There Goes My Life...

Vegas, Baby!

It seems like a lot most of my posts these days start out, “So I never got around to posting about…” Well, this is another one of those.  Just before the kids started back to school, Chris and I took a little trip to Vegas.  He spent a week there for a training class, and I went out on Wednesday to join him, and we flew back together on Saturday.

After reading many online reviews, we decided to stay at New York, New York.  I think it was a good choice.  Lots of dining options, and right at the center of the strip.

 

I knew Chris was going to be in class all day, so my only plans were fitness room and the pool.  this was the view from my favorite spot at the pool, where I averaged 4-5 hours both days I was there. Our room was up there somewhere.

I was only there for two nights really, since I was pretty exhausted when I got there on Wednesday night.  So Thursday night had dinner at the Italian restaurant at our hotel.  That’s where we saw this beautiful showgirl.  I knew Molly would love her costume, so I had to take a photo for her. I loved her shoes. :-)

and then we went to a show at MGM

And then on Friday night we decided to just sightsee, watch the fountains at Bellagio and eat at The Cheesecake Factory at Caesar's .

(inside Bellagio)

Our plan was to walk around, see the fountains, eat and then come back to our hotel to ride the roller coaster.  I had been wanting to ride it all week.

(view from our room)

After stuffing ourselves at The Cheesecake Factory, we decided the roller coaster wouldn’t be a good idea. We will have to do that on our next trip! 

We had such a great trip.  It was so nice to get away just the two of us for a few days. Our last trip to Vegas was in 1998, and we are both committed to not waiting so long for our next visit.

All aboard!!!

Stewart’s kindergarten class has been learning about transportation.  They have been concentrating on trains in particular.  Our kindergarten teachers are so wonderful about making learning fun for the kids.  They really go out of their way.  So it was no surprise that they planned a field trip for the kids to the train depot museum.

The big surprise was that the depot was closed when we arrived!  Apparently they had put our reservation in the system but failed to tell their employees!  Oops!  All is well that ends well though.  Our plans for the day changed a little bit, but everything worked out.  The kids had a wonderful time, and I think learned a few things in the process.

While were waiting for our tour to get all worked out, they let the kids play in the their playroom.  How I would love to have a playroom like this at home!  It was all set up like a train station complete with a diner.  Stewart quickly found a costume and went to work at the ticket booth.

He was selling tickets for the express train, and here he is describing in detail the menu in the dining car.

After we left the playroom, we went to another building where the city’s first fire truck and first ladder truck were housed.  Surprisingly, these were fair game for the kids to play on.  So neat!  They loved it!  Especially the siren!

They also got to play on an engine, Go in a passenger car, boxcar, and caboose, and went on a trolley ride.  I was surprised that the kids knew all the different cars.  We also toured the old depot which I will have to talk about in another post. 

Before we left we wrangled Stewart’s class in front of the engine for a group shot.  Not the best group shot, I know, but at least they’re all in it! :-)

So like I said before, All is well that ends well.  The kids had a great time, and we made the best out of a day that didn’t start the way we had planned.  It was a great day for a field trip!

What I did on my spring break.

By Brandi Barnes

We never have any big plans for spring break.  Fall break is when we pack up and head to the beach.  A week out of school mandates some fun be had thought doesn’t it? The kids and I went to the $1 movie on Tuesday.  It was our first time to try out the $1 theater, but we will be definitely be going again!

The big  treat of the week was going to the zoo yesterday.  Apparently everyone else on spring break had the same idea!  I have never seen the zoo so crowded, but we still had a great time!  I realized right after we got there that I had forgotten to charge my camera battery.  Grrrr!  So I didn’t get as many photos as I had planned.  I did get a nice close-up of these monkeys as you can see. LOL!

This was our first visit to the the zoo since the flamingo exhibit opened last summer. Love, love, love it.  I could have stood there for an hour watching them, but the rest of my group was ready to move on.

