After breakfast at the condo (which, for once, was down near the town) we walked down the hill to check out downtown Gatlinburg. We stopped and had an Old Tyme photo of the kids taken, which took a lot longer than we thought it would but turned out really cute (I'll have to scan it when Rick's not sleeping next to my scanner). After that, Brandon checked all the fudge shops for his amaretto fudge (none to be found), mom looked for her Bear Paws statue (found one, that Jacob picked out), Jacob picked himself out a new stuffed dog, Brandon picked himself out a new shirt ("I don't have to outrun the bear, just outrun you!") and we finally split off for lunch.
After eating, Jacob was just about done with the day, so he and Rick walked back to the condo. Brandon and I toured the Ripley's Mirror Maze before meeting up with the rest of the group, who wanted to do the Mirror Maze, as well, so we backtracked there before going on to the Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies.
Sea Dragon
Is it just me, or is this guy really creepy?
Brandon found this huge stingray stuffed animal in the gift shop and wanted to take him home, but, at $200 mom had to say no.
You could see the river from the aquarium and the kids were begging to go, so we found an access staircase and turned them loose.
Brandon had crossed to the other side, and Brooke wanted over there, too, so Brandon was nice and helped her across. By this point, all of them had slipped and fallen and gotten wet at least once.
Brandon was determined to catch one of the ducks so we could have "duck for dinner!" He came pretty close, but no duck. After that, we finally convinced the kids to head back to the condo for pizza and brownie for Jacob's belated birthday party.
My teenager.
Markers, stuffed animals and t-shirts...always a hit with Jacob.
Target had most of their Moon Dough sets on dirt cheap clearance in the weeks before vacation, so I picked a bunch of it up. Not only did it serve as a present, but entertainment for the evening.
I had planned to do a multi-layer rainbow cake, but I forgot to have Rick pick up cake mix for me at the store, and the Walgreens we stopped into didn't have any, just brownie mix. Oh well, Jacob loves brownies more than cake, anyway.
In fact, no one complained and there was none left.
