Friday April 26th
We had a laid back morning on our last day in Tennessee. We got up around 7:30 and had some breakfast, then DS played in the room a bit while I read my book and DH was looking at some NFL Draft stuff on his computer. Around 10, we left for our only destination for the day, the Apple Barn.
The Apple Barn is a collection of buildings that includes a general store, cider mill, winery, candy shop, ice creamery, and two restaurants, probably with something else I'm forgetting. We headed into the general store first to look around, possibly for some mother's day gifts for our moms. We ended up finding something for DH's mom easily because she loves that country decor type of stuff more than my mom. We got her an apple pie baking dish. They had lots of cute dish sets, so I took a picture of my favorite one. There was lots of stuff featuring apples, as I'm sure you can imagine!
I took a pic to remember this, but we didn't end up getting any
After looking around, we decided to hold off purchasing anything yet until we were ready to go so that we wouldn't have to carry it around. We went into the Candy Shoppe and saw on the way them baking through the windows.
We didn't end up getting anything from the candy shop, but they had a lot of delicious looking homemade candies in the cases. Although we are not wine drinkers, we also stopped in the winery and discussed getting a bottle for my parents for their "housewarming" gift since they were getting ready to host a party for everyone to see their renovated house after the hurricane damage. We tasted a few, then I had to call my dad and try to be discreet and pretend like I was getting a bottle for myself to find out what kind they might like.
By then, we were getting hungry. So we headed over to one of the two restaurants for lunch. There is the Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant where we ate, and also the Applewood Farmhouse Grill. They both had similar menus, but we happened to be closer to the Farmhouse Restaurant so we ate there.
The entrance area was like stepping into a little country farmhouse, complete with a fire going in the fireplace. As they walked us through the restaurant to our table, it was like there were different themes to the rooms. We ended up eating on the enclosed back porch area, and some of the tables we passed actually had porch swings as their seating!
We were not in one of those seats, thank goodness, because that would have been a hot mess with DS. We were at a regular table near a bird cage that kept DS occupied while we waited for our server.
I didn't take note of our waitress's name, but she was awesome! We started off with apple fritters and apple butter with some Applewood julep. Since we were there early, she had included some apple mini muffins that are usually only available with breakfast, but they had some leftover. When she came back, I told her DS had loved the muffins and ate almost all of them, so she brought us some more in a little bag to take with us!
The apple fritters & muffins with apple butter
Applewood julep (I think it was apple, orange, and pineapple juice)
All meals are served with complimentary soup, either vegetable or chicken noodle, and DH and I both went with the chicken noodle. It was a nice little serving with plenty of chicken. Very tasty!
I ordered the fried chicken with mac & cheese as my entree, DH got the fried catfish with mac & cheese, and there were mashed potatoes served family style for all of us. We didn't order DS a meal since we were both getting SO much food. We both chose the mac & cheese so we could share it with him, and he ate a little bit of the mashed potatoes, and some of my chicken.
Everything was REALLY delicious, and we were both too stuffed to order dessert (or a side of biscuits, which I bet would have been amazing too given how good the rest of the food was!).
After lunch, we went back to the general store to buy some stuff. We got the baking dish for MIL, a shirt for myself and DH (no good ones for DS unfortunately), apple fritter mix for ourselves, apple butter for ourselves, one for my in-laws, and one for my parents, a cup for DS, a magnet, and a postcard. We LOVED those apple fritters!! We haven't used the mix yet, but we did use the apple butter on biscuits for DH's father's day breakfast, and it was so yummy! Then we stopped at the winery to get that bottle for my parents. Since they like merlot, we went with a dry apple wine for them.
Purchases in hand, we made our last stop getting ice cream at the creamery!
I got chocolate turtle ice cream (caramel ice cream with chocolate fudge and pecans) and DH had bear claw (chocolate ice cream with brownie pieces). We shared with DS, but he was too busy acting crazy to eat much. So no pics of the ice cream unfortunately. The bakery is also in there, so they had little samples out to try. We tried a couple different ones, but decided not to get any.