My favorite zoo animal has always been the giraffe.  This big guys was right next to the fence.  I’ve never been there when one was this close.  He was so funny and kept sticking out his tongue.  Wonder if he was doing it on purpose?!  I probably would too if people stared at me all day long. :-)

Chris’ favorite exhibit.  The cougar. Not too sure of this look he was giving me…

We thought we were going to catch the afternoon zoo keeper’s show, but it turned out to be just a dress rehearsal.  We still got to see several animals that otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten to see.

We ended the day playing on the giant jungle gym and visiting the lorikeets.  It was a great, great day.  Today was a visit to the library and the pet shop.  It has been a fun family week.  I’ve really gotten used to this sleeping in.  Now I am really ready for summer vacation!

Two beauties and a little beast.

When I saw that Beauty and the Beast was coming to TPAC in June, I knew we had to take the kids for Elizabeth’s birthday.  I asked her if she had rather have a birthday party with her friends or take a little family trip for a birthday surprise.  I was thrilled when she opted for the surprise!  I had been planning this for a while and wanted to go up early the day of the show to do a few things downtown, see the show, spend the night in downtown Nashville and maybe have lunch on 2nd Avenue the next day.  With our mission trip this summer, we weren’t planning much of a family vacation.  The flooding changed our plans a little bit, but it all turned out great. 

We opted to book a hotel in Brentwood, and went up in time for an early supper before checking into our hotel.  We let Elizabeth choose the restaurant and it wasn’t a surprise. Our kids call it The-Place-Where-We-Throw-the-Peanuts-on-the-Floor.  :-)

Chris’ sister, Angie, met us at our hotel and went to the show with us.  We didn’t tell the kids until we got to TPAC.  They guessed we were going to a play when we were finding a place to park, but they didn’t know what play until we were inside.  I just love surprising them! It was great!  We all love the story and the kids have watched the DVD more times than I can count.  Belle is Elizabeth’s favorite princess.  No surprise there since they are both bookworms!  All the kids loved it, and gave it rave reviews!

Friday morning we checked out of the hotel and had brunch.  Once again Elizabeth chose the restaurant and it was no surprise.  She managed to eat at both her favorite restaurants while we were on our little overnight trip.  Then we headed to the noon showing of Toy Story 3.  That was the one thing Elizabeth asked to do for her birthday.  We are a big Toy Story family and I think we were all excited about going.  If there is anyone on the planet who hasn’t seen it yet GO SEE IT!  It is great! I think it is the best one of the series! I will warn you, that I cried and cried at the end.  Of course Chris made fun of me, but I could easily be persuaded to go see it again!

So it was a short trip, but Elizabeth thinks it was one of the best trips ever.  I guess sometimes it’s not about the length of the stay.

Ice cream for two.

Chris and I just got back from a couple days in the mountains.  A couple days ALONE in the mountains.  Family trips are  fun but every once in a while we like to get away for a couple days alone.  I really think all couples need that. 

I was actually given the task to plan a short trip for the two of us because I was the loser in a little contest Chris and I had.  We had a contest to see who could lose the most weight (don’t even want to talk about it, but I have gained all mine back and he is still finding new clothes in his closet he has never been able to wear before…).  The loser had to plan a trip for the winner.  I had lots of ideas, but unfortunately the budget just didn’t allow for another trip to St. Thomas. I asked my pal, Raven, for some suggestions on where to stay in the Smoky Mountains because I knew Raven would know!  She suggested a wonderful resort and honestly, we could have never left the grounds and had a wonderful trip. 

We ate lots of yummy food (besides the ice cream), and witnessed something amazing.  We timed out trip just right for the fireflies! I had no idea! We had never heard of it even though there were people there all the way from Arizona to see them! Raven once again served as our cruise director.  She told us where to go, how to get there and when to get there to make sure we got in.   We were on the third trolley to arrive at Elkmont and secured our prime viewing spot.

If you have not seen the Synchronous Fireflies there is simply no way I can explain it.  It is truly magical.  Word cannot accurately describe it.  Just amazing.

Thursday morning we drove to Cades Cove before returning home.  Lots of wildlife and just as beautiful as I remember.  We saw turkeys, deer and not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 bears!

