Hayden Reunion and 4th of July

This last Sunday the Clark family headed to Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a Hayden family reunion and to celebrate 4th of July. 

Thomas has now been to 16 states in his little life, he's quite the traveler.

The drive there was long, about 9-10 hours depending on how many stops you take. 

Thomas did pretty well for the most part, as for me, I got car sick especially the curving roads and going on the mountains, that about 5 minutes to the condos, I made quite a mess, thank goodness I made it out of the window but the mess was all over the outside of our car, poor Dustin had to clean it with some water and I started crying because I felt bad, but than afterwards I laughed because one I finally felt good after such a long car ride and also what a great story to tell for years down the road. I'm sure the people behind us thought it was funny.

Anyway once we hit the condos I felt A LOT better so it was good to see everyone, and we hung out for the rest of the night. 

On Monday most people went to a town that Grandpa Hayden lived for a little bit during WW2 and this town helped build the A bomb. The stories he told were way interesting, they had to have an ID to get in the town and no one knew they were building a bomb they just knew it was to help out for the war. 

The town is still there and there is a museum there as well. Dustin and I are didn't go because it was a long drive and we thought Thomas couldn't handle another long drive, and probably me after getting sick. So we hung out in our condo and went swimming and later everyone joined us. 

Than later that night we walked down the town of Gatlinburg, it was a fun town to walk through:

Than Tuesday we went back to town and played some black light miniature golf and Lazer Tag with Lara, Hayden, Ashley, and Matthew. I'm pretty sure I got wasted on both games but it was way fun. That night we had a little talent show and games and pizza with the whole group. It was a lot of fun too but I didn't bring a camera which is too bad because we played "Minute to Win it" which was pretty funny. And having Ashley and Matthew doing a Dolly Parton impression was priceless. 

Maybe later I will get pictures from someone. 

Than everyone headed to wait for the midnight 4th July parade, the first parade of the year that Gatlinburg does every year. Dustin and I stayed back because we didn't feel like fighting the crowds and having Thomas staying up that late didn't sound too fun to us, but we had fun just hanging out and have no work to worry about. 

Here is a picture of Thomas having fun taking a bath in the jacuzzi that night.

On the 4th we hung out a little but than we had to head back to Florida, so it wasn't the most exciting 4th but we thought it was worth it to see everyone for a bit. So we stopped at a hamburger place on the way and had rootbeer since it was 4th of July. Again it was a long drive and Thomas got tired of the car  a lot quicker this time.

What was cool though, was when we arrived to Orlando it was late at night and we got to see every firework show, and there were a lot. My favorite was down town Orlando because the fireworks by the skyscrapers was awesome! I wish I could have taken a picture.

Anyway, it was fun to see family, and it was nice to celebrate a holiday with family for the first time since we have moved to Orlando.