We went back to the resort after that to put DS down for a nap. While he was sleeping, DH ran out to a scrapbooking store we had seen several billboards for. I REALLY wanted to go myself, but I had only stuck my ID in DH's wallet instead of bringing my own, and I didn't want there to be any problems trying to use his credit card. God bless the man, he not only went to that store for me, he called several times to describe different kinds of Disney paper and stickers, and texted me pictures of some to see if I wanted them! He got me TONS of paper to use for my Disney scrapbooks! He did a great job, but I still wish I could have gone myself because sometimes I can use non-Disney paper in a Disney book if it's relevant.
DS woke up from his nap at 3:30, and with nothing else in the plans for the day, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at the water park. We got dressed and all the way down there before realizing we had left DS's floatie up in the room. But no matter, they had free life jackets available to use, and I think he liked it better than his floatie!
I couldn't figure out what that big piece around the neck was for until DS flipped on his back and it popped out under his head to keep it above the water. He LOVED that, and was floating on his back like he was on a raft. He had a lot of fun, and he even convinced me to go down the double slide with him.
It was a lot of fun that afternoon, except for the one big rambunctious kid who was running around plowing into other kids, splashing water like crazy, and being a general nuisance while his mom sat on the side with her face buried in her iPhone the entire time.
We went back up to the room to change for dinner and decided to give the onsite restaurant the Thirsty Miner one last chance, and tonight they FINALLY had the buffet open! Like we needed another buffet, but DH was happy. There was tons of delicious food to choose from, and DS was eating like a champ. The desserts were really good too, and I know I had at least a piece of red velvet cake and a cookie if not more. And DH had soft serve ice cream because he just can't pass that stuff up, especially when it's free!
We walked back to the room and I snapped this picture to show how rustic the decor was in the other part of the resort compared to the Wyndham part.
I really liked the colors and the wood accents a lot more than the industrialized look of the Wyndham building, but it was still a gorgeous and amazing place to stay. And of course on the Wyndham side, you have a LOT more room than the regular Wilderness rooms.
And that was pretty much the end of the trip! We got DS to bed, finished packing, and went to bed ourselves. We were up super early the next day, mostly so I could make my reservation for Crystal Palace on DS's birthday for our October trip because my 180 day window opened that morning! We hit the road for home around 7 and had breakfast in the car.
The only funny (kind of, it was also annoying at the time) thing that happened was when it came time for lunch. DS had knocked off for a nap in the morning, so we said when he woke up we would stop to eat. When he woke up, we started looking out for the road signs with the fast food info on them and every exit we passed for almost an HOUR either had no fast food whatsoever or SUBWAY. None of us really like Subway, so you can imagine how annoying that was! After about the 10 millionth Subway sign, I looked at DH totally aggravated and said, "Is this real life? Does Subway sponsor the entire state of Alabama?!" He almost choked on his sunflower seeds, but maybe it was a you had to be there moment. We did eventually find a McDonald's. We decided to power through and drive the whole way home on Saturday, which was totally brutal at the time, but DS did well and it was a relief to sleep in our own beds that night!
I hope you enjoyed my little Tennessee TR! We haven't gone somewhere non-Disney in awhile, so it was a nice and relaxing change of pace for us. I think DS really enjoyed himself too, and he STILL talks about the horsey show (Dixie Stampede). So although WDW is really the perfect vacation destination for little ones, Tennessee was a great choice also with lots to do as a family.
Now that this is over, it's back to Disney plans! I'll probably start working on my daily plans posts soon, which have changed a lot since I originally posted, mostly because of the kindness of a certain DIS'er, but I'll save that for later.
And very cute pics to go along with it!
I thought about it but the class schedules didn't work too well with my work schedule.
He just always asks for Mickey stuff to wear now, so it was a must to buy it the next size up when he started to outgrow the one he had. 
at least so far, I'm still hoping to learn a few things from the classes though. You have to take the basics before they let you move onto the advanced classes. Anything for better Disney pictures. 
Lots of call and texts back and forth over what was good and what wasn't.
Honestly I thought it would be a lot worse driving straight through, but it wasn't. Paxton colored for a bit, played with his cars for a bit, napped twice, and watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse the rest of the time. When we stopped, we made the most of it and let him run around to burn off some energy. It could have been worse. 
I know, I hate cliffhangers too. But I'll get to it! Eventually...
) so we will spend the time checking out City Walk and having dinner, probably at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville.
