Tour de South Part 3: Tennessee

As I mentioned in the last post, we arrived in Tennessee late Wednesday, April 9. We spent 2.5 relaxing, not-long-enough days with Ben and Jenny (and Tyler and Tucker, of course!) Ben took Thursday off work to hang out with us. On Thursday, Brian and Ben took our new car to get it's brakes fixed, and while the dealership was working on that, we went for a caravaning driving tour of parts of Nashville, including the Nashville Temple. 

I was surprised how small it is. The stake center next door looks bigger, but it is still beautiful. 

 At this point in the trip, she still liked holding a hand while walking around. By the time we went home, she was over holding anyone's hand while she was walking.

After the driving tour, and after picking up the car, we ate dinner at a fabulous Mexican Restaurant.

 And then we checked out Winstead Hill, a Civil War site for the Battle of Franklin.

 And Michael would not take a nice picture for me.

 This hill overlooks Franklin. Side note: It was interesting to read the signs describing the battle. They talked about the Confederate's great cause. I'd never heard it described that way.

 On Friday, we had another relaxing morning with Jenny and the kids. Ben went into work, but Tyler skipped school to play with Michael!

 Michael and Tyler played more alongside each other than with each other. They are both just used to playing by themselves! Jenny and I were laughing about it.

 But Rachel and Tucker had fun together--well, as much as a couple of toddlers can, anyway. Tucker is the cousin that is closest in age to Rachel on both sides of the family. I hope they get to be good friends.

On Friday afternoon, Brian, Rachel,  and I headed into Nashville with Rachel. The plan was to see a little bit of downtown Nashville, and then meet Ben at his work so he could take Rachel home with him so we could go to the Grand Ole Opry. Along the way, we saw this RIDICULOUS statue alongside the road. It was one from a website about random roadside attractions that Greg had told us about a few days before. In fact, this was a statue that we had read about while still in Georgia, and there it was on the way to Nashville. So we had to turn around and try to go find it. This is as close as we got:

 But when we drove by again, I took a picture out the window:

 It's a statue of the first leader of the Klu Klux Klan. And he looks like he is wearing a dress. Apparently, it has caused a lot of controversy, but the owner of the land is absolutely adamant about it staying where it is. This one's for you Greg!

We drove down Broadway with our windows down so that we could hear all the live music playing, but parking seemed like it would be a mess, so we didn't walk the streets at all. But, we did go to the Parthenon

 After the Parthenon, we met up with Ben, handed Rachel over to him, and headed out to find the Opry. We ate dinner in the mall across the street and then headed to the show.

 The Opry was a lot of fun. We saw John Conlee, Jesse McReynolds, The Whites (who sing "Keep on the Sunny Side" in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Elizabeth Cook, Balsam Range, Jim Ed Brown, Carlene Carter (daughter of June Carter Cash), Sundy Best, Jeannie Seely, Mark Wills, and BJ Thomas. My regret about our Nashville excursion is that we didn't try harder to make it over the Opryland Hotel.

Saturday morning, there was a little more relaxing,

 I took some family pictures for Ben and Jenny (which meant I got to see more of Downtown Franklin)

And then Brian and I packed up all our stuff. After getting everything loaded, we headed out to watch Tyler play a little flag football, took a picture with the whole crew, 

 And said goodbye to Jenny, Tucker and Tyler. Then, we went to this AMAZING hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant with Ben, and went  to see the Carnton Plantation

 and Cemetery (we didn't do a tour of the house since we were already running late)

We bid farewell to Ben, got in the car, and headed South, wishing, once again, that we had more time to spend with these fabulous people. Thanks for having us, Ben and Jenny! We can't wait to see you again. Miss you tons already!

