As you can imagine, getting away for a weekend is a little complicated when you have a hundred animals at home. The result has been that we hardly ever get out of town as a family, which we don’t mind. However, we had been talking about taking a trip to the mountains for a couple years, so when Nonna said she wanted to rent a cabin to celebrate her birthday, we started making provisions right away! I’m a beach girl, but my husband is a mountain man, and we don’t live far from the Smokies.

With any “relaxing” vacation comes preparation that is not quite relaxing. We cleaned out the car, made sure the animals had everything they needed, stocked up on feed, wrote out in instructions for our farm sitter, cleaned the house, made a trip to the store, bathed the baby and ourselves, made sure all the security cameras were working, packed bags, loaded all of our stuff into the car, and off to Sevierville we went!

The area of Sevierville is known for its tourist attractions, including Dollywood and downtown Gatlinburg, but we are more inclined to spend time relaxing with nature, eating homecooked food and taking it easy, so staying at a nice place in the woods was perfect for us. Plus, walking around Dollywood in the summer at 9 months pregnant would get a big “no thanks” from me.

The cabin of choice was in what they call Stackstone neighborhood in Wears Valley. The location was great for us because it only took us an hour and a half to get there. The house had five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a home theater, arcade games, Wi-Fi, multiple decks, swings, a hot tub, nice kitchen, the whole nine yards. Although there were stores not too far away, we brought a lot of food so we could eat here as a family for every meal. Pops loves to cook, and we love to eat, so that was a no-brainer.

Click here to check out the cabin!

What should have also been a no-brainer was adhering to the host’s advice about removing anything resembling food from our vehicles and locking the doors. However, some members of our party seemed to miss this memo, and a bear broke into their truck for day-old chili. It made for great early morning entertainment, and no real damage was caused. If you are visiting the Smokies, don’t tempt the bears. They WILL invade your space and take your things, even if it’s just trash.

That was not the only bear we saw! There were several others, including a mama bear and her three cubs. We kept our distance, of course, though they did not care to walk right up to our vehicles, trash receptacle, and front porch.

So we established that the bears cannot be trusted, but what I did not know is that I couldn’t trust the list of amenities for our Airbnb. The house itself was immaculate, chef’s kiss, but some of the amenities were completely missing, and what was described as a Pack n Play for our 11 month old to use was quite literally a bassinet. The baby gate provided was also terrible. Pro tip: if you have something your family cannot function normally without, just bring it with you, whether it is convenient or not!

Nonna was going to hire a local photographer to take some family photos while we were all together, but a family friend decided to come take a few of us as a gift! We posed for a few still shots as a group outside, and then the photographer followed us around for the afternoon snapping candid shots of our various activities.

Saturday evening, Pops made stir fry, everyone hung out in the living area, and then a few of us decided to use the hot tub while we could. I did not get in, but I did sit on the side with my legs in the water, which was very relaxing. Then we watched a Tom Segura Netflix special in the home theater until my husband and I decided it was time to turn in for the night.

The place was booked for three nights, but we ended up only staying two. By Sunday morning, our little family was ready to get home, and that was fine. We said our goodbyes, loaded up our things and headed back to the farm. All in all, the trip was a great experience, and we will definitely go again once our new baby is a little older!