The second day we got into Greenville around lunchtime. We hung out in the hotel until the rehearsal, where the stress of two days in the car really showed in the girls. Abby refused to sprinkle her flower petals on the floor, although at one point she did throw the entire basket down at Jenn's feet, much to the amusement of everyone who was watching her. Nora liked sprinkling her petals on the floor, but she threw a big fit when we tried to convince her to leave them on the floor instead of putting them back in her basket right away. But we'd had quite a few people tell us that it always seemed like if kids did well at the rehearsal they didn't do very well at the wedding and if they didn't do well at the rehearsal they did well at the wedding, so we were hoping that would hold true for ours, too.
The wedding went WAY better than the rehearsal. The girls did a great job being adorable (which is what Jenn claims was her whole goal in having them in the wedding) and got lots of compliments, which they loved. When it was time to go down the aisle, Abby sprinkled her petals just like we had practiced all day in the hotel. Nora followed along behind her, picking them up, but it was cute, and they both did a nice job of sitting quietly for the rest of the ceremony after they were done.
They had a great time at the reception. Abby literally danced circles around everyone - she spent most of the night running around the perimeter of the dance floor. We had a great time with the Chicken Dance, too.
Nora got to play her favorite game at the reception, "Everyone Hold Me." She got passed around from person to person, even walking up to strangers to get picked up and held for a few minutes. She was in heaven!
On Monday after the wedding, we headed to Gatlinburg, TN with my parents and Papa for a few days of vacation. Monday was just a relax and get situated day, and then on Tuesday we started in on the fun. In the morning, we visited the Ripley's Aquarium, which was a lot of fun. The girls really enjoyed seeing all the animals, especially the penguins. It was a pretty cool penguin exhibit, including a tunnel that let you crawl into the penguin tank and see them really close up.
In the afternoon, we headed into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to visit Cade's Cove. On the way in, we found a huge crowd of people stopped by the side of the road. Figuring that if there was a crowd, there was probably something to see, we stopped too, and were treated to the sight of a mama bear and her three cubs up in a tree, fattening up on acorns.
When we stopped at the gristmill in Cade's Cove, Abby had fun learning about how the water turned the wheel and the big wheel made the little wheels turn. She told everyone she could about that for the next few days. There was also a little farm house we walked through, and the highlight for the girls was the broom on the porch. They both had to take a turn at sweeping, and the house with the yellow broom has made it into the recap of the trip everytime Abby tells the story.
On Wednesday, we headed to Dollywood for the day. We're waiting on Mom and Dad to post their pictures of the day (hint, hint!) so we don't have very many at this point. It was probably the emptiest amusement park I've ever visited, which was awesome. We could walk on to any ride in the park, which the girls took advantage of when they discovered the little kid section and their favorite rides. Before that, we drove little cars on a track and rode the carousel:
Then we found the elephant ride. Abby refers to it as the "Lumpy" ride (because of Lumpy in Pooh's Heffalump Movie) and she loved it. I'm not sure how many times she rode that one, but she was able to get off and get right back on, which was great.
After lunch, Adam and I went to ride some "grown-up rides" while my parents and Papa took the girls on some littler ones. Those were a HUGE hit. Abby found a bumblebee ride and Nora found a ducky ride that they each just loved. By the time we left, Nora was on a first name basis with Ms. Becky, the ride operator. We had a minor trauma, when Nora fell down and hit her face on the pavement. Lots of blood and tears later, she recovered enough to ride the duckies a few more times. We later discovered that she chipped her tooth, so in retrospect she really took that like a champ. It wore her out, though, and she fell asleep in Adam's arms on the way back to the car.
That was the last major activity of vacation. We headed home after that so that Abby had a few days to recover before heading to preschool for the first time the following Monday. More on that later.
