We went to Gatlinburg to celebrate Emily’s birthday. Some of Emily’s favorite things include staying in hotels and swimming, and we were able to make both of these happen. The weather was amazing for January and we enjoyed being outside despite a few rain showers that moved through. In addition to swimming, we played putt-putt, visited the aquarium, rode the trolley, walked the strip, shopped, discovered our way through a mirror maze, and rode the skylift. Emily loved discovering that the hotel had hot chocolate and cookies every night. The trip was fun and it was a delight to share the time with Emily and Julia.

Our little swimmers before they made their big leap in. The water was a bit cold so once we got out we didn’t want to get back in.

Daddy was a great sport and swam with the girls until Julia’s lips turned blue.

During the break in the rain shower we got a game of putt-putt in. The girls wanted us to take turns in the order we played. We only got one ball stuck and didn’t lose any of them. We consider this progress with our young golfers. The rules were treated as suggestions and more than once the hole was bracketed with feet to give a sense of success.

Despite our rule bending both girls successfully made hole-in-ones all on their own. This is Julia celebrating her successful hole-in-one. Quite proud! She hit the ball without looking and was holding the putter backwards, but gravity and some good luck was in her favor on the hole. Emily was not to be out done and made a hole-in-one on a later hole.

The six-year-old has some game and some attitude. Funny!

This was how we traveled this weekend. When Julia got tired of walking we gave her a push. Not a bad plan because one afternoon she gave out and slept for over an hour while Emily kept exploring.

Emily’s first visit to the aquarium had a similar photo to this one, but the fish was bigger than she was. She has now grown longer than the fish!

Dude!! We found Crush!

Mama and her birthday girl!

The girls love the fish bowl and Emily still fits in there. I think the only reason they looked at the camera was that the fish swam away.

While Julia napped Robby took Emily up to the top of the mountain on the skylift. Emily was so brave and the heights didn’t faze her in the least.

Checking out! Emily took charge of all of her and Julia’s clothes and special things. Mama loves the efficiency of giving the stuffed animals a ride on the backpack with a view.

What is a birthday without celebrating it with ice cream for dinner? We did offer other food later, but up to this point it was dinner. Yum! We had enough fun we might do this every year.

When we asked Emily what she wanted to do with her Grandparents she said she wanted to play putt-putt. Julia loved the idea too (she loves to say the word too). We had time after dinner to stop and try our hands at a little miniature golf. We played pretty fast. We worked to keep the game moving and the girls interested. I hope one day in the future we will be able to go slow and enjoy the competition, but for the time being this is best. The girls hung in for all of the holes and over the time Emily showed more interest in playing consistently and with a little technique.

Just a few fun highlights from the game:

• Both girls enjoyed getting their ball in the holes.
• Emily would move the ball to where she wanted to hit it from.
• Julia had a special high-five she shared with her Daddy when each hole was completed.
• Daddy’s feet made great bunkers to help guide little balls.
• On occasion we would have a ball leave the putting area, but none of the times was it the girl’s fault.
• If we had really kept score Grandpa would have won. He played the most consistent game.
• We had a great time together!

Emily was talking Grandma to the hole. She wasn’t giving instructions she was just being her usual magpie-self.

A great Pa-Pa grin.

Sweet Daddy giving his little girl some assistance. Julia insisted in holding her putter backwards like this the whole time.

Mama giving a little putting lesson to Emily. By this point in the game she was listening to instructions a little better.

The classic well earned high-five exchange!

A little post-golf ride at the barnyard.

We had been locked up in our house for several days this week because of sickness. We were ready to escape the house mid-week. It proved to be the perfect medicine for us.

The girls were so excited to go out. Julia was up first and ready to go before I started to get Emily ready. Emily was dragging her feet and Julia jumped in to help me motivate her. While I was contemplating turning off the TV to help the process along, I watched Julia go and get the remote to do just that. After the TV was off Julia pushed Emily to get dressed. It was so entertaining to watch their interaction. I think I learned a lot about Julia and her future role with her sister.

I had promised the girls a trip to Dollywood, but when we got there that it was the day for them to be closed that week. The girls were sad and we saw several tears from each. Luckily for us, we found an endless supply of other distractions. We filled our day with putt-putt, ice cream, shopping, and sunshine. Sunshine, laughter, and fun is the best medicine!

We played a little putt-putt golf on our vacation. It was completely non-competitive for the big people. The theme of the golf course was Old McDonald and the girls loved to look at the display decorations and listen to what the different animals were saying. We let a lot of other people play through while the girls were mesmerized by the fun cows, pigs, ducks, guard dogs, and fishermen.

Emily didn’t have much strength behind her putts and it caused her to have a lot of trouble on the holes with uphills. She did much better with the downhill holes. She didn’t want much help, and she didn’t want to follow any normal way to stand and hold the putter. Despite the perspective on the game, she had a fun time. She wanted to get her ball in the hole each time.

Julia loved to carry her putter and ball. She had no desire to touch the putter to the ball. Instead she would walk up to the hole and drop her ball in by herself. She would then pick her ball back up and carry it on the next hole. She seemed to understand that we took turns and waited for her turn or a time no one was playing to take her turn. At one point we couldn’t locate her ball and had to fetch a spare for her to keep up with. Who knows where she put it. She seemed to be happy with her game too. The only times she wouldn’t drop the ball in a hole was when it didn’t have a bottom.

I worried that the girls wouldn’t want to loose their balls at the end, but they had a cool ride for the balls to take them back inside. We watched our balls make the trip from the last hole to the building and then maybe a dozen other peoples balls also make that trip. We finished with a ride on a little carousel and then headed off for ice cream.