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Jenna's best flying squirrel impression

We celebrated Jenna’s survival of her first three months a week early by having a party and inviting all of her grandparents. Last Thursday Jarom’s parents arrived by car at about 8:00. Almost immediately upon their arrival, Grandma was changing Jenna’s diaper when she pooped on her (Jenna on Grandma, not the other way around.) While Lix helped get that mess cleaned up, Jarom was picking her dad up from the airport. They had a wonderful dinner at Chili’s, where the game of “Who gets to hold the grandkid” began for the weekend. Lix’s mom and sister got a late start getting out of Cleveland so they didn’t get in until the wee am hours.





Friday morning we all gathered our stuff and set out for Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, possibly the most eccentric place in the universe. When Lix was growing up her family used to make trips to Gatlinburg for vacations, so she has many fond memories of the town. Jarom has no such memories, so he has only heard about how great it is. It is always interesting to compare the reality of something to the way someone else remembers it from their childhood. The first stop in Gatlinburg was at the Segway tours place (not the actual name) where some of the video footage you may have seen on this blog came from. Jarom has been wanting to ride on a segway every since he began watching Arrested Development, so he was very excited to cross it off his bucket list. After about 5 minutes of wobbliness and near-accidents (or actual accidents, depending on the rider), the machines were pretty easy to ride and quite a bit of fun. The group of 6 (Bruce, PJ, Alixa, Jarom, Mikah, and a guide) cruised all around Gatlinburg, and even went to the top of the local space needle (elev. 407 ft.) by stuffing all six Segways in a single elevator. As the tour was winding down, the heavens opened up and a monsoon-like rain began to fall, soaking all of the riders to the bone. Everyone had a great time, and despite a few slip-ups, there were no serious injuries. Next on everyone’s list was finding a place to eat lunch. After briefly leaving PJ, who had to run down the car in the rain, they settled on TGIFriday’s, where they waited out the rain. Then it was up the tram to OberGatlinburg, aka the world’s lamest ski resort. There is an alpine slide and some other fun things to do up there during the summer. Unfortunately, the excessive rain caused those things to be closed. So they ended up sitting around enjoying the beauty of the mountaintop and making fun of the fact that they were sitting atop a mountain with nothing to do. The day ended with a trip to the Tennessee Shindig, a music variety show with hits from each of the last 5 decades, including a pretty good Elvis impersonator whom Mikah developed a bit of crush on.

Jenna and Opa

Hanging out at Ober Gatlinburg. You can see the excitement practically bursting out.

Saturday began early, as there was an 8:00 tee time that had to be met. Grandmas were left in charge of Jenna and Lix and Jarom went with the old men to play 18 holes. It was a wonderful morning, relatively cool and overcast, but no rain. Lix played great, a result of the time she has been putting in recently at the driving range, and Jarom beat both of his dads. After golf, lunch was had at the Apple Cake Tea Room. I can best sum up the environment by telling you that upon their arrival, the owner came over to the group and told them not to worry because “we’ve had at least two other guys in here already today.” The tea selection was not as ample as some of the other teahouses that PJ has frequented, but the food was scrumptious. After some afternoon naps, everyone gathered at the hotel lobby to watch BYU fall on their collective faces against Florida State. Boo hiss.

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Sunday was the event that everyone had come to see, and Jenna looked quite darling in her huge, poofy, white dress. Jarom got the name correct in the blessing but failed to give out a single super-power, so I’ll give him a C. After the meeting everyone began their long drives home. It was great to see so many family members, but we were all sad to see them go. The Hegewalds are working on planning another trip down here before we leave, so I have that to look forward to.