(19 months) Julia loves to slide, but doesn’t love to wait to do it right. She finally had a breakthrough and decided that she could sit on her bottom and come down feet first. Yeah! What a big girl!

The girls decided to sit next to each other and play with puzzles. I wish scenes like these happened more often, but I sure do appreciate them when they occur.

Julia made her first trip to Dollywood and Emily made her first trip that can make a lasting impression. We took it as a learning experience to see how much we could do, where things were, what rides could the girls ride, and what would hold their interest. Given that I have been to Dollywood a lot over my life, I loved being able to see it new through their eyes. The girls were a little overwhelmed, but loved it.

We rode the carousel, a pig ride, a duck ride, a bee ride, and a simple roller coaster. Julia wasn’t big enough to ride the roller coaster, but was able to ride all the others. All of them were huge hits. The girls loved being together on the rides. Emily rode the roller coaster by herself and just seemed lost in the car. She described her ride by saying that she was scared. I think she should try it again with a person with her and then judge the ride.

The girls tried their first funnel cake. I was secretly hoping they wouldn’t like it and then I would never have to share, but who doesn’t like funnel cake. Emily kept calling it ‘Fun’ cake. With a name like that we will have to have it often.

Despite the hat being for a smaller person, Emily decided that she loved this Moose hat. She had to wear it to bed the other night. She was quite proud as seen in the sparkle of her eye.