Sunday, December 2, 2012

Nashville in November

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
We had a delicious meal and were very thankful to share it with some extended family.

My cousin Kelly joined us for the second year in a row.  It's nice to have family in a neighboring state (North Carolina.)  Yes, it does border Georgia...look on a map.

I didn't take any pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner this year so to see Cousin Kelly you could look at last year's Thanksgiving post -or- for your viewing pleasure I present cousin Kelly held by yours truly circa early 1990s.
(yes my bangs are permed and yes Kelly looks exactly the same)

We were also fortunate to share Thanksgiving with MeMa and PaPa.

MeMa's 40th birthday (or something like that, hence the question mark) fell on the day before Thanksgiving.
Tyler and Lauren wanted to make her a cake all on their own.
Well done kids, obviously MeMa was very impressed.
Happy Birthday!

The day after Thanksgiving we took off for a little road trip.
Nashville, Tennessee, here we come.

We took a short (if you call 4 hours short) detour to show MeMa and PaPa the Smoky Mountains and Cherokee country.

Before leaving Georgia we stopped and hiked around 

It was beautiful and the weather was perfect.


As we drove on toward the Smokies, the weather took a turn for the worse.  We ran smack into the cold front which meant rain and fog for the entire trip over the mountains.
Bummer.
I was too chicken but Matt braved the cold and biting rain to snap a picture at the North Carolina and Tennessee border.

After hitting every single light in thick traffic we finally made our way through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and then enjoyed a smooth stretch of highway taking us to Nashville.

Nashville was a blast!

We heard some live music
(and took the kids)

We toured the Ryman Auditorium.
--awesome, highly recommended--
--see a show if you can--


Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff statue in the lobby
(I fell in love with Minnie Pearl during the tour.  I would love to find some old dvds, tapes? of her.)


We also toured the Country Music Hall of Fame.
I first visited the museum with my dad shortly before he died.  Our next trip to Nashville, after he passed away, I chose not to visit the museum because I wanted my only memory of the Hall of Fame to be that when I went with my Dad.  (He was absolutely enthralled.)

However, I decided to visit it again this time and try to see it through his eyes.  
I'm so glad I did.
I was a bit emotional (I hid it well) but I thoroughly enjoyed my father-in-law's (PaPa's) reaction.  It reminded me so much of my dad.

THANKS for the memories! 

After two days of Museums and two early evenings (we left by 8pm okay?!) of live music on Music Row, we rewarded our very well behaved children (the bartenders even said so) with a trip to the 
We've been here before but since then they had completely renovated and added-on.  We ended up spending about five hours here.

The space exhibit was AMAZING! and included an iPad like spinwheel map.

We were able to locate our house!
(center of the screen)

Learning about working in zero gravity and Newton's Laws of Motion.

Exploring the ups and downs of life in a wheel chair.


At the top of the THREE-STORY playground.

Monopolizing the BLOODSTREAM exhibit.
Matt helped them build an elaborate path that no other child dared to disturb their work.

The Amazing Aging Machine
(do not smoke!!)

Our last exhibit at the museum.
The kids played here for over an hour.



and Matt did this. =)

Whenever we drive home from Nashville it's become a tradition to take the FREE tour of the
This trip was no different.
Every time we learn something new.

Us and Jack.

How many times have your kids taken the Whiskey Tour? 

We've actually taken it three times but I hesitated to put the middle picture in.  It's not very flattering (of me) but I'll do it for the kids.  =)

I don't think these tours are taking a toll on the kids at all.  Look at what resonated with Tyler.
(Along the tour we went through many buildings, each with many EXIT signs.)
He came home and drew this quite accurate EXIT sign (with screws and all) and wanted to hang it on the nearest EXIT.

Love that kid, love my family, and loved my Nashville in November.

1 comment:

brian said...

Those kids are getting big! Tylers hat is pretty sweet also.