A Friday in June

Last Friday was an ideal June day.

Early morning snuggles with the dogs

Conjuring Harry Potter when he puts on my grandmother's glasses

 

Downtown Art Walk

Painting done by the kids art and clay teacher

 A Storm Tropper sighting

And poses with our favorite mascot

Dollywood

While in Gatlinburg for the synchronous firefly show, we also headed to nearby Pigeon Forge to enjoy a day at Dollywood. Considering that is was Memorial Day, I expected more of a crowd. I'm not complaining. A small crowd meant minimal wait time in line!

If we learned anything on this trip, it's that this little girl is a bonafide thrill seeker. She loved every ride and was fearless.

She had been asking for months to ride a carousel. We came across three carousels in three different cities. All closed.

Here, she was able to cross that off her list by riding two carousels in two days. We heard about an area called The Island in Pigeon Forge, which is a mini amusement park right down the road from Dollywood. There's no entrance fee; you pay for each ride. We rode the large ferris wheel and a small carousel.

In Dollywood, Mattie just so happened to pick the largest and most ornate horse, appropriately named Dolly.

We had a mighty fine time y'all!

Synchronous Fireflies

Talk about enchantment.

A firefly show that rivals no other occurs every year in the Great Smoky Mountains.

This was our spot pre-show. We were near Gatlinburg, Tenn, in an area known as Elkmont, on the first night of the 2016 synchronous firefly viewing.

Taking pictures with a flash in the dark negatively effects the display, so this is the only image we got from the evening.

However, this CBS Sunday morning piece from several years ago is all you need to see. It's the reason we were there. I was just waiting for our kids to be old enough to stay up late to enjoy the magic of it all.