Labor Day Weekend

What a weekend. This labor day weekend we were divided as a family-Mike and Kyle went to Louisiana to check on his family and I took my parents and grandmother to Pigeon Forge. I know my big boys had fun in LA, and I had fun in Pigeon Forge with four generations of "Beamer women!" My poor Dad and Davey were out numbered!

Despite the fun and silliness that occurred, it was still hard on my grandmother to go to Dollywood for the first time without her sweetie. Mimi and Pawpaw usually took several treks to Dollywood during the year and I know it hurt her heart to be there without him. The "firsts" without a loved one is so hard on the heart, but I think she still had fun:)


The hotel we stayed in had a great pool and here are Davey and Mom on the lazy river. Poor David got super sick with croup on Friday night/Saturday morning which necessitated a trip to the ER for him. Bless his heart-he still had fun, but he did not feel the best.
My cousin, Matt and his family live in Knoxville so they came to have lunch with us one day and they came back to the hotel and swam. He and his wife Sarah run a dog kennel in Knoxville and they are super busy with doggies. They have two kiddos-Brandon and Emily. Here is Emily on Mimi's lap by the pool.

Lazy river:)

Mimi, Mom, and Hope on the carousel. My grandmother is in great health, but she has problems with her knees and she is unsteady on her feet. She was DETERMINED to ride the horses, so we picked her a real low horse to climb on and Hope rode beside her. The problem was that the horse ended the ride WAY up in the air and it took Mom and I both to gracefully help her off of that horse!

Mimi is a lot of fun and despite her sad heart she really did have fun with us:)

I love that sweet face! She rode and rode and rode some more. My girl may just be a thrill rider like her Daddy because she was not the least bit scared on any of the baby rides.

David was checking on his little sister to make sure she was not scared on the piggies!:) David enjoyed riding these little rides with Hope:)

My aunt Debbie's huband Mike works at Dollywood with the eagles and does a wonderful Birds of Prey show. Since we were visiting we got to sit up front and he called David up to be on stage with him to be his helper!!

David modeling how big our eyes would be if we were eagles!

The highlight of the trip for sweet Dave-the train. We rode it twice and he would get so excited when that loud whistle blew!

Me and Dave on the cars. All my kiddos have loved those cars. David was too busy honking, waving, and singing to do that great of a job driving us, but we certainly had fun!

Poor Dave did not feel 100% after his night in the ER, so he and Hope shared her stroller through the park!

My Mike loves his little girl, and he bought her a Louisiana Tech cheerleader outfit from the bookstore:) I love it and it looks so cute on her!! Mike and Kyle had a great time down south with the family. So tomorrow we are back to reality after our fun trips with family:)