What I learned on vacation...

Things I learned about our family while on vacation to the Smoky Mountains...

1. After several weeks/months of talking about where we were going on spring break we found out that we were mispronoucing the city! Sevierville is pronounced "Severe-ville" ... like severe pain or something... not see-ver-ville. Ha!

2. Quinn has some "take charge" and leadership qualities showing up. He repeatedly was "gathering" everyone to make up their minds and order our food ... talking to the wait staff like a little grown up... just a few examples. Tony and I were amazed... it happened time and time again.

3. Madison had courage to face some of her fears... of heights for one. She was able to confidently ride the sky lift up to the alpine sledding hill after quite a few practices at it. She tried a rock climbing wall but shocked us when she quit when 3/4 of the way up. "I made one mistake" she said, "I looked down."

4. If I have to I can go for 36 hours on clear liquids and absolutely nothing else! Pain is a strange motivating factor. It worked and I'm so thankful. I continued to have a toothache every single day but was able to get through it with Advil every 4 hours (literally). (The dentist needs to adjust the height of a crown I think).

5. Tony loves his kids enough to get up at 8am on vacation just to take them swimming for 2 hours before our day of sight-seeing begins... to make sure that they got this request in. (This gave him some time to work on his laptop for Rollpak too).

6. Jade doesn't stop growing when we don't get to see her for several months. She is taller and talking more... we all loved to hear her say "Got it!" when finding her Easter eggs for the first time.