After a long, long car ride full of stomach bugs, vomiting, and fevers we made it to Tennessee!  I’ll spare you all the gory details of the journey but considering how sick some of us were, we made fairly good time.  Before the trip I made the boys little care packages to make the journey easier like neck cozies, new DS games and sunglasses.  Colin was obsessed with the sunglasses and convinced that it made him the coolest guy in town!

I must say, being back in Tennessee was amazing.  I haven’t been back since living there as a kid and the beauty is intoxicating.  And while I really don’t recall where anything is (I was too young), the flashes of memory I do have are very fond.

The first day we visited Grandma and the boys loved playing in the big pine trees outside her window.  After that we went down to the park and river I used to play in when I was a child.  It felt completely unchanged and was a bit surreal to watch the boys playing outside in just the same way I did when I was a kid.  We played with Abby, threw the Frisbee, and checked out the riverside.  As it got darker, the lightning bugs came out!  I think I was just as excited as the kids.  I have vivid memories of my dad and I venturing outside to the big field outside our house in the evening after they came out.  There would be thousands of twinkling little lights all over the grassy hillside.  We’d catch them in a jar and watch them all shining inside the glass for a while before setting them free and trying again the next night.  The boys were in heaven as they ran around the field trying to catch them all.  Every time they caught one, we’d hear a delighted scream, “I GOT ONE!!!!!”  Then they’d race across the field and hold the bug right up to our face to make sure we saw it too!

The next day we went to Centennial Park to see the Parthenon, which I think sticks out like a sore thumb and is very odd.  We didn’t get to go inside because we got there too early and it was closed so we got snow cones and hung out in the park for a while.

Then we headed downtown to grab a bite to eat.  Downtown Nashville is a pretty cool place but it was very crowded and since I hate crowds and far prefer the countryside, this was probably my least favorite part of the trip.  We ate at the Wild Horse Saloon while a line-dancing lesson was going on and after it was over, the boys had a great time getting on the dance floor and “dancing.”  I’m not sure exactly what to call it because it looked more like they were having fits but William is convinced he is the best dancer in the family.  Wish I got a video of that one!

The next day we went out to the Renaissance Faire.  It was fun time and the people getting tickets were definitely into it complete with costumes and little caps they wore on top of their ears to make them look like fairies!  The boys got to do archery, star throwing, and make their own snow cones using a little hamster wheel to crush the ice!  After going back to the room to relax a bit, we headed back to the park to play with grandma’s dog and catch more fireflies.

Tuesday we went to the Adventure Science Museum.  I don’t have any pictures of this other than me and the boys eating in the cafeteria but it’s probably the coolest children’s museum out there!  After that we headed for dinner at Cock of the Walk, which I must say was kind of flat compared to the lively place I remember it being.  But the food hadn’t changed and we all enjoyed the fried catfish!

The next day we went to Lucky Ladd Farms.  This was VERY fun for all of us.  They had a whole field of baby goats so of course I was in heaven and tried to convince David that we needed to sell our house in Austin, buy some property, and start a goat farm… he was not convinced!  And the highlight of Owen’s visit was definitely playing in the cornbox!

After that we went to Belle Meade Plantation.  We got there too late to do the tour but did get to walk around the grounds.  In usual fashion, I wanted to spend hours there and pretend it was my personal home but we just didn’t have time!  Then after hastily dropping off the kids at grandma’s so David and I could have a date night, we realized we forgot to give her diapers!  So sadly, our date night was cut a bit short but we did manage to eat at a funky little place called the Firefly Café.  The food was great, the atmosphere was great, and getting out without the kids (which rarely happens) was a treat!

Our final day was spent just exploring the neighborhoods and relaxing at grandma’s house.  On Friday morning we headed back to Austin and unfortunately, whether it was another stomach bug or perhaps just bad car sickness, Nathan got sick again on our car ride.  It was terrible for him.  He was hit with it when we stopped for lunch in Memphis and spent the rest of the day throwing up.  Thankfully we stopped early that evening and he got a good night’s sleep so the next day of driving was not nearly as bad for him!

So all in all, it was a wonderful family vacation!  Sunday we were all happy to be home to get ready for work and summer school the next day.  The drive was tough and ideally I would rather fly but with four kids equaling six airline tickets, sometimes driving is the more economical option!  But it was definitely doable and Nashville was worth it!