DollyWood 2014

J is with a group of local cattle producers that send their calves to the same feedlot in Nebraska.  They have all gone as a group and individually on vacations - see HERE - to the feed yard.  This year someone from the feed yard has taken their family vacation to come see the cattle producers.  Now that's shaking things up.  So they have spent their time touring everyone's farms and cattle operations.  They came here Saturday and the kids immediately wanted to walk up the steep hill in front of our house.  Nothing like that in Nebraska.  They also rode horses in the barn.  Seven year old Zac was very proud of riding Pep by himself and 11 year old Maddie even tried some vaulting on Hank.  (sorry, too busy to think to take a picture).  Then after a cookout we headed to Gatlinburg, Tennessee,

to the Great Smoky Mountains.

The weather was beautiful.  We all spent the night in a huge lodge house and had a tremendous meal at The Alamo Steakhouse courtesy of Circle Five Feed Yard. 

 Then Sunday, it was off for a day at Dollywood.

 E even let me braid her hair for the occasion.

 J went to several shows with a different part of the group and didn't want to ride the Eagle with us,

 but he did ride the River Rampage and got appropriately drenched.  It was awhile before his jeans dried but he said his feet stayed dry so he was happy.

 I was going to ride with this crew but we didn't make the 450 pound limit so I had to switch with J.

The park wasn't crowded at all, so we got to ride lots of rides and there was no problem getting into any of the shows.  There was a small rain storm that shut all of the rides down for about an hour but once again, the shows weren't full so all was good.  We got home about 11:30, ready for another cookout this evening at another producer's farm.  Yum.