We drove to Pigeon Forge, Tenn., in mid-July. We were worried if the kids could stand a 12-hour drive, but it turned out okay. We had scheduled to stop every three hours or so, which helped. We also had plenty of activities for the kids, and I think Brandon was perfectly occupied. Carson, on the other hand, would watch a DVD for a little bit before trying to play with it and then ultimately stopping the DVD. Carson is not known for sleeping in the car like Braden does, but on the trip he finally slept to help pass the time.

As you can see from the photo album, we did a lot of things from going to museums to mountain climbing to shopping to amusement parks and so forth. One day we went to a petting zoo and both Braden and Carson fed a lot of the animals, including goats and deer. On another day, Braden rode some roller coasters at Dollywood. We also spent a lot of time at the pool at our resort.

Typical of our vacations, neither Braden nor Carson slept well. They shared a bedroom together and when one woke up in the middle of the night, he would wake up the other. We drank about three cups of coffee each every morning to fight off the effects of a terrible night’s sleep.

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