Tour de South Part 2: Georgia

Somehow we got two huge pieces of luggage, a carry-on size luggage, a pack n play, a car-seat, and a booster seat into our small Elantra, into the airport with only four useful hands, and checked into our flight. I'm sure we were really funny to watch: Me pushing a stroller piled high with whatever we could fit on it without hurting Rachel and pulling a suitcase along with it, and Brian trying to herd Michael while carrying everything that I couldn't. But we made it. The put us in the quick line, but then Brian realized that he dropped his boarding pass somewhere between baggage check and security. While he went back to get it, I got Rachel, Michael, and myself through security. Thankfully, no one had to take off shoes or belts (I'm so glad they changed that for families!) Apparently, though, since some of my food pouches that I brought for Rachel were 4.2 oz, they either had to open them or pat me down. I had them open them. So, just be warned, you flying mommys! I got all our carry-on items through security, our two kiddos, a stroller, and myself, and we still had time to wait for Brian to get through security. We grabbed breakfast and then got right onto our plane. 

Michael, of course, loved EVERYTHING about riding on the airplane, but his favorite was take off, as was mine. Rachel did much better than we thought she would, thanks to the vest I made. Once she realized that she was "buckled in", she didn't fight me holding her the whole way. And she only had one big scream fest right before take-off in Denver, where we had a layover. Mostly, she just got compliments on how cute she was and how amazingly good she was on the flight. I wish I had a dollar for everyone that stopped us to comment on her hair. 

Finally, we landed in Atlanta, finally made our way through the massive airport via the train, found all of our six checked items, found Greg, loaded into his minivan, and drove to Peachtree City where we got to meet Mack and Elise, and hug Lara, Julia, and Julie (who was there helping Lara with her week and a half old twins). 

Since we were in Peachtree City, Greg HAD to take us on a golf cart ride to the lake. Julia and Michael enjoyed throwing sticks into the lake. 

We enjoyed catching up with Greg. 

We also rode the golf cart to the store to pick up a few things. 

 After the kids were all in bed, we got to take a drive in our new car. We were so happy to FINALLY drive her!

and I got to hold all this goodness:

The next day, there was more playing:

And since we weren't going to be back for Easter as originally planned, Lara and Greg were kind enough to let us do Easter early with them:

Did you notice Rachel's hand in the dye? I wish I had a video of her with these eggs. She had a blast!

Greg and Brian helped while Lara and I took pictures. Check out the color of Rachel's hand. Now look at the next picture. 

Compared to Julia's hands:

And Michael's:

But at least it's only her right hand that looks like the Wicked Witch of the West, right?

Wrong. There goes her other hand. 

I think this dye fest was the most fun dyeing eggs I've ever had. I couldn't stop laughing at Rachel's hands:

After all the eggs dried, Brian and I went and hid the eggs. Michael and Julia were so excited to go find them all. We made sure to tell Michael to look for the ones that weren't on the ground. 

This egg was one of Rachel's creations. Something she did made this awesome dinosaur effect.

After hunting all the eggs, we did the classic Saville egg rolling. At first, Julia was on board. 

But then Rachel and everyone else tried to roll "her" eggs. 

And then this happened. 

So Julia went inside and the boys finished out rolling the eggs, with Rachel doing her part to crack any of the ones that came her way. 

Julie made the egg stuff, and it was fabulous. I'm so glad we got to have Easter with Lara & Greg and Julie. It helped make being away from home on Easter all better.

These three were fun. Julia loved chasing Michael around, and Rachel loved chasing Julia. Michael loved having a fun yard and new toys to play with. We hardly saw these three while we were there because they were always off playing together.

All too soon, it was time to go, so we got a friend to take this picture

And sadly hit the road, wondering why we don't live closer to Lara and Greg and wondering why teleportation isn't around yet. Thanks, Lara and Greg, for letting us add to your crazy life by letting us visit. We love you!

Although we were sad to leave Lara and Greg, we were excited to take our new car on our first road trip together. It was nice having so much space!

And while driving through Georgia to Tennessee, we saw this:

 Brian Reagan, anyone? We were laughing so hard. 

We arrived at Ben and Jenny's just after 10 central time, and went straight to bed.