Smokey Mountain Vacation - Part 2

La'Casta teaches Xavier the art of serious skeeball (skiball?). Who knew La'Casta was the world champion skeeballer!?!

More concerned with the plastic orange frog that he won with skeeball tickets than with the live black bears, Xavier is quite pleased to make his frog hop from bar to bar at the outdoor zoo exhibit. (Mommy was not quite as pleased as there were multiple signs warning parents to keep their children from throwing anything into the bears' habitats.)

While Daddy was at the condo having "cave time," Chris, La'Casta, Shawna & Xavier continued their adventures by going to the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg.

We not only saw all kinds of underwater creatures in the HUGE walk-thru aquariums, we also had a chance to pet crabs and stingrays. Xavier was not volunteering for touching anything - no matter how much Shawna and La'Casta tried to smile and use happy voices while they did it!

Feeling like he might be able to make it back out with humans again, introverted Justin ventured with the group to the National Craftsman's Fair in Gatlinburg. While he was ready to be social, he's never ready to shop until he drops. Sooo, the menfolk sat near the food court where a bluegrass/folk band was setting up to play while the womenfolk shopped their way through the fair. (NOTE: Chris really was on this vacation... all the photos are his handiwork, thus, you don't see him pictured very often.)

As you can see from the people in the row behind Justin and Xavier, the oldest person in our group was about 40 years younger than the average fair attendee!

Xavier became an expert "stacker" at the various restaurants we visited. Jams, jellies, butter, creamer - nothing was too hard for this architectual genius!

Again enjoying cave time, Justin stayed back while Shawna, Xavier, La'Casta & Chris ventured to the Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre. Xavier did quite well - through blackouts and gunshots - he even learned to clap on cue!

As you can tell from this sampling of pix, we had a fabulous time. Xavier now thinks that "ca-shun" (a.k.a. "vacation") is when you go to lots of shows, eat lots of good food, and see black bears everywhere. Thank you, Chris & La'Casta for blessing us in such an awesome way!