The Nashville Shuffle

My car has been a hot topic in the Traylor house for quite some time.  It seems like I was constantly reporting some clank or rattle to Bryan and then one day, in the Costco parking lot, it just wouldn't start.  We took it to the shop and had it evaluated.  While my poor Trailblazer spent the night at the hospital, Bryan and I made some tough decisions at home.  (Tougher for him than for me).  Later that week we spent almost an entire day looking at, pricing, and finally test driving Chevy Acadias.  After the test drive we settled on a Yukon and I drove it home that night.

This left us with quite the dilemma:  Two licenced drivers, three cars. 

Meanwhile in Alabama Bryan's sister and her family were experiencing a dilemma of their own:  Four licenced drivers, three cars.

I think you can see the solution:  A car shuffle, in Nashville.

The Nashville Shuffle.

Bryan kept my Trailblazer and sold his Hyundai to his sister.  The only problem now was how to get his car to Alabama and him home again.  After some googling and mapquesting we realized that drive time to Nashville Tennessee has a difference of about 45 minutes for the Alabama Maynards, the Kentucky Traylors and us, the Indiana Traylors.  Bryan's parents had no interest at all in who drives which car, but the pull of all four grandchildren in one place at one time was just too much.  So, we made a little family vacation of it. 

We stayed the weekend at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.  If you've ever been there I don't need to say more...if you haven't then there's no way I could describe it.  All, but four of these pictures were taken inside the hotel.

Morgan shows off her beautiful smile...Jack shows off his mean eyes.

I left Morgan in charge of my bag and camera and came back to about 15 self portraits.  I considered posting the worst one, but was disappointed when none of them were bad.

Guess there's no need for photo shop when you are 16 and gorgeous.

Jack and the lion head fountain.  According to the map of the hotel the lion head is 15 feet tall and made of solid gold.  If you look closely you can kind of see it.

Aunt Cammie was showing Jack and Lilly something, but Lilly just couldn't resist posing for the camera.

One of the three thousand waterfalls that Lilly wanted to have her picture taken in front of.

Matthew shows off his mean eyes.

I have no idea what these two are talking about, but I'm pretty sure someone is getting an earful.

The hotel was huge and the stroller didn't offer the greatest view, so Jack was content to spend much of his time atop his Uncle Ed.

Jack bought a small car in the gift shop and thought the floor just outside of the gift shop would be a good place to play with it.

The last time that we stopped in Nashville on our way to Alabama we bought the kids each a pair of cowboy boots.  Obviously, we brought them on this trip.  I tried to get a picture of Lilly and Jack in their boots, but as you can see, Jack can run a lot faster than you would think in cowboy boots.

Trying to sneak away down the stairs.

Just relaxing and watching some cartoons after a busy day.

Matthew learning some specifics about Thomas the Train at breakfast.

It wasn't an easy task, and this is one of about 20 pictures, but we managed to get a picture of all four grandkids together.  Yes Grandma, we'll send you a copy.

Ballet by the fountain.

Just taking a little walk with the Daddy Guy.

It may surprise you to learn that there are so many bridges in the Opryland Hotel, but when you have a real river running through your establishment a bridge or two becomes necessary.

After the Maynards left the Traylors all took a trolley tour around the city of Nashville.

This is one of the trolley stops, Nashville's capitol, made to mimic our nation's capitol building in Washington DC.

Jack slept through most of the tour, but wanted to get out and have his picture taken in the grass too.

 Later, in downtown Nashville we came across the King.  Lilly was less than impressed with him.

 She was, however, ecstatic to see a huge replica of her own red cowboy boots and insisted that we take a picture of her with it.

 We can't be sure because no one kept an accurate count, but we think that Jo allowed my children to throw about $20,000 worth of pocket change into the fountains around the hotel.

  Grandma zipped up her purse and Jack moved on to drive his car around the fountain.

Last night, just hanging out with a couple of country music donkeys.

I'm pretty sure that when Lilly turns 16 we won't be taking her to Nashville.  ...or anywhere else for that matter.

 Bye donkeys, bye Nashville.



The Never Ending Christmas

I had decided that, instead of doing a bunch of small blogs to tell you all about each and every fun thing that we did to prepare for Christmas, I would do one big blog that encompassed all of December.  I never planned on waiting until the last day in February to do it, but plans change.

After Thanksgiving my family, as is the tradition, went to our cabin in Rockville IN to hang out by the fire, ride four wheelers, and play in the woods.  However, it was freezing cold and really windy that weekend, so the kids and I, along with almost everyone else besides Bryan and my dad bowed out.  So, my mom and I took the kids to dinner and to downtown Zionsville to see Santa ride into town on a horse drawn carriage and light the town Christmas tree.  You wouldn't believe how cold it was.  Grandma ended up in the car and even Lilly asked when Santa was going to stop talked and light the tree.  Jack never moved.  I think he was afraid that any shift in his blanket might let in the cold air.  Finally, after a few carols and a weird speech about Santa and Jesus being friends, Santa lite the tree and we evacuated to the warm car.

 The following weekend the Traylors spent the day at Dull's Christmas Tree Farm looking for just the right tree...and enjoying all of the other things that Dull's has to offer.

Mazes in the hay.

 Slides.

 Porch Swings.

 Bigger slides.

 Group slides.

 Hide and seek in the trees.  This actually wasn't a planned game, but I left Bryan in charge to go to the bathroom and when I came back he was in the middle of a lively game of hide and seek...or more accurately a game of hide and "come out right now or we're going home!"

 Photo ops in giant gifts.

