Remember when the Bear ate Maxie's Grabber?

Remember when Max, Mimi and Pop Pop and I went to Dollywood back in November? Well, even if you don't remember, trust me, Maxie remembered. He had been talking about it ever since. "Remember Dollywood?" "Remember the roller coaster?" "Remember when Maxie rode the train?" In fact, Max was clearly the inspiration for this ad for Pigeon Forge!!




It made quite an impression on Maxie. So much so, in fact, that I waited until just about a week before our more recent trip to tell him that we were going again. And, even better, we were staying for several days!! A dream come true! AND, even BETTER, Daddy was going to come this time. And Tessa! And Mimi and Pop Pop! And the Rogers family! (And even Bailey and Lucy!)

We headed up to the mountains on a Wednesday afternoon, arriving at our cute little cabin just in time to settle the dogs in and head back out for dinner. But not just any dinner; Dixie Stampede dinner! I still have fond memories of going to Dixie Stampede when I was younger and of being chosen by a clown to take part in the show. I also have fond memories of eating with my hands and of the yummy creamy vegetable soup. I was interested to see if it was as fun as I remembered and if Max enjoyed it like I suspected he would. I was a bit nervous about what we would do with Tessa during the show, so we bought an extra seat. It worked out perfectly for putting her cat seat in the spot...but it did result in having a LOAD of extra food to take home.

Sadly, they don't allow photos during the show (although I'm sure I could have taken some if I hadn't had my hands full with a baby, sometimes Max crawling back and forth, and an entire baby chicken). Here he is before the show, getting excited:

And here is Max's review of the show:
Q: Max, do you remember Dixie Stampede?
A: Yes, Daddy and Maxie. Maxie sitting on Daddy's lap. Look at Daddy - ha!

Q: What did we see at Dixie Stampede?
A: Hmm...animals. Like birds, I don't know the other animals. hmm...yeah, horses, fast horses. And black things (those would be bison). And pigs!

Q: What did you eat at Dixie Stampede?
A: Hmm...those 2 yummy things. Pasta and just pasta. (well, close, but not really. see the menu here)

Q:Who went with us to Dixie Stampede?
A: Hmm. Mimi and Pop Pop!

Q: Do you want to go to Dixie Stampede again?
A: Mmm Hmm. Not right now.

I think that's pretty good for several weeks later. I'd say he gave it a 4 out of 5 stars. If I had asked him that day, it probably would have been 5 out of 5. I thought it was really fun, although it probably would have been more fun if Tessa was a little older and didn't require constant coddling. Oh, and the creamy vegetable soup WAS as good as I remembered.

When we left the Dixie Stampede it was pouring rain, which made me a hair nervous about the weather for the rest of the trip. While the weather turned out to be fine for the remainder of the trip (minus Saturday, when it rained ALL. DAY. LONG.), the clothes I packed were completely inappropriate. I'm not sure what I was smoking as I packed, but I neglected to bring anything warm. To the mountains. In April. Luckily I did pack some warm stuff for the kids, and Julie was able to bring along my fleece jacket when they arrived the next day. But I was NOT looking cute trolling around Dollywood the next day in Dad's big red sweatshirt.

So, Thursday morning (after a surprisingly successful night's sleep by Max in an unfamiliar bunk bed), we went bright and somewhat-early to Cade's Cove in search of some deer. We did see some deer here and there, but sadly not the hundreds that we probably would have seen had we gotten up early enough. We did, however, see some mating turkeys and we were also able to get Max to tell Mimi and Pop Pop (who were riding in the car in front of us) that we had seen a bear in the woods. Who wouldn't believe a 2 year old? Would this face lie?

See those turkeys in the background? They  just mated and are now smoking tiny cigarettes.

Later on we made our way over to Max's Disney World....Dollywood. It was a beautiful day and without further adieu, the thrill-seeking commenced. First stop was the little cars. Pop Pop sprinted off with Max to ensure he got the first ride of the day. Max was well-pleased with this adult to child ratio because it meant he was sure to get multiple turns on each ride.

Who is having more fun here?

So far so good...everyone was in a good mood and having fun. And then, this happened:

 



This, my friends, is the result of a key tactical error: riding a water ride WAY too early in the day and when it's not even really warm.

you MUST pull up this picture and look at Max's face.

 

Pop Pop claims that Max was at one point completely submerged under water. I can't recall if he said "Do it again" after riding this, but I would bet that he did.

 

Max's review of this ride:

Q: Max, did you like this ride?

A: Yes! Maxie got wet! And Pop Pop and Daddy came on there. And Mimi didn't come on there.

