With a January birthday, I thought it would be easy to go somewhere with snow. I figured we would take a long weekend to New Mexico - spend a day driving to Angel Fire, spend a couple of days there playing in snow, spend a day driving home.
A couple of weeks before her birthday when Dustin and I sat down to finalize the trip and book a place to stay, we discovered that there was NO snow in New Mexico for the winter season thus far. With just about fourteen days to go before her birthday, I freaked out! Where could we go? We started calling resorts in southern Colorado. We would have to drive a bit further, but since I had already told Eden what we were planning for her birthday, we would just switch our trip to Colorado. But everybody that we called told us over and over again, "Strangest thing! It hasn't snowed in Colorado this year. We are closed." We were told that we would have to go all the way to northern Colorado to find snow, and a trip in the car just got a lot longer. Should we fly? We started looking into flights. But with only days to go before the trip, the prices were outrageous, and we have a lot of kids now!
Dustin spent hours on the computer searching for someplace within a day's driving distance from southeast Texas that had snow. And he found a place called Ober Gatlinburg in Tennessee. It looked awesome! THANK YOU, DUSTIN! We found a cabin to stay at in the Smoky Mountains, I ordered snow clothes for all the kids, and we started getting really excited about our trip!
Eden's birthday is January 18th. Ober Gatlinburg is a sixteen hour drive from our house. Our plan was to leave around 4 am on the 17th so that the kids would all sleep the first few hours and we would get to our cabin that night. Eden could wake up on her birthday in a cabin in the Smokies!
But if anyone remembers what happened on January 16th... Well that's when the giant record-breaking winter storm hit the south. Ice everywhere. Texas doesn't know what to do with weather like that, and roads everywhere were shut down.
The lady we booked the cabin from called us: "I don't know if you are still planning on coming to Tennessee, but the weather here is really bad. If you come here, there's a chance that you won't be able to get to your cabin because of all the ice and snow. It's on a private road so there's nobody to clear the roads for you."
AHHHH! So the day before we're supposed to leave, we're sitting there, iced into our house, wondering what the heck we should do? Do we cancel, and tell Eden we're sooooo sorry? Do we postpone, and it just won't be her birthday when we go? Or do we figure out a way to get our family to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee?
We went with the latter. Dustin called a friend who lives in Tennessee to ask him what he thought. Dustin knew that the worst roads would be close to where we live and that the farther north we got, the better off we would be since other states actually know what to do when ice and snow hit. He asked me what we were going to do though if we drove sixteen hours to Tennessee and then couldn't get to our cabin. "Then we'll get a hotel! Just get us to Tennessee and to the snow!"
At 4 am on January 17th, the roads were still completely covered with ice where we live. We watched the weather channel and checked our weather apps on our phones constantly. Finally around noon, we were able to leave! We figured we would drive half way, stop and get a hotel that night, and then drive the second half on the 18th, Eden's birthday.
The kids were fantastic! We read books, played all sorts of travel games that I had packed, watched a couple of movies. James did just fine being in his carseat for so long. We made a couple of stops to stretch our legs, get gas, get food. We arrived in Jackson, MS right on schedule. That's where we were going to stop and get a hotel for the night. But we were making such good time and all three kids were sound asleep, so we decided to keep on going for as long as we could.
Around midnight, Dustin was pounding Red Bulls, and I was straining to keep my eyes open. Dustin asked if I wanted to get a hotel, but honestly, it just seemed like so much work at that point. They were all sleeping, and the thought of waking them all, and then having to drag small, sleepy kids and all our crap into a hotel seemed like more work than just staying awake.
So we kept going. Around 3:30 am, we hit the Tennessee border. Dustin pulled into the rest area, and we got about two and a half hours of horrible sleep in the front seats of the car. At six we hit the road again. An hour or so later, Eden, Ila, and James woke up, and we told Eden "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Her only request was pancakes for breakfast, so we stopped to get her some.
Dustin and I were basically zombies at that point. Ha! A little after breakfast, we arrived in Pigeon Forge. Our cabin was just a few miles outside of it. The drive was beautiful. There was fresh snow everywhere we looked, and the roads were fine! Until we got to the road our cabin was on.
We were in the Smoky Mountains, so obviously the roads are hilly and mountain-y. We arrived at a thin, private road that was covered in snow and ice and led up, up, UP. I was all, "NOPE! Let's go find a hotel." But Dustin told me he could handle it. And again, I was all, "NOPE!" But he kept driving. So slowly, slowly, slowly we drove along until we found our cabin. The driveway to our cabin was again, covered in snow, and went down, down, DOWN. And I was all, "I DON'T THINK SO! LET'S GO FIND A HOTEL!"
Dustin got out of the car to walk it and see what he thought. He came back and said, "I can get us to the cabin. But once we're there, we're not coming out for a while. At least 24 hours, when the weather warms up some." So we made a plan to go back to town, hit up the grocery store to get everything we would need for the next 24 hours and come back. I was not crazy about this plan since it required driving back down the thin, snowy, icy road that we had just come up, but Dustin was confident.
Back in Pigeon Forge, we went to Kroger and got everything we needed as well as some balloons and a vase of flowers that Eden wanted for her birthday. Dustin wasn't too thrilled with a dozen balloons to somehow get into our already overfull car, but I insisted that Eden needed them. We then headed back to the cabin.
