Three-Day Weekend

Thursday was such a nice day. The sky was so clear. Not a cloud in sight! 

Brett had to take some samples to a customer downtown, so I walked with him. Most of the pumpkins, scarecrows and straw bales have disappeared and have been replaced with Christmas trees and other winter decorations.

They also have flags everywhere for Veteran's Day. Sevier County does not let the tourists down when it comes to decorating for the holidays. There is so much to look at. It's gorgeous!

After school I was able to get a picture with the sun above the mountains. I think that's the first time that has happened! It looked even better in real life!

After dinner we piled in the car to drive around and look at Christmas lights. We went up a road by our house to see where it led to. It's called Loop Road so we were pretty sure it would come down somewhere! Most of the roads that lead into the mountains around us are dead ends, but we were confident this one would not be! We drove up, up, up the mountain, around curve after curve. About fifteen minutes in we starting descending down a bit and finally after about a half hour we could see downtown lights. We ended up right downtown, completely opposite of where we thought we would be! There were a lot of houses up the mountain. Some of them were in locations that I would never DREAM of leaving. I thought our driveway was steep and narrow when we first bought the house. Ours was nothing compared to some of these! I'm so glad we found a house where we did. We have the perfect location, in my opinion!

Once we got downtown, the lights most definitely did not disappoint! I was only able to get photos when we were stopped, or they were blurry. 😑 Here are a few though!

We decided to make a whole night of it and drove in to Pigeon Forge to see their lights too. Easton must have had a long day at school. He didn't last very long!😊

I found a new store called New York, New York. I only ran in for a few minutes since the boys were waiting in the car, but I will have to make another trip back there. They had great clothes!😁 When Janae and I came out, Easton was awake and the boys were ready for some frozen yogurt, so we stopped at Sweet Frog. Talan gets really excited about frozen yogurt. 😂

Easton doesn't really like frozen yogurt, but he was happy to pose with Dolly. 😁

All three of the kids were tired by the time we got home. 😊

The kids didn't have school on Friday because of Veteran's Day, so we slept in. Yay! The boys still had boxes of toys sitting around in their room from the move, so we went through all of those and got things more organized. That was a job! I remember when Janae went through the stage of keeping every little thing. She was a mini hoarder! She grew out of it and hardly keeps anything and is SO organized. Please, please, PLEASE tell me the boys will get to that stage! 

Janae and I went to Sevierville to get the oil changed and then went shopping at some new stores. I'm getting closer to getting all of my Christmas shopping done! I'm hoping to get the rest finished when we go Black Friday shopping. My mom, Janae, Madi and I have a tradition of going after Thanksgiving dinner. We are looking forward to that again this year! Madi reminded me today that we will be up in Indiana in just 11 days! 😁 Not sure if I am quite ready for that drive again! 😑

Last night we went to Dollywood for the first time since they put up their Christmas lights and decorations. 

The lights were gorgeous!

These trees absolutely amaze me. I have no idea how they get all of those lights on each tree. There are sooooo many! And they go out to the very tip of EVERY branch! Stunning!

Every building is lined with rows of lights as well. I heard on the radio that they have a team of people that walks through the park every night checking for bulbs that are out and immediately replace them. That must take forever! It's so worth it to come to Dollywood this time of the year just to see the lights. The boys rode just three rides last night and they were happy with that. The best part was just seeing the lights!

Oh and the cinnamon bread. We can't forget the cinnamon bread! It's the best thing you will ever taste in your life. Except I did notice that they raised the price by a dollar for the holiday season! Good thing I have a Gold Pass and get 20% off or I may have not bought two loaves. 😂

The perfect ending to our already wonderful evening was going home and watching some IU basketball. I have been a huge fan since third grade. It's by far my favorite sport and I am one of those fans who yells at the tv. 😁 I think I must have woke Brett up ten times yelling during game. 😂 IU opened up the season with an amazing overtime win over #3 Kansas. Sweet! Looks like we are going to have a great season of basketball!