 And finally, the choosing of the Traylor Family Christmas Tree. 

 Riding on the horse drawn wagon.  Everyone got really sleepy towards the end of the ride.

 The waiting is the hardest part.  Daddy waited in the line to have the tree shaken and bag while the kids and I waited on a log.

A couple of days later I abandoned my family to go Christmas shopping while Bryan and the kids put the tree up and decorated it.

 Well, Lilly and Bryan decorated the tree...Jack mostly just played in the mess.

After a little break from Christmas it was time for Lilly's Christmas program at school.  It was less of a program and more of a sing a long and it was a lot of fun.  The kids sang one or two songs in front of everyone and then joined their parents and grandparents on the floor to sing some carols together.

 Daddy had an important meeting at work, but Grandma and Papaw came to sing for Lilly.

The day of the Christmas program was actually the first day of snow.  And boy, was there a lot of it.  After the program we went to Grandma and Papaws to play in the snow and make some buckeyes.  I can't be sure, but I think Lilly is being followed.

 The excitement of the day wasn't over.  Later that same night Santa was scheduled to come through the neighborhood on a firetruck.  We waited and waited and finally....

 we heard them coming.  Instead of sirens the fire truck was blaring Christmas music and Santa was waving from the top.

 I cannot even begin to describe the excitement that Jack experienced, having seen Santa in the flesh...and more importantly a fire truck.  Only later would we realize the confusion that ensue from this episode.  When we would talk about Santa, or see pictures of him on a sleigh, Jack would become almost violent in his insistence that Santa would come, on Christmas night, on a fire truck.  He also assumed that Santa lived at the fire station and that every fire truck was, in fact, Santa running errands.

 Just hanging out after Santa went by.

Leaving out some home made cookies, carrots, and milk for Santa.

 Lilly missed the photo op, but insisted that we re stage her involvement in the leaving out of cookies and milk.

 Christmas morning before the mayhem.

 The mayhem.

 Playing with the trains that were in the toy box.

 The next day Jack wasn't quite sure what to do or what to play with.

Playing outside to try and relieve the Christmas hangover.

 It was all just too much. 

The Greatest Show on Earth

After Lilly was born Bryan and I, obviously, started paying more attention the family friendly attractions around Indy.  Attending the circus was pretty high on our list from the start, but it seemed like every year something stood in our way.  The first year that Lilly was old enough, Jack was way too young, only a few weeks old.  The next year I was only two or three days out of foot surgery.  But, this year we had no excuse.  Months ago we chose our day, bought our tickets and planned a whole day around the circus.  We schedule meals, naps and Bryan's work around getting an early start and taking advantage of everything that the Ringling Brothers had to offer.  Our tickets entitled us, not only a seat for the show, but also an up close view of the animals, performers and a slew of activities before.

To say that I was excited would be an understatement.  I was not at all disappointed.  It was one of our best nights out as a family.  Things could not have gone better.  Everything went according to plan, the kids were on their best behavior and the show was spectacular!

Earlier in the day I asked my friends who are familiar with downtown to recommend a place to eat.  We got several awesome suggestions and decided on The Old Spaghetti Factory.  We arrived about a minute and a half before they opened, and due to Jack's obvious excitement over the railroad caboose, we were ushered almost immediately inside of it to find a table.

 You can't tell, but our table is inside the train car.  The kids loved it.

 Dinner was great and included ice cream.  We were on a roll!

 After dinner we walked about a block to the Feildhouse where the circus was.  We waited briefly for them to open the gates and then quickly found our seats and headed to the floor for the pre circus shows.  It was almost as if Lilly's eyes weren't big enough to take it all in.  She clung to my hand and stared, mouth agape, around her, trying to take it all in.  Some nice folks shifted a little to give her a front row seat to the warrior demonstration and she refused to budge when they asked for volunteers.

 Later, though, when the clowns invited kids to come and join the conga line she leaped up and joined the dancers heading toward the limbo stick.

 After that we made our way to another circle to watch the elephant paint.  Jack couldn't take his eyes off the elephant and eventually earned himself a new stuffed toy when we went to the souvenir stand and he blurted out, "el-phant! pease!".

 Lilly couldn't be torn away from the action long enough, even, for a family photo.

 A five minute buzzer sounded and we made our way to our seats to wait for the show to start.  This year's theme was 'The Spirit of the Dragon', prompting Lilly to chose a dragon from the circus store.

Lilly and her dragon.

After an all cast performance the horses took center stage and Lilly declared that this was her favorite act of all, and then did the same for every act after this.

 Then, the lion tamer...who Bryan and I worried might actually be eaten.  Lilly was sitting with Bryan and when I asked if he was ready to shield her eyes if things went bad it was obvious that he was a step ahead of me. 

 Both kids watched the entire first half without moving or blinking.  By the intermission we were ready for some snacks and a potty break, and Jack finished an entire tub of popcorn by himself during the second half without ever looking at what he was eating.

 Then, came his favorite part, the elephants.

 The ladies next to us got this with their cotton candy.  None of them seemed inclined to wear a clown mask so they gave it to the kids.

 Finally, the fire breathing dragon makes his appearance!  And then, the show was over.

Our evening started at about 4:00pm when we left the house.  We ate dinner, walked downtown, and made it to the circus around 6:00.  The show started at 7:00 and wasn't over until well after 9:30pm.  We got in the car and headed home at about 10pm.  Did our kids fall asleep in the car after such and exciting and eventful evening?  No sir, they both talked all the way home about the circus!  This event was worth the wait and is most definitely on our list for next year!