My stomach was completely in knots. I don't think I took a breathe the whole way back up the mountain. We reached the driveway to our cabin once more, and I was like, "Just let me out now! Me and the kids will walk! We will meet you there!" But Dustin told me I was overreacting. Slowly, slowly, slowly we inched down the driveway. And obviously we made it since I'm still alive today. I am happy to say that we did not slip and slide off the side of a mountain! YAY!
We proceeded to have the best day ever! After unloading our bags and groceries, we got dressed in all of our warm clothes and headed out into the 12 degrees to run and play and have so much fun in all of the fresh snow! We made snow angels and threw snow balls at each other. We walked through trees and farther up the mountain to go exploring.
Ila refused to wear mittens at first. But after about five minutes outside touching the snow, she was crying. "Are you ready to wear your mittens?", we asked. "YESSSS!!!", she cried.
While the rest of us were bundled up in long underwear, jeans and sweaters, and the snow gear on top of that, this is what Dustin wore... He was so happy. He loves the cold.
This is how Dustin kept his beer cold.
We played for hours!!!! It was so beautiful everywhere we looked! My Texas children were in heaven!
Finally that evening, I dragged them inside, and Eden and Ila played in the hot tub that was on the back balcony. They thought that was just about the coolest thing ever!
Dustin cooked us pork chops and macaroni & cheese and broccoli for dinner. Eden had requested it. We sang to Eden and had cookie cake for dessert. We played board games inside our nice, warm cabin before bed. It was complete bliss, and Eden told me it was the best day of her whole life!
We woke up on Day 2 and immediately headed back out to play in the snow. We decided to build a snowman. Okay, MUCH harder than I thought it would be. It looks so easy on TV! It seriously took us FOREVER to make this guy, and he's definitely not the best! But we loved him!
After lunch, the temperature finally got above freezing, so Dustin decided it was time for us to venture out. We decided to drive to Ober Gatlinburg (the whole reason we chose our destination). We made a stop in Pigeon Forge to ride on The Alpine Coaster, which is a roller coaster that takes you up a mountain and then back down. I rode it twice - once with Eden and once with Ila while Dustin stayed with James. Then we continued on to Ober Gatlinburg where we went snow tubing. Actually, Dustin, Eden, and Ila went tubing. I held a crying baby for an hour! It cost $25 a person to tube for an hour. When the hour was almost up, James finally fell asleep, and Dustin stayed with him so I could go down one time. My one trip down the hill was very expensive!
At dark we headed back to our cabin to eat dinner, play more boardgames, and go to bed.
On Day 3, the weather was pretty warm, and we headed back to Ober Gatlinburg after breakfast. One of Eden's birthday presents from my dad and Susie was ski lessons! This time, instead of driving up the mountain to Ober Gatlinburg, we parked in town and took a tram up the mountain. I was a little worried about how Eden and Ila would feel about being in a glass box so high up, but they loved it!
We rented Eden her teeny-tiny adorable boots and skis, and she went off with Lucas, her private instructor. The rest of us played in the snow while watching her.
When she was done, we got lunch and then went and stocked up on candy at a homemade candy shop that I had seen and insisted on going in! :) :) :)
We went back to the cabin for a few hours, and then that night, we went back into Pigeon Forge for dinner and to ride The Alpine Coaster again. When we drove by it the night before, we saw that it's all lit up at nighttime, and Eden and Ila got all excited and asked if they could do it at night too. When we got there, there were different people working than from the day before, and they decided that Ila was too small to ride. "But she literally just rode this yesterday. I have a picture of her riding it. I bought it from y'all." No matter what we said, they wouldn't budge and Ila was not allowed to ride. She was devastated. She cried and cried. We left without anybody riding. We went and ate dinner while I debated whether or not it would be fair for Eden to ride it without Ila. I decided Eden and I would go back and ride it. "Ila is three, and one day, she will never remember that she didn't get to ride. But Eden is six, and she will remember that she rode it all lit up at night."
Before we went though, we stopped and played putt-putt so that Ila would get to do something fun too. It was Ila's very first time to play putt-putt, and Eden hasn't been since she was probably three, and she doesn't remember ever going. Eden and Ila went nuts over putt-putt and acted like it was the coolest thing EVER! "Can we please, please, please come back to Tennessee one day so that we can play again?", they begged. "Um, we can actually do this in Texas," I told them, and they got so excited. Haha!
After putt-putt, Eden and I went and rode The Alpine Coaster in the dark, and it was super cool. We went back to our cabin and went to bed for our last time in Tennessee.
I snapped this picture when it was still a little light, but when Eden and I rode it, the sun had completely set, and it was pitch-black outside. It was awesome! And really cold!
We woke up the next morning and packed up the car. Before leaving, we stopped and ate breakfast at THE CUTEST, BEST PLACE ever. A place called Grandmother's Kitchen outside of Pigeon Forge. We stopped because it was a cute little log cabin and because it was advertising Cat Head biscuits, and we didn't know what that was. We were met at the door by two little old ladies who oohed and ahhed over Eden, Ila, and James. Eden had her baby doll, Emily, with us, and to Eden's delight, they made a huge deal over the doll, asking Eden what Emily wanted to eat and then bringing out the mashed banana that Eden had requested. We stuffed ourselves with sausage and bacon and eggs and pancakes and biscuits the size of a cat's head before hitting the road for our long drive home.
We got home that Sunday night around midnight. It was an amazing, magical, super fun birthday trip for our family. I was so bummed when New Mexico didn't work out, and then I was so worried when the bad weather hit right before, but I honestly think that those things happened for a reason - so that we could have a wonderful trip to Tennessee instead with fresh snow awaiting us!
A photoshoot I had of James while in Tennessee:
