We had a great week with the Rays in the Smoky Mountains. We stayed in the Hidden Springs Resort at a great little cabin called Firefly Landing. It had 2 king bedrooms for the parents and 2 bunk rooms for the kids with 3 bathrooms, a nice open kitchen/living/dining area, a dining table that seats 10, and a fun area for the kids in the basement.
Some of the highlights included the pool table, where Adelie and Isla made up the game "spool", which was a combination of soccer and pool where they used the sides of the pool sticks to hit the balls around the table. I didn't quite understand all the rules, but they had a lot of fun playing it.
The little video arcade game was another big hit, especially for Briggs.
The hot tub got plenty of use from the kids as well as the adults.
The back decks had porch swings and rocking chairs and a picnic table and a beautiful view of the mountains. Christie and I spent several mornings watching the sunrise over the mountains while the rest of the family slept.
A highlight for the kids was the indoor resort pool. They swam just about every day. It was a nice additional perk that the pool was within walking distance, albeit down/up a really big hill, from our cabin.
We spent our first afternoon/evening meeting up with the Rays, getting settled, realizing that running in our resort neighborhood was NOT going to work with all the crazy hills, taking a dip in the pool, trying out all the cabin amenities, the guys fitting in a quick bike ride, having a taco dinner, and getting excited about our week. (Even though running in the resort didn't work, we found places within a few miles that Staley could get in her daily run/workouts.)
We were excited to start off our trip with a fun day of hiking. Our first hike of the week wasn't quite how we had planned. We had hoped to do Grotto Falls off the Trillium Gap Trail. However, after a bit of craziness with getting parking passes, trying to find parking, getting separated from one another, and struggling with poor cell service, we found that the road to the Grotto Falls trailhead was closed. We ended up walking to the Rainbow Falls trailhead and doing that 5.4 mile hike instead (which ended up more like 6-7 miles after all the walking we had to do to/from our parking spots to the eventual trailhead.)
Our family had done this trail before, but the kids hadn't done it since our very first trip to the Smokies in 2020. Although Avery struggled a bit, everyone else did great. And most of the kids listed this as their favorite hike of the week. Even Avery.
We had our picnic lunch at the falls and then the kids climbed around on the rocks and explored a little before we headed back down.
It was a slightly chilly but beautiful day.
Adelie and Isla had the best time on our hikes throughout the week planning for their body spray business. They called it Noble Island Mists (after the meaning of their first names). They planned various lines and scents, prices, a business plan, and they even made a logo.
The afternoon/evening involved more swimming and playing and hot tubbing, more visiting, spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, some game playing, and then getting ready for Adelie's birthday the next day.
After our previous day's hike, we planned a more laid-back day for Adelie to enjoy her birthday.
There was sleeping in, cinnamon rolls for breakfast, hanging out at the cabin, swimming, logo making, and playing.
Christie and I popped over to Dollywood (which was less than 5 minutes from our cabin) to scope out the park with our season passes and plan for our day there with the kids later in the week. We walked around, got the lay of the land, checked out the various rides, and then hopped on the Wild Eagle roller coaster before heading back to the cabin so the guys could fit in another bike ride before dinner.
We took the kids to a fun playground/park in the afternoon. The younger kids checked out the playground while the older girls went on a little walk, and then they all worked on starting to choreograph a dance together.
Although making up dances is always a highlight of time with the Rays, the cabin did not have great space for dancing, so the dance remained unfinished.
Zach and Jonathan grilled burgers and brats for Adelie's birthday dinner. There was birthday dessert and presents and celebratory phone calls from grandparents and then the kids watched 'The Barbie Movie.'
Isla made Adelie special birthday dessert, even decorating it herself with homemade icing. (Better than the store bought cookie cake and ice cream that I had bought.) It was a good birthday!
We got everyone up for an early (cold) start the next morning as we had a big day of hiking planned.
We hiked as a group to Alum Cave (4.6 miles roundtrip) where we then diverged.
Zach took the younger 4 kids back to the cabin for hanging out and game playing at the cabin. They also saw a few bears wandering around in the backyard of our cabin, which was the wildlife highlight of the week. Staley, Christie, Jonathan, and I continued on to complete the 10-11 mile roundtrip hike to Mt. LeConte.
It was a beautiful, slightly chilly day but perfect for hiking.
Zach and I had done this hike on our last trip to the Smokies, and Staley had been really wanting to do it since she'd heard us talk about it. Zach and I had determined it was our favorite hike we'd ever done in the Smokies.
The hike is great with amazing views.
We made it to the (very chilly) summit where we had our lunch, shivered wile soaking in the views, and then started the hike back down.
After getting back to the cabin and cleaned up, we headed out for dinner at Gorilla Taco.
It was a funny little restaurant, but the food was really good. And it was my favorite meal...one that I didn't have to cook or clean up after!
Our next day was a highlight of the trip for the kids. While Zach and Jonathan did a day-long bike ride, Christie and I took the kids to Dollywood!
Zach and Jonathan had spent the few months leading up to our trip discussing and planning their long bike ride day. They found a relatively flat, scenic 46-mile route and had a great time!
I think their long bike ride day was probably the highlight of the trip for them too.
Our Dollywood day was the first major opportunity for the Ray girls to experience roller coasters. They didn't want to do all the coasters that my kids did, but we found lots of rides that everyone was excited to do.
Consensus favorite rides for the entire group included Firechaser (everyone's favorite coaster), Big Bear Mountain (a close second favorite coaster), Daredevil Falls (that the kids did 5 times in a row), Smoky Mountain River Rampage (that they did twice in a row), and Dragonflier.
Adelie and Staley also really enjoyed Wild Eagle, which we did twice, while the other kids went with Christie to do a non-coaster ride. All 3 of my kids also did Thunderhead, which was a wooden coaster that we all agreed was too rough. Staley and I ended our night with the Tennessee Tornado coaster, which we enjoyed, although Staley determined herself done after that instead of trying to fit in one last ride.
When we were taking a break between coasters, we ate scrumptious cinnamon bread, rode the train, did bumper cars (where Staley was struggling and Christie accidentally threw her phone into the arena making the ride stop), the kids rode the swings, we shopped for souvenirs, and the kids got wet and wild on the water rides that they did repeatedly. Making various faces and poses for the camera at Daredevil Falls might have been there very favorite activity of the day.
We took a mid-afternoon break to have our picnic lunch in the car, and we enjoyed a light dinner of chicken tenders, fries, and pulled pork. We also had packed plenty of snacks to keep everyone happy and fed throughout the day.
Dollywood was a great little theme park. It was clean and well-run and had really nice employees. It had some well-designed areas, fun rides, and plenty for us to do all day long. We got there around 9, they opened at 10, and we left after they closed at 8. (We taught the Rays how the Sancken family does theme parks...from open to close.)
It was a full day of theme park fun! Everyone slept well that night.
For our last full day in the Smokies, we had a more leisurely morning before heading over to Townsend for our daily adventure. We started with the Spruce Flat Falls hike, which is only about 1.5 miles roundtrip.
It's a fun, moderately difficult hike to some great little falls. We enjoyed climbing around on the rocks by the falls and exploring.
Adelie and Isla really bonded all week long and had a great time together.
After our hike, we found a nice little spot by a creek/river to eat our picnic lunch, skip rocks, and wade around in the water.
After our lunch, Christie and I took the girls back home for some hanging out, swimming, and an impromptu pool deck dance party.
Zach and Jonathan took Briggs to the Tuckaleechee Caverns in Townsend. After Briggs' disappointment with Mammoth Caves, his trip to the caverns totally redeemed his cave experience. He loved it!!
The caverns were everything he thought Mammoth Cave would be. There were stalagmites and stalactites and cave wildlife (like a little crawfish they saw) and an indoor lake and the tallest subterranean waterfall in the eastern US. All the boys were really impressed!
We finished off our last afternoon/evening in the Smokies by packing up, having Greek bowls (now officially known as Ray bowls) for dinner (SO GOOD!!!), playing one last game as a group, taking one last soak in the hot tub, and enjoying one last night with our friends before heading home the next day.
We had such a fun week!! From checking off another new national park to visiting an old favorite, from riding bikes to riding coasters, from full days to relaxing days, from swimming to hiking, we enjoyed it all.
But the best part? Doing it all with the Rays.
Spring break success!!
