking into our rooms in Pigeon Forge, we decided to go to a dinner show at the Smith Family Dinner Theater. It was a singing/comedy show. When we got there an employee gave me an index card and told me I was chosen for a door prize. He was a little sketch about it, so I figured it would be more complicated than someone just handing me a gift. I was right. I was called up to the stage along with 3 other women and 4 men. Then we had a hula hoop contest! Boys against girls. I still can't believe I hula hooped in front of all those people! They did end up giving each of us a CD and some coupons as a prize though. Jason got it all on video. I'm surprised he hasn't posted in on Facebook!

That's me, middle left.

The following day we had breakfast at Applewood Farmhouse and stocked up on our absolute favorite apple butter from The Apple Barn.

Then we were off to Dollywood.

At Dollywood we:

Rode all the roller coasters, checked out the 25 pound apple pie, watched the making of sorghum syrup, rode the train, caught a show, went to the Grist Mill for some fresh cinnamon bread, and fed the ducks and fish.

We had a great time!

On our way back home, we drove through Cade's Cove. It was a great drive. We were able to see more beautiful scenery and see some wildlife. We saw several black bears, deer, and turkeys.

One of the does.

One of the churches

We had a wonderful time! A big thank you to Jason's mom and dad for inviting us!