Monday started as any normal Monday. Maggie knew there was talk of going swimming in Pigeon Forge at Melissa's timeshare, but I hadn't confirmed it with her. She called around 9:30 and said they were up for the adventure in the cold if we were, so we gathered up all of our swimming gear. It's so hard to think about swimming when it is below freezing outside. We ran by Blockbuster to pick up a new movie for Papaw and visited with him for a little bit before we left to meet Melissa at 11:30. We made our way up to Pigeon Forge only to find that the pool was closed at her timeshare in Pigeon Forge. They said that the one in Gatlinburg was open, so we traveled on. We got their around 12:30 and fed the kids before they made their way into the water. What is it about swimming in the winter, it is so much more exciting for kids then in the summer. The pool was indoor/outdoor with an outdoor hot tub, so they had a blast!! We let them swim until 3:3o and then loaded the car to start back to Knoxville. Melissa was going to meet Logan at the YMCA downtown to drop the kids off while he played basketball at 5:00, but we were ahead of schedule a little bit, so we decided to stop by the Westgate Resort to see the new indoor water park. We wanted to know if it was worth coming back up for and we instantly fell in love with it. They had ran an ad in Sunday's paper for $99 for a studio room with tickets for the water park. I had called twice Monday morning to see if they had a room available by chance, but they said no such luck. While we were in the parking lot, we called one more time to see if they had a room and they did!! We booked it immediately, but we didn't have anything with us. No clothes, toothbrushes, nothing!! We even realized Maggie had left her bathing suit back at Mountain Loft where we had been swimming all day. We went back to get her bathing suit which was luckily still in the bathroom. Once we got back to the room, we got our clothes changed and were ready to hit the water park. It was 6:00 by this time and the kids were so excited!! Melissa and I had this crazy idea that we would just go in our bathing suits and that she and I wouldn't worry about wearing shoes since ours laced up.. BAD IDEA!! My feet have never been so cold in all of my life and they were instantly numb from the temperature. The kids LOVED the park and had so much fun swimming. The only downside was that the heater was not working in the main pool or one of the kiddie areas. We ordered pizza and had it delivered so they wouldn't miss out on any play time. We closed the water park down and they still weren't ready to leave. We went back to our room and got dressed so we could take our adventure to Wal-Mart!! There's nothing smart about taking five kids to Wal-Mart at bedtime, but you have to do what you have to do. Coleman didn't have a passy and we had to have toothbrushes and something for Melissa and I to sleep in. We both agreed that we were not willing to take our friendship to the next level!! We got back to our room at 10:00 to find that our key didn't work.. Back in the van we went and down to the office to get a new key. We were finally in our room and getting into our pj's at 10:30. We gave the kids some popcorn because swimming makes you so hungry. Our room had a queen size bed and a full size sleeper sofa. We pulled the mattress off of the sleeper sofa and put it on the floor for Maggie, Maddie, Molly and Ridge. We made them sleep the opposite direction that you normally would to make more room. Then we put Coleman on the cushions of the couch on the floor. We ended up having to put Coleman and Molly in bed with us until they all went to sleep and then we moved the little ones back to the floor. I can safely say that Melissa and I saw each other almost every hour. Maggie had a coughing spell, Ridge talks in his sleep and Molly cried out a time or two.. We finally got a couple hours of solid sleep from 6:00 to 8:45, but then we had to kick it in high gear and get everyone fed and dressed so we could check out at 10:00. We got to the water park at 10:15, only to find the water not running and no one around. Finally a lifeguard came out and told us that they were not going to open until 12:00. Explain that to five kids!! We ended up going back to Mountain Loft to let them swim because the roads were not bad once we got out driving. We let them swim until 1:00 and then we got dressed so we could once again head back to Knoxville. An adventure cannot end without yet one more complication.. When we got back to my car that we had left parked at Cracker Barrel, my remote didn't work. I assumed the battery to the remote was dead - no such luck - my battery to the van was DEAD!! Luckily, Melissa had jumper cables and she jumped my van. The car alarm started going off as soon as we got it started because I had unlocked it with the key instead of the remote!! We finally got to Dad's a little after 3:00 to relieve him from Miley.. We had a blast and I am so thankful for a friend that is so spontaneous. Those are memories we will cherish for a lifetime!! Next time I will not wait until the second day to take more pictures of the water park because is this case, the second day didn't happen!!
Luckily, they have already delayed school by two hours tomorrow!! Maggie is going to need the extra sleep.. Maybe they will cancel it :-)
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