Gatlinburg Winter 2011

I am finally getting to post pictures from our fun trip to Gatlinburg back in the end of January of this year. Josh was blessed with the opportunity to preach at a youth ski retreat of some dear friends' church from South Carolina. My parents and sister were able to come up and stay with us at our nice cabin for the weekend. This was doubly a blessing to me as I got help with the boys, while Josh was busy with the retreat events and preaching, and any time to get together with our family is such a joy!

Here are a few pictures of us at our cabin...

Our boys loved spending time with tia, who spoils them by allowing them to play all sorts of games on her Iphone. It's amazing how JJ can do it all by himself!
Noah had his first bath in the big tub in our cabin...
...and of course the brothers had to help out :)
This is the crowd Josh preached to this weekend
The last day before heading back home, we were able to go to the Gatlinburg Ripley's Aquarium. It was the highlight of our boys' time in Gatlinburg and it was oh so much fun for the rest of us (parents and grandparents) just to see our boys having so much fun! As soon as they walked in, they started squealing with delight and saying, "Loook! Looook!" It still makes us smile today as we recall these precious memories.
This aquarium was possibly the best one we have been to so far. It just seemed to have so many different things (at least that we hadn't seen before) and fun things for the kids to explore. Here is Pika joining in on the fun...
Lito and JJ learning about some of the many fish
Mami trying to get in on a picture, while JJ's eye caught something else...
Daddy joining in on the fun, petting the stingrays
The following pictures show just how much fun we all had at these cute aquariums filled with pretty colorful fish. You could actually crawl into the aquarium so you were in a little tunnel looking at the fish all around you! Here is JJ finding Nemo from the outside of the aquarium...
And here we all are, beginning with cute little Eli's face, exploring the fish from the inside of the aquarium...







Noah took a good long nap for the first part of our aquarium trip and then woke up to be fascinated by the lighting and shadows in the aquarium :)
Lito and Eli on the moving walkway heading into the Shark and Fish Tunnels. This was JJ's favorite part of the visit. In the picture, he is behind Lito just staring up at the big big fish :)
We took 2 little videos in the fish tunnel. Here they are:

A really dark part of the aquarium had giant crabs, and our boys loved watching them. It was really cute to hear them, especially Eli, talking to the crabs. Here is a pic and another short little video...

The penguin habitat was one of the aquarium's main attractions. I think since we went late in the afternoon, we didn't see as much penguin interaction, but it was a lot of fun to watch them. Their habitat had tunnels for kids (and adults) to crawl through in order to observe the penguins from different angles. It was so much fun for our boys...and daddy! :)
All the penguins had their names on them. Our boys especially liked Norman. Here is a close up of him and JJ watching him...





Brothers racing through the penguin tunnels
Eli being introduced to Norman :)
The stingrays were also so much fun to watch

Our firstborn, JJ, is growing up sooo fast. It amazes us especially when we see pictures of him and realize how big he is getting!
Lito with Noah at the end of our visit
Eli watching a jumping toy daddy got for them
Sorpresa para Lito y Pika...a little reminder of our fun time at the aquarium...the boys are more interested in what Pika has for them in that little bag :)
Aquarium animal Gummies!!!!
This was such a fun trip for us! Of course, traveling with 3 little ones, taking them away from their home, their beds, their schedules throws everything off and is quite difficult, but the memories we make during our travels make it all worthwhile! Can't wait for our next adventure! :)