Tennessee Time

After 16 LONG days... Mom and Dad came down to Franklin, TN to join the kiddos and the rest of the family.  We were excited for a quick two day trip in TN with lots of people and sightseeing to do!  We were hosted by the Lovely Tony and Tami (Kris' cousins).  They had a beautiful location, a wonderful driveway to play basketball and most of all... Amazing Hospitality!  Thank you So much for hosting us, teaching us how to make delicious green smoothies and lending us a vehicle for the weekend!

Saturday was the family reunion! Linda hosted the event and we were excited to see all the Aunts, Uncles and Cousins.  We even got to meet a few new kiddos!  Karsten was Enamoured by Aria, Kendra's 7 month old daughter.  Just beautiful to watch them together. He was So Gentile!

Every party has a kid table... Looks like Kris and Tami were sat at the correct one!

How do we burn off those dinner calories?  A bounce house, of course!  Kids had a great time playing, while the grown up kids sat around chatting up a storm.

What is a family reunion if we don't do all kinds of generation pictures! The first pic is of all the siblings, then the cousins, then the little cousins (minus a few)!

Pat, Linda, Clyde and Chaz



Adam, David, Kris
Tami, Kendra, April, Amy
Connor, Jake, Rory, Karsten, Kasey





Rory, Archer, Connor, Karsten and Kasey
(Jake and Aria are MIA)

Sunday, our little family drove down to the heart of Nashville.  Upon arriving, we ran into these guys!  Kasey was enamoured with Cindy Bear, but really just felt like he was part of the gang.  Karsten, well, um... you see the pic below and tell me how he feels about Yogi Bear.

After our adventure with the bears, we headed further downtown to see some country stars and learn a little more Nashville history.  We toured the Grand Ole Opry and ran into Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff.  They were kind enough to sit on a bench for us and Karsten even got to sit on Minnie's lap!

Amy was really excited to see famous bars such as Tootsies and the great performers there.  Kasey had other ideas.  He quickly spotted the Monster Truck! After our photo op, we headed to hear some music.  Tootsies didn't last long as it was really tiny and Really Loud!  Kasey was less than pleased and covered his ears the Whole time we were in there.

The Honky Tonk had live music, but we sat way in the back so it wasn't so loud.  After awhile, Kasey warmed up to the loud atmosphere and started smiling.  We even got him on the dance floor a couple times.

Karsten was my Favorite story of this day.  He asked his mamma to dance (ah, makes my heart melt!).  After boogie-ing out to a few great songs by a local band; we decided to retreat to our table only to be stopped by the lead singer.  He hollered after us to come back as the drummer had brand new drum sticks he wanted to give Karsten!  We promptly thanked him to which he replied... you won't thank me later when he is practicing!

The next two pics are pretty special, although we didn't know how special at the time.  We were just crossing a cool looking pedestrian bridge to get to a play park for the boys and chose to stop for a few quick pictures.  We found out that later that evening this was the exact spot where David proposed to April! I can just see him down on one knee... can't you!

The boys did a great job sight seeing and never ran out of steam or had a melt down.  So, to celebrate our great day we chose to stop off at a Steak-N-Shake for some ice cream!  The kids loved their shakes, but I think the hats and cars made them smile the most.

Our last night in town was incredible.  We were blessed to a surf and turf dinner with some yummy fresh fish, sirloins, corn on the cob, squash... the list goes on.  Yum!  The perfect way to end dinner and our fun weekend in TN was to sit by a fire, roast marshmallows and share stories from the weekend.  Kasey is trying to summon the fire gods in this next photo while Connor is trying to keep little Jake safe!

One of the highlights for Amy this trip? ... Well, I think it was the bond which developed between Kasey and his 2nd cousin, Connor.  They played so well together (even though there is a 2 yr age difference) and neither of them got enough of each other the whole weekend!  We can't wait to come back and play again soon!