It is so sweet to watch the Julia and Maeve together. Ashely and I call them the “littles” or “little girls”. Julia is expressing herself so much more and her interaction with the world is fascinating. The littles like to play near each other, but it is a lot of parallel play. Being willing to hold hands was adorable.

Every trip the girls and I make to Dollywood is fun, and Emily asks if Daddy is coming with us next time. When we told her that we all were going to Dollywood together, she was so excited! As we entered, she got her map and then started to tell us where to go. We had been hoping for cooler weather on the day we went, but it was very humid and pretty miserable to be walking around in. We were good sports and covered more activities than we have ever done in one visit. Despite the humidity and the threat of rain later in the day, everything worked out just fine. Robby got to try the rope course and gave it rave reviews. We were so proud that Emily ventured onto new rides for her and that Julia was willing to try anything that we encouraged her to do.

We decided to try the car ride off the bat and beat the lines. Emily wasn’t sure that it was her choice for first ride, but was willing to change the plan. Julia drove the car while I was the passenger. She became pretty disinterested in driving pretty quickly and wanted to look around. It isn’t so easy to drive a car from the passenger seat, take pictures, and point out the scenery.

Emily had the priveledge to drive with Daddy. She was disapointed that her car wasn’t more fun of a color. I was just glad that Daddy fit in the car.

Emily is so hard to get a photo of these days. We were lucky that she looked at the camera long enough to get one. She has such a pretty smile, but sitting still and focusing on any one thing is hard when we are in our independent stage of life.

Emily is such a Daddy’s girl and Julia is a Mama’s girl, it just made sense to split ourselves up that way. Emily’s prince was informed of which horse he had to ride, even if it was the smallest on the carousel.

For some reason Emily was expressing fear at riding rides this trip to Dollywood. It was odd that she did it for rides she has ridden before and liked. When it came time to ride the bumble bee ride, she didn’t want to ride. We asked Julia if she wanted to ride by herself and she said yes. She seemed a little lost in the bee by herself, but occasionally waved at us. I was proud that she would do it alone.

We found this awesome union to join. It was next to a deck filled with rocking chairs. We took a break to cool off and do some rocking. The sign was too funny and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to enjoy the laugh forever.

The girls and I have watched the River Battle ride before, but never ridden it. It was great that Emily was willing to try it with Robby. We didn’t mention to her how wet she would get, knowing that she would decline to ride if she knew. She tried to hide from the shooting water by curling up next to Robby, but still got soaked. The side effect was that Robby got to shoot twice the water. She didn’t know how to walk with wet pants and was hilarious to watch after the ride was over.

Our little wet girl was willing to hang out in the owl nest for a photo. She liked the idea a lot.

They have a fun educational boat floating game for the kids to play. Emily loved watching the float she started at the top work it’s way down the sluice. It had to work around objects and get help along the way. This area had the coolest playground that Emily loved playing in. Of course she found a house that she could be the princess of. She played house with Robby until the weather turned and we had to make our way out.

Sweet Julia played hard and just couldn’t make it the whole day with out a nap. She fell asleep after a snack and stayed that way until we worked our way out to another snack. Clearly, she has her priorities in order and is a child after my own heart.

The girls and I have been able to go to Splash County for the summer, but I have been a little apprehensive to go alone with them and not know what to expect. I was so pleased when Robby was able to go with us. We learned a lot about our girls and water parks.

• Everyone loved it!
• I can take them by myself now and will.
• Emily loves wearing her life preserver and Julia does not. I think Emily learned that she felt safe in the pool with it on and was able to do a lot. She was given a couple of opportunities to take it off and she always chose to leave it on. Julia hated being restricted by it and fussed non-stop when in it. With Emily safe in one it wasn’t as big of a deal to leave Julia out.
• The girls think sliding is fun. There was one slide Julia could do by herself and one she could do with a parent. For Emily her options were seemingly endless. Sometimes the slide required being spattered with a lot of water to get to it and those she wasn’t as excited about.
• Julia could take a nap on a lawn chair if she is tired enough. Emily on the other hand was not able to sleep, maybe she wasn’t tired enough.
• You can apply enough sunscreen to a kid all day long to allow you to stay at a water park all day. The only spot that got too much sun on Emily was her nose and it wasn’t even that red. Julia didn’t get any red spots. Now the parents on the other hand both missed spots and didn’t reapply enough.
• Julia can sit still long enough on a lap to ride around a lazy river.
• The wave pool was a little too wavy for our little ones.
• Emily was brave enough to ride the one “big” ride with her Daddy. When she was done she informed us that it was a little scary. (Daddy says: She also informed us that she said, “ahhhhhhh” all the way down the ride.) Since that day she has asked to ride it again though.

We spent one morning of our vacation at the aquarium in Gatlinburg. The girls were interested in looking at the fish in the tanks for a few minutes each tank. The tunnel was fun to move us along and also give us the vantage point of seeing the bottom of animals. Emily wasn’t sure she liked seeing the teeth on the sharks, but the sea turtle was pretty cool. Neither of the girls were brave enough to touch the hermit crab, but both seemed to enjoy crawling into the small fish tank cubbies. Julia loved being able to move around and explore. They even looked at the camera a few times and gave us smiles, cheesy ones sometimes. When we left the aquarium the girls were tired, but they got to bounce in an inflatable bounce room. I don’t think they would have ever come out except for being thirsty.

I was so proud of Julia who rode the bumblebee ride at Dollywood all by herself.

We took Granddaddy to his annual baseball game. The attendance was light that evening and it made for a very enjoyable evening. It was a hot day that spilled over into the evening, but for part of the game we had a breeze that made it bearable. The girls were great for the whole game. They enjoyed eating, swapping laps, walking around the outfield, listening to the fun songs, and watching the between inning entertainment. Emily sitting in Grammy’s lap was so sweet. They were discussing things going on around us. The day we went had cheap food so we were able to feed the girls popcorn, hot dogs, and ice cream in different innings to keep them occupied. In the bottom of the 5th inning Robby, Grammy, and the girls went for a walk around the field. They found the playground to play in for a little while. The evening ended just right with a win for the Smokies and us staying in a hotel close by.