last vacation day

First thing I heard this morning: "I'm a t-rex-a-saurus, Mommy, ROARRR" followed by "no, don't put your head back down, Mommy, no go to sleep" and then "put your feet down" (this last said as he dragged my feet from the bed to the floor to 'help' me get up). We had a super fun day today, beginning with a little hiking in the Greenbrier part of the national park. We rode the trolley to town, strolled the strip in Gatlinburg, rode the aerial tramway up to Ober Gatlinburg, rode the chair lift and alpine slide, walked and took the trolley back and then came 'home' for supper. Dennis loved everything we did today. We got to the Greenbrier area this morning and as we were parking, he excitedly chirped "we go hike in the woods, hooray! I LOVE hiking in the woods". He was very sad to leave the woods until we promised a trolley ride, when we heard "that's a great idea, Mommy, I LOVE riding the trolley". We pointed out the snowy peaks from the tram and he said "Cool. I LOVE snow!". Riding the chair lift with him was pretty exciting for me (read: scary), but he was very good and didn't wiggle around. He loved helping me control our speed on the alpine slide (which was really really fun), and he didn't want to leave Ober until we promised him another trolley ride. We were walking back to the trolley stop when he said "I ready to eat. I LOVE hamburgers." We looked up and noticed that we were in front of McDonald's, so we got him a happy meal, or rather, he ordered himself a happy meal and we paid for it. He kept wanting to go shop in the stores we were passing, and he let us know this by saying "I want to go in Wal-Mart" and pointing to the store (note: every store is Wal-Mart to him). He was sad to leave the trolley station and fell asleep hard in the car on the way back. He napped and then ate supper, and he colored pictures until bedtime. It's been a wonderful trip, and we are already mostly packed to leave tomorrow. Dennis does not want to leave--we told him we were going home tomorrow and he said "NO! I want to go to 'cation in the mountains". It IS hard to leave a vacation and return to the real world, even for a little guy!