Saturday Snapshot: Birthday Boy

Christmas Day is Duncan's birthday. We've always done a party in early December, but this year we were all ready for the end of parties. We took him and his two best buds to Ripley's Haunted Adventure in Gatlinburg.

Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Please, please, please: remind me to never go there during the holidays again! It was absolutely jam packed with tourists. I should have known. We knew that Sevierville and Pigeon Forge would be a mess of outlet shoppers, but we didn't even think about the crowds in Gatlinburg. We waited in traffic about 45 minutes to go 3 blocks, but we did finally get there.

The boys seemed to love the Haunted Adventure. In the picture above they are listening to instructions from a zombie-looking actor—and that was the point at which I was told to put my camera away. It only took us about 15 minutes to get through because the boys were practically running. My advice: if you go, walk slowly, or you'll feel fairly ripped off for spending so much money for 15 minutes. Then again, we all know these things are way overpriced, right?

After eating at Mellow Mushroom, we headed back home but went over the mountains rather than trying to navigate Gatlinburg traffic again.

We were rewarded with lots of nice snow! OK, "lots" might be a bit of an exaggeration, but if you look closely in the photo, you can see a few flakes. We were excited, anyway.

We stopped at The Sinks, a popular waterfall, on our way back. The river was positively terrifying in its strength. The boys, who usually climb all over rocks, were even quite respectful of the intensity of the falls. They only tried to climb once or twice.

It was a good day for our youngest birthday boy. I'm so glad to be done with the elaborate parties! I'm sure in a few years I'll be lamenting the passing of the seasons, but right now, I'm happy for the ease of a couple friends and a trip to a cheesy tourist attraction. And the mountains: always, the mountains.

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