Spring Break Adventures! 🌸🦋🌷🌼🎢🎠

This past week was Spring Break for the Lucks. Spring Break was a welcomed respite in our home after 11 straight weeks of school with no teacher workday or holidays it was a great mental break for both myself and the girls. The first two days of our break were spent at home resting and having lunch with Nana, while daddy worked. However on Wednesday the family vacation began!

We decide to stay close this year and took the girls to Pigeon Forge, TN. Ken wanted to do Dollywood. He went there as a kid with his parents and made some great memories and wanted to do the same with our girls. This was a treat for me too since I had never been there. I can’t believe it took me this long to go as it's an awesome park. Ken also wanted to make sure we had plenty of fun things to do when we were not at the park and he found this awesome lodge outside of Pigeon Forge, The Wilderness at The Smokies. It’s very similar to Great Wolf with all kinds of amenities: indoor/outdoor waterpark, arcade, putt putt and ropes course to name a few, as well as several dining options and a golf course.

It was also my precious mama’s 60th Birthday last Friday and she has been missing her girls {Abbie, Ellie and me.🤨 Apparently the thanks you receive from your parents when you give them grandkids is you move to the bottom rung. Mama I still know you love me!} Since Pigeon Forge is half-way between Charlotte and Nashville, mama came over and spent a night and day with us. My sister also hit us up when she came through on her way back to Nashville after visiting my dad and bonus mom. It was a nice treat that we got to see family on our little mountain getaway.

We spent two days at Dollywood. If you are only interested in rides one day is probably all you would need, but you would be missing out on all of the other things that make this place so charming. When Dolly Parton purchased the old Silver Dollar City amusement park, it wasn't doing very well. What she took and then created is an amusement park that celebrates the rich heritage of The Smoky Mountains. From the music to the food and ultimately the tribute to Dolly herself, you find yourself just enjoying and appreciating the experience. There is shopping and live performances and a museum dedicated to Dolly’s life from growing up in the Smokies as a little girl to the fascinating career she has had. You can even take a tour of her tour bus. All of the employees are nice and welcoming. I have been to many amusement parks, but this one is one of the ones that I found to be truly enjoyable.

Another plus about the park is there were actually quite a few rides that Ellie, who is only 2 years old, could ride. That in and of itself was worth it. The sheer look of joy and excitement she had when she realized she could ride some of the rides with sissy was priceless. It does have something to offer for all ages. Mama loves gospel music and they even had a show that featured it and she loved it. And my mother-in-law who joined us as well, loved seeing the girls light up at all the park has to offer from live music to unique craft stores and of course, the rides!

When it came to food they had a lot of quick bite stands as I like to call them {hot dog, fries , popcorn, etc. } which is nice if you are not really wanting to sit around or have limited time. They also had several sit-down dining options. We went with The Front Porch Cafe, the top-rated restaurant in the park, which didn’t disappoint. The menu was simple and filled with traditional southern meal like meatloaf and country fried steak. It was probably our best meal all vacation.

The last activity we had planned with the girls was breakfast with the Easter Bunny. This was put on by The Old Mill {great place to eat but I can only speak to their breakfast menu, however there lunch and dinner menu also looks enticing}. The event had three breakfast options for adults and four for kids, which made sense to help move people in and out. While you ate your breakfast the Easter Bunny visited your table and took pictures with the kiddos and gave them little Easter baskets. After the meal there were a couple of arts and crafts activities for the kids to do. Abbie enjoyed the crafts but it was sadly very cold and we sorta rushed through. She dyed and decorated Easter eggs and was able to get her face painted, they also had some super cute decorations. This event sells out so book in advance if you're in town for the holiday.

We truly enjoyed our little getaway but really loved that we were able to get back home to celebrate Easter Sunday. Kids loved their baskets, dinner was great but the best part was being reminded the true reason we have this holiday and that is that because of God‘s love and plan for humanity we now have access to Him through His Son.