 

Lessons learned from this:

1. Listen to Robin when she says "I think you'll get pretty wet on this ride"

2. Bring a change of clothes and/or ride the water rides at the END of the day.

3. Don't bother wasting $5 on the family dryer. While it might warm you up temporarily, you're still going to be wet. And unless you're 2, you can't just take off your pants and wander around like this:

 

 

 

 

Although we were in Tennessee, so that might, in fact, be socially acceptable there. When we discovered that Max's pants were not going to dry in a reasonable amount of time, we were forced to commit a major theme-part no-no: purchasing clothing in a gift shop. The only thing Chris could find that was somewhat suitable was a size 5 swimsuit. I'm justifying this purchase to myself by realizing that he will at least get 3 good years of swimming out of it! Plus, he did look pretty cute in the shorts.

 

Tragedy averted, we were able to continue on to some more rides. Max has yet to find a ride he doesn't like. Chris, however, remembered his fear of heights at an inconvenient time: when we were at the top of the Ferris Wheel.

 

"Dad, seriously, there is nothing to be afraid of here. This is actually rather anti-climactic"

 



Max chatted and giggled with this little girl for the whole ride. I'm pretty sure he would have hugged her at the end (or at the very least gotten her number) if her Mom hadn't grabbed her immediately upon the ride's conclusion.



 

.And, of course, we rode the train. Max didn't know it though; within minutes of boarding, he was asleep. Hey, a busy boy's gotta nap somewhere.

 

 

At some point shortly after that, we had to call it a day. The Rogers had finally made it into town and we needed to let them into the cabin. And, hey, we had a season pass. See ya tomorrow, Dollywood!

Check out the sexy orange Dollywood shorts!



I think we were all extremely nervous about how the boys would sleep all together in the cabin. We were anticipating that they would stay up most of the night. We were pleasantly surprised that they all went to bed rather easily and slept really well. Miss Tessa, however, was another thing. That night my little lady cried and stayed awake longer than she ever had before. And the cabin walls were thin. Therefore, everyone had a rather rough night. But hey, at least we were all up early and ready to go at...oh, dawn.

So, Day 2 was more Dollywood fun...but this time with the Rogers. We were a hair nervous that Sam, who is a known nervous-nelly, wouldn't enjoy it as much as Max and Natey, and it wasn't looking good when he refused to ride the carousel. But, it turned out that he simply felt that the carousel was too babyish for him and he turned out to be quite a thrill-ride trooper!



Hello, chicken, my old friend!

Look at me, being all daring by holding up my arms on the kiddie-coaster.

 





Dollywood Express, Day 2: where Max took yet ANOTHER nap.

Of course, let's face it, these 3 don't need rides to be entertained.

 

 

 

Late in the afternoon, the Ludwigs splintered off from the Rogers and found ourselves at the River Battle ride. Now, there is little point to this ride other than getting wet. The riders hop in a boat and ride slowly around a course where they shoot water guns at bystanders on the walkways. In turn, the bystanders have water guns directed at the boats and the opportunity to soak the riders. It seemed that there was never a shortage of obnoxious teenagers with never-tiring arms standing around shooting water at the boats. Therefore, I elected to skip this ride. We were prepared with changes of clothes for Chris and Max, so they went for it. Max, of course, loved it. I think they rode it twice. Maybe they didn't, I can't remember, but I am positive that Max wanted to ride it twice.

 

 

 

 

After a change of clothes, the day took a turn for the Ludwigs. Some things went awry. First, I did something that I never dreamed I would do: I nursed in a public place. Sort of. Dollywood is nice enough to offer "nursing stations" and Tessa requested that we make use of one. So while I did that, I left Chris to change Max's dirty diaper and told him to go find everyone else and ride some rides until I was done. When I emerged about half an hour later, however, Max and Chris were right where I left them, and Chris was NOT looking happy. Max was the one who should have been looking unhappy, though, because he was wearing one of Tessa's diapers. Apparently, we had run out of Max's diapers. Parenting fail! Rather than spend another unbelievable sum at the Dollywood gift shops (which I feel certain offered diapers somewhere), we decided to call it a day at Dollywood and headed for the cabin. But let me just say, this girl was a trooper:

 

 

 

The next morning we discovered something very exciting. A BEAR had visited our front porch. His footprints were clearly visible in the water on the porch. He had knocked over the trash can and pulled out one of Max's apple sauce pouches, ripped it open with his claws, and eaten the left overs. Max was QUITE impressed that a bear wanted to eat his grabber. Periodically for the rest of the trip (and ever since), he would say "Remember when the bear ate Maxie's grabber?" The next night, when Chris and I were up tending to Tessa at about 1 AM, I heard the trash can fall over again. We darted out to the front door and opened it, convinced we were about to witness a huge bear helping himself to our trash. Sadly, this time the marauder was just a raccoon. Cute, but no bear. Maybe next time.

 

Coming soon: Dollywood at Thanksgiving!