Goode Grief: You picked a fine time to leave me Aunt Bee

So this weekend the Goodes got the bright idea to take a spontaneous mini-vacation to one of our favorite spots to relax our troubles away.

It all started out well.

There was lots of book reading, Gilbert playin' and potty pit stops.

And ZERO potty accidents!

7 hours later... there it was-- Mommy and Daddy's Mountain.

Beautiful, majestic Mt. LeConte.

Oh and road construction. Now these may look like ordinary orange barrels to you, but I now realize that they were really warning barrels that were screaming " Go back, go back! Don't go any further. Go back!"

Ya see these barrels were all that were between our hotel and the first place we went to eat when we arrived in the lovely Smokey Mountains.

To say we didn't know what was about to hit us is an understatement. We arrived at one of our favorite dining places... a place we had been to many times before.

Yet, something seemed a little different.

No, a lot different.

Our waitress was no longer an Aunt Bee-esque southern Belle with that lovely Tennessee draw, but rather an impatient teenager who asked us more than once if we wanted the rest of our meal in a box.

The food was significantly more expensive than usual and of lesser quality... again an understatement...

This picture eerily foreshadows what is about to happen.

See we got more than we paid for at our first restaurant...a restaurant that for sentimental purposes I will not tell you their name. However if you ever find yourself in the Smokey's and ya get a hankering for a restaurant that rhymes with Cold Pill, ya might think on it again...

We get back to the hotel and spend the evening settling in at our cozy little hotel. Before long it is time for bed.

Mid-way through the night Puddie gets sick.

BIG TIME sick.

Ladies and Gentlemen...Food poisoning.

Yee Haw.

By the next day Puddie is miserable and the Monkey and me are raring to go.

We have been promised some shark seeing after all.

Puddie tries his best to hang on to his cookies, but it is clear that he is not having much fun.

Poor Puddie.

After an attempt at breakfast we head on over to the aquarium.

Puddie starts out ok.

Monkey is stoked! So much so that she allows duckie to come along as a replacement for Gilbert who left himself at the hotel by accident.

Silly kitty.

Miss Add LOVED all the fishies.

And Dad did alright

at first

Funny thing about staring at swirling water while riding a winding conveyor belt...

It tends to make a queasy man

um...

queasier.

Poor Puddie.

He tried his best to make sure his ladies had a good time though.

He let us swim around in aquariums with the seahorses

And pretend we were deep sea divers

And we couldn't leave before we saw the jellies!

But before long, it was time for us to go...

Which brought about Daddy's only smile of the day...

We then proceeded back to the hotel where we spent the rest of our trip.

All I have to say is after 3 days and 2 nights of being trapped in a hotel with a rambunctious two year old and a sick hubby is-- THANK heavens for this little guy:

In a moment of quick mommy-thinking I picked Add up a new Veggie Tales DVD along with Daddy's 7 up and Pepto on a quick Walmart run.

Add loved the new story (about listening to your parents ;) ) and it kept her entertained while Mommy tended to a sick Daddy.



All in all our vacation... well it stunk.

Needless to say we have never been so glad to see Indiana in our lives.

However, we now need a real vacation from our unvacation... ;)

Truth be told I am a little scared to try again...