Jul. 1, 2009 - Birthday Trip: Horse Ranch
We started something really fun about 4 years ago. When our children (ages 7 and older) have a birthday, they get to go on a special overnight trip with one parent to a fun place. Sometimes we pick a trip and surprise them and sometimes they play a role in planning the get away.
It's a great time for one on one time with mom or dad, that is sometimes harder to find in a big family.
The trips we've done so far, which up til now has been dad with the boys and me with Hosanna:
Aslan
Gatlinburg, TN: Dixie Stampede, Go Carts
Ecuador: Mission Trip
Gatlinburg: to stay at the new motel with an indoor waterpark, Putt Putt golf and snow tubing
Noah
6 Flags
Tennesee Titans Football game
(His bday is coming up in Oct for the nxt trip)
Hosanna:
Nashville to go to Build a Bear and pick out new paint for her room
Nashville: surprised by Grandma Florida flying in for the week, we also went to a tea room and did swimming at the motel
Which brings me to Hosanna's 9 year old birthday trip that we took last week.
We went to Twin Valley Bed and Breakfast Horse Ranch.
I chose that place because it was a fun place to stay and it had horseback riding for my horse crazy little princess. So that I could actually ride a horse with Hosanna, we both thought it would be extra fun to bring Grandma Kentucky with us to help with Gilead.
I highly recommend this place. It is great for large families too!
We stayed in the Pioneer Room, since there was only 4 of us this trip. It is the door upstairs.
We immediately fell in love with all the cute farm animals.
There were 14 horses, 2 fainting goats, sheep, a pig, chickens, a duck, a goose, a llama, and a Sicilian donkey that was Hosanna's favorite:
After visiting with all the animals, we hopped in the truck to go to the grocery store to stock up on food for dinner and breakfast. Each room comes with a very nice full kitchen.
When we returned it was chore time and animal feeding time. We spent an hour feeding all the animals with the owner, Janice and getting to ride in the back of a pickup truck.
The next day, we could have gotten up at 6am to feed the animals again, but that would have been 5am our time, so I thought I'd be happy skipping that feeding...night person that I am. (grin)
At 7am (6 our time) was time to brush the horses and get them ready for the ride. I sent Hosanna on ahead to do that (she had a great time) while I tried to wake up and feed Gilead.
At 8am it was time for our mountain horse ride. With Grandma taking care of Gilead, we hopped on our horses....I rode "Big Easy" and Hosanna rode "Candy." The ride took us up into the Tennessee hills and we saw some neat old sites where people used to live in the 1800-1900's. We got to trot and my horse even cantered a bit...yeeeehawwww.
The 3 1/2 hours went very fast and we were back before we knew it. Gilead did well without me...I've never left the little fella before since he only nurses still.
It was time to check out, but since nobody had rented our room the next day, they let us stay for a few more hours to fish in the huge pond that is stocked with catfish, bass and blue gill.
It was great fishing. In an hour, Hosanna caught 1 smallmouth bass and 1 bluegill, and I caught 1 bluegill. We only had 2 poles so grandma helped us take fish off the hooks.
After that, it was time to come home. We sure had a great trip. We both really enjoyed Grandma coming with us for help with Gilead and fun company--thanks Grandma!!!
I would highly recommend this place even for large families. There is a cabin called Luke's cabin (you can see if it you click the link above) that sleeps 6 but she said we could bring sleeping bags and air mattresses if we wanted to fit everyone....very unlike motels who tell us we exceed firecode and need 2 rooms.
Along with the stocked pond to fish, you can also swim in it and there is a rope swing into the pond as well. There were MILES of hiking trails on the property that we didn't have time to check out. The animals are there to pet, You can easily stay busy for 3 days there.
On top of that, it is about 30 minutes from Cades Cove....the scenic drive outside Gatlinburg where you drive through for free and see bears, turkey deer ect fromy our cars. It is about 1 hr to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge if you love traffic and exciting things to do.
Hosanna wants to go back next year for her 10th birthday trip. We are planning on taking the whole family later in the year! The rest of the children will love it.