Chris couldn’t believe I didn’t bring a larger zoom lens. Oh well, still pretty neat.  We watched one of the bears chase a turkey hen off her nest.  At least that is what we think probably happened.  She ran when he got close. 

I love all the old buildings in Cades Cove.  This is one of the old churches. Still a little sad when you think about the people years ago who lost their land.  I am glad we are able to enjoy it today in much the way it was 100 years ago, though.

 

Se we didn’t do any shopping, didn’t go to Dollywood, didn’t go to a dinner show, go-kart track  or pancake house, but we sat by a stream…

and watched moss grow.

We had one of the best trips ever.  I can’t wait to do it all again!

Still unbelievable.

It’s what has been on my mind most of the day.  The devastation in Nashville.  Still just so hard to believe.  Seeing the photos. The places that I know so well. I am thankful that both my sister-in-laws homes we spared.  Angie’s home came so close to being flooded.  Her neighbors weren’t as lucky as she was. 

This week I was going to plan our trip to downtown Nashville this summer.  A surprise for the kids. A show at TPAC, hotel downtown and eating at the Hard Rock.  Now who knows when things will be back to “normal” in downtown. The Opryland Hotel is estimated $75 million in damages.  Still the photos and video of it just seem impossible.

And it seems to have gotten so little press.  I wonder how many people outside of the state even know! It’s a little frustrating.  This blog post is the best piece I have read.

Our state is living up to it’s nickname.  Today people in our county are donating bottled water to be taken to Nashville.  I wish I would have had my camera as the girls were helping me carrying in the cases of water we donated. I thought it so great that they could do something to help. This was something they could do.  A time for them to learn about helping others.

Devastation.

I cannot think of any other word that more describes Nashville right now.  It still amazes me that things can be so different here just to the south of Nashville.  All weekend we here in the southern part of the state have watched the news and listened to the reports as Nashville fills with water. The places that we love now underwater.  This video of The Opryland Hotel is just unbelievable.

We have been there so many times.  We stayed there just this past Christmas. If you have never been there, it is the most magnificent hotel you have ever seen.  Nothing compares to it.  This photo is what it should look like.  It was taken in The Cascades near where the large arch is in the video.

This is Elizabeth sitting in one of the chairs that you see upended in the video. 

So very sad. I cannot imagine how much the damage there alone is. 

All day as I have driven around I have listened to Nashville talk radio. People calling in that are still stranded in their homes. People looking for their loved ones. Today I am counting my blessing and praying for my neighbors to the north. Stay safe.

Wonderland whirlwind weekend.

WE just got home from a whirlwind weekend. Whew! We crammed just about as much holiday activities as possible in one weekend. Friday night was a very important night for any Disney princess fans.  The kids had known for weeks that Friday night was the opening night for the new Disney princess movie. We just had to go.  Let me say right now how much I LOVE reserved seats at movie theaters. Whoever thought of that was a genius! I got online Friday morning (was glad I did when I saw the theater has less than 4 rows remaining) and ordered our tickets. The movie was GREAT!  The entire family loved it.  I will say that the shadows (spirits) were a little frightening for Molly. I thought parts of it were a little scary for a G rated movie, but overall we loved it. Great story, great characters.  I was very touched by the number of little black princesses that were there to see it.  They were so cute in the t-shirts and tiaras.  It was so sweet.  You know, being Caucasian and our daughters having so many princesses to choose from to be their favorites, it made me so happy to see all these little girls so excited about a princess just like them.  Elizabeth was very excited about the first African American princess, and so was I.  A GREAT MOVIE.

After the movie we took the kids to Red Robin to eat. Red Robin is pretty new to our area and the girls had never been.  It was fun. It just amazes me though how an entire fun-filled night can be forgotten over one lost scarf. Ugh. Molly left Elizabeth’s scarf she had borrowed in the theater.  We had two crying girls the entire drive home. Joy joy!

Saturday we had big plans. This year instead of our traditional company Christmas party at our house we decided to treat our employees to the Christmas dinner show at the Opryland hotel.  The drive up was going well until we heard a familiar sound. Chris and I looked at each other at the same time.

