Nashville 2009

The week after Easter, we were able to make a family trip to Nashville. We hadn't been there since fall, 2006, so we were all excited to return. I think this is the first vacation that Leyton & Nathaniel really remember, so they have talked about it for a long time and how they wanted to return. If I had to change one thing, I would have hoped that maybe I'd have made it to the Grand Ole Opry to see some of my favorites - like Dierks Bentley would have been great! Oh well, the resort was just so close to there, I was thinking I'd go if there was someone playing that
I liked. We typically have a vacation in the summer, but we figured by the end of May, I will be 34 weeks pregnant, we didn't figure it was the time to make a trip too far from home.

We arrived on Sunday and spend Monday hanging around the resort & swimming. I think we managed to swim every day. The kids are all really enjoying swimming and becoming more and more brave. Jacob stands well in 3-ft deep areas now and Leyton & Nathaniel are really branching out away from the sides, jumping in some, etc. And Leah was ready to play all independently on the steps and as far as you'd let her go. She's made a lot of progress since we swam in Branson back in February.

Other activities for the week included all the boys going golfing at a "real golf course" while Leah & I shopped/browsed. We also returned to the Opryland hotel to walk around and enjoy the beautiful scenery. I need to post the pictures we have from our first trip to compare the same poses/background - it's cute to see how much the kids look different over the 2 1/2 years (standing by the guitar-playing animals)! Hmm, what else did we do? Another day we played on the resort playground - basketball, swinging, etc. and we created our own putting area. The boys also did some nature hunting - ladybugs, snail, etc. They are so much fun. Oh, looking at my pictures I was reminded of the fact that I think Nathaniel wore the same outfit every day we were there. Each night he'd ask me if I'd wash it so he could wear it again - thank goodness for condos with washer & dryer! I liked the picture of Jacob with Patrick, too, for some reason - caring Dad taking care of his Jakey.

The trip itself was really nice. The kids do very well in the car. We drove to Grandma & Grandpa's first, to break up the trip, and then made the rest of the trip. I guess it's about 10 hours total from our house.