March 6-13: Nashville for Spring Break

The day after my sisters and families left, we left for Nashville, where Chad's brother and sister live. We've been out there before, but it had been a while, and Spring Break was a great opportunity to go, so, we went! We took two days to drive the 14 hours on the way there and back and that was a really good decision because the kids were really really good both ways. Plus Grammie was sitting in the back most of the time (Way to be a trooper, Grammie) so that helped. I ended up doing a lot of gymnastics reaching and bending over my seat and crawling over stuff to get to the back multiple times each trip, but that lended more to the humor of the trip than anything else. We also got to stop by Little Rock high school on the way, which was the first High School to be desegregated. That was really cool. We could only go around it, not inside, because it is still a functioning school. But I was so happy we went there-- I remembered Little Rock high school and the Little Rock 9 well from History Day in the 7th and 8th grade so it was exciting to see it in person.

So, we showed up at Chad's brother Randy's house on Saturday and got to meet our newest little nephew, Rowan. He is a cutie, and his sister Mikayla is so hilarious. She kept us all laughing while we were there. That night we ate some delicious Chinese food and since we were all pretty much pooped, we fell asleep. Not realizing the next day was the beginning (or end? whatever) or Daylight Savings Time, and we neglected to Spring Forward until 15 minutes before we were supposed to leave for church. So that went rather quickly. We made it just before the Sacrament so I patted myself on the back for that one.

Monday we went to the Nashville Zoo which is smaller than Houston's but probably entails more walking. Aubrey's favorite part was this area where you could be in this lorakeet habitat and feed the birds. They would come really close and drink right out of the cup you held. It was really neat to get so close. They had some other fun animals and we actually saw the Cougar, which we never see in Houston because it is always hiding. The Nashville Zoo also has this ginormous playground area for kids and we had a blast playing on that at the end. We could have spent way more time in that area, but the zoo was closing early that day so we had to leave. As I said, there was a lot of walking. But isn't there something wrong with this picture?

Tuesday, Chad met our brother in law at his school in Nashville and we visited this large plantation home right next door called Belle Meade. I've never visited a plantation home and this one was very interesting. I love seeing historical artifacts and learning about history in that context. Aubrey even enjoyed it. We also spent some time that day at the fabled Dragon Park where we met up with Chad's sister and her family for lunch. We heard a lot about this park and it did not disappoint. There was a very large dragon the kids could climb on and a bunch of other equipment. My kids could play on a playground all day long. We went back to their house that night and played games and laughed a lot.

Wednesday, we went to this Consignment Sale and scored several things I will put away until birthdays and such. I love Consignment Sales. We also spent a lot of time just hanging out and playing games again. And the Wii. Chad's sister (and her husband... but especially his sister) and I get along really well, I think, and we laughed a lot and that was probably my favorite part. Though I could kick myself because, I never got any pictures of us! Oh well, when they come in June I will. Thursday we had to head home and it was nice to get back home again as an end to the crazy month we had. We had so much fun though and Thanks to Randy and Beth and Meredith and Braden for hosting us at your house! We had a great time!