Flat. Tire. On. The. Interstate.

We limped off at the next exit and Chris quickly changed it. Unbelievable. The only other time since Chris and I have been married and have gone to the Opryland Hotel at Christmas we also had a flat time. What are the chances?! That put us probably 30 minutes behind schedule. Ugh. 30 minutes is important in Opryland Hotel Christmas traffic. WE along with the rest of our group were stuck in traffic. It took at least an hour to travel the last mile to the hotel. We arrived late for the dinner but did all manage to be served before the show started at 6:00.

If you have never been to the Opryland Hotel there is now way for me to describe it to you.  It is huge. It is beautiful.  At Christmas it is AMAZING!

Since we were staying the night we had plenty of time to walk around and take in the sights. The kids would not stop until we rode the delta boats.  Here is the view of the giant tree from our boat.

And this was the view from the balcony of our room last night.

And then this morning.

Elizabeth took one of Chris and me.

Waterfalls and rivers in a hotel.  Just amazing.

Before we checked out this morning we managed to find a little more fun.

I don’t know what it was about these horses, but every time we walked by them Molly asked me to take her picture with them.  I finally did this morning. :-)

If you’ve never been to the Opryland Hotel I also cannot tell you how expensive it is. If you’ve been to Disney World that might prepare you, but I think it is still more. They have you captive so I guess they can charge outrageous prices for drinks and ice cream. I knew it was expensive from our past trips, but I don’t think we had a family of five back then. Whew! We did have a good time so I guess that makes it worth $35 for ice cream. :-)

Since we’ve been home we’ve already baked reindeer cookies for Stewart’s party at pre-school tomorrow and I’ve printed tags for his gifts. I will be sharing pics of those on my next post.  LOTS going on this week with the kids and school. I will try to post frequently on all the Christmas craftiness we have happening!

It’s a Party in the USA!

At least it was last Wednesday night in Nashville! The big day finally arrived that we had been waiting for since June! No one can say that I’m not good at keeping secrets! I bought tickets to the Miley Cyrus concert as soon as they went on sale in June. I was sitting on go when they went on sale. Fast forward several months….

I had already made arrangements for Stewart to spend the night with my sister, Paula.  So Wednesday afternoon I packed his bag and the girls and I took him over to her house.  They really didn’t even question it. I just told them that he was spending the night with Aunt Paula as a treat and was going to help her cook for Thanksgiving. On the way back home Molly started asking if they could paint then we got home… if they could play with playdough. Chris was there when we got back home ans Molyl and I went upstairs.  He was already filling the suitcase on our bed and she asked where we were going.  I told her that Chris and I were going somewhere for our anniversary and did she think she and Elizabeth would be ok by themselves overnight.  Of course she didn’t believe that for a minute! Then I told her that we were all going on a little overnight trip and were going to stay in a hotel.  She started bouncing off the walls.  I never would have thought staying in a hotel overnight would be such a big deal! They were both so, so excited.

We headed to Nashville.  It’s about a 1.5 hour drive to downtown.  Of course the closer we got to the concert the worse the traffic got and we found ourselves sitting in front the the Sommet Center. I saw the sign flash to Miley Cyrus in Concert – November 25 and was just hoping that neither of the girls would notice.  Elizabeth did just as it changed.

She said: Hey – That said Miley Cyrus in concert November something.  I think November 27th!

I said: Really?  Maybe we can come back for our anniversary.

As we slowly circled the block to turn into our hotel and saw throngs of little girls and heard the Miley music blaring from the DJ on site she figured out that the concert was actually that night.

She said: I guess it’s too late to get tickets now.

I said: I’m sure it is.

We checked into the hotel, and made our way to our room.  I told them to stay in the living area while I went in the bedroom and laid out their concert outfits I had secretly ordered and packed for them.  Then we had them come into the bedroom and they were like CooL! I asked didn’t they think they would be perfect to wear to a concert?! A Miley Cyrus concert?!

Talk about two excited little girls!  We quickly did up there hair and put on their concert duds. 

Chris later told me that after we got to our seats and were waiting for the show to start Elizabeth was so excited that she was almost shaking.  He said he asked her something and she could barely talk (I was seated on the far end next to Molly). 

Halfway through the concert they even showed a trailer of her new movie that we watched being filmed when we were on vacation this summer. We even saw the clip that we watched them film over and over one day. It was of her walking by a volleyball match and getting knocked down by one of the players. It was really neat to see it on the screen because we had watched everything going on around them on the set while it was filmed.

The girls both had a great time.  I have video of them dancing and singing along with Party in the USA.  As far as concerts go it was pretty good.  The opening act (Miley’s older brother) was horrible. She really needs to dump him and get someone else. Not appropriate for the audience.  Miley was good. It is obvious that she is trying to breakout of the Hannah Montana mold. I wasn’t expecting a Hannah Montana concert, but it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.  Some of her costumes were too revealing for both her age and the age of most of her audience.The effects were great and it was a neat show. She is definitely growing up.  I just hope she doesn’t grow up too fast.  She has a great fan base and doesn’t need to forget them.  With all that said, we had a great time and I know the girls loved it. It was fun to get to share with them their first “real” concert.  And the surprise part… that is one of the things I LOVE about being a parent.  I will always remember this night and their excitement. :-)

Living a fairytale.

Some have said that Chris and I live a fairytale. Not exactly, but it may be as close as there is in real life. Friday marked our 16th wedding anniversary.  That seems impossible.  Impossible that we have been married that many years, but it also seems like we have always been together. Earlier in the week he sent me a text message that read – Pack a bag for Saturday night! He knows that I LOVE surprises and this is not the first time he has planned a secret getaway for me.  What can I say? I married a romantic?

Friday night when he got home from work I was busy getting Stewart ready.  We had decided earlier in the day to go out to eat with the kids at a local restaurant to celebrate since our real anniversary dinner together would be the next night.  I noticed that Elizabeth was holding a folded piece of paper in her hand, and she and Molly were all grins. After getting Stewart out of the tub and dried off, we all piled onto our bed, and Chris had Elizabeth read to me my fairytale.

“Once upon a time in a not so distant land lived a beautiful fair Maiden and a rather average shy young Prince…”

Honestly, I started to share the entire story here, but it feels much too personal for that. I will admit that by the end I was a total mess.  I had to completely re-do my makeup before we could leave.  It is the most precious gift Chris has ever given me and to have our oldest reading the story of our life together.  About our courtship. About us making a home together. About us praying for a child. About the love we share…. It was just too much. I will share the last paragraph because that is how he told me the details of our anniversary getaway.

“So let it be proclaimed: 16 years and one day later, the beautiful fair Maiden turned beautiful fair Queen and the average shy Prince turned average shy King will once again celebrate their undying love and their perfectly completed kingdom. They will travel to the City of Hunts for a night of celebration.  They will dine in the tavern called Conner’s and then they will watch the stars by the light of the New Moon.  Finally they will retire at the West Inn for a much deserved night of rest.  And then they will return to their Kingdom and their life for it is perfect… for them.

He had every detail planned.  We dropped the kids off his parents house and drove to Huntsville.  We checked into the hotel and even had a little time to do a little shopping before dinner.  He indulged me and I only went to my favorite store since I still had a gift card from my birthday. Then an amazing dinner at Conner’s and we were finished just in time for the movie. He had even made reservations for us in the VIP section.  Like I said – every detail. I thought the movie was good.  Of course it wasn’t as good as the book (the movie never is), but I thought they did a really good job of sticking to the storyline.  I hate when the movie is totally different. The lady seated beside me was so funny.  She obviously had not read the book and just about jumped out her seat when the guys transformed into wolves. She had no idea what was about to happen. Hilarious! We slept in.  Such a luxury.  I am thinking of investing in some blackout shades for our bedroom now! We missed our complimentary breakfast, but had lunch before we drove back home to pickup the kids.

I think Chris’ story ended  it best, so I’ll just quote him here.

And they will continue to live, and love happily ever after.”