Wedding in Nashville

We headed out of town the weekend after Thanksgiving to attend the wedding of a dear family friend in Nashville, TN.  The older kids stayed with grandma and grandpa in the country with the horses while we took Toddler Boy with us.  It was about a 5 hour drive, but thankfully we had snagged a new car DVD player at the after Thanksgiving sales.  Our last one had a good life, but died on us this year and I've been using my Kindle Fire as a substitute on long car trips, but it just doesn't do the job that well.  Videos tend to drain it's battery pretty quickly and the car charger adapter just can't keep up.  The new player worked like a charm and I brought three or four videos with us so I could switch them out when he got bored.  Happily, he is also a good car sleeper so that occupied some of the time, plus McDonald's french fries (what...you don't feed your 1 year old unhealthy fast food to keep him occupied on long car drives)?  Hey, I figure it's a step up from dramamine, which is what my mom used on my sister and me when we were kids (in her defense, we did suffer from car sickness, I still have to take it on plane flights or when we drive in areas with a lot of hills or curves).

Favorite video on trip

Even though it was only going to be an overnight trip it still took major amounts of packing because I had to pack everyone since the older kids would be spending the night at grandma's.  I also had to have stuff ready here at home for our "dogsitter" ( a.k.a. our kids favorite babysitter who lives nearby and agreed to stop by and walk our dogs for a couple of days).  Of course, I also wanted to have the house clean for our return because I always like coming home from a long trip to a picked up home.  It was a busy Friday getting it all pulled together.  Doug actually took the kids to his folks' house that evening and I took the opportunity to clean while everyone was out of the house.  When he came back we went out to eat with Toddler Boy at Chili's...I must say you got to love those little touchscreen games they have on the tables.  For a $1 added to our bill we let Toddler Boy play the games while waiting for our food (admittedly, Doug & I played a few too).  Then we did a bit more Christmas shopping and headed home to finish packing.  I ended up staying up way too late packing and cleaning, but it turned out ok since I could sleep in the car ride to Nashville.

As usual for us we were running a bit late getting out the door Saturday morning but made it to the hotel with about 20 minutes to get dressed.  Our room wasn't ready but lucky for us my folks came down the day before so we used their room to change and head to the wedding.  It was beautiful, of course, and it was nice to see old friends.  Toddler Boy didn't do too bad, I ended up taking him to the cry room in the back, where there were lots of babies and mostly dads (because their moms were in the wedding party).  Kind of different, since I'm used to seeing only women in cry rooms.  They did a superb job keeping the little ones entertained and quite during the service, not a small feat in a room that small with so many people!  Hats off to them.

I lived in Nashville for a brief period of time in college and I've got to say, what is up with those traffic lights!!  They have traffic arrows for all directions.  I always hated being the first one at the light because I was never sure when (or what direction) I was supposed to go.  I'm used to seeing green arrows going straight, left or right but they have stuff that looks like this:

Ok, maybe not quite that bad.  Seriously, they have arrows pointing southwest, northeast, every which way but backwards!  I suppose it's because of all the hills but it's downright confusing for us out of towners.  I guess it's a good thing I wasn't driving on this trip...

After the wedding we rode with my Dad in his car straight to the reception.  Toddler Boy was a bit antsy in the very short car trip over so I let him play with the camera to distract him...

His antics made the car ride seem much, much longer than it actually was...

The reception was fabulous, the food excellent and the company was the best.  I got to visit with friends that I just don't get to spend much time with these days.  You know, the type of friends that you could have not seen in years and yet it feels like no time has past when you finally get a chance to catch up.  My parents and sister and her husband were there too, I got some great pics:

My family, BIL Greg, sister Julie, Dad & Mom

Great pic of Mom & Dad
(notice upside down Toddler Boy in background)!!

Julie & Greg

My awesome groom & me!!
Weddings always bring out the nostalgia

They had a great band playing, we stayed until Toddler Boy started getting really cranky and decided to call the shuttle service and call it a night.  We probably waited a bit too long, because Toddler Boy was not happy in the shuttle to the hotel.  He was fine once we got him to the hotel room and settled.  We woke up with stiff muscles the next morning (note to self, make sure to adjust the bed at the hotel to soft instead of firm mattress)!!  Toddler Boy was fascinated by the mirrored closet door at the hotel...

It kept him occupied enough for us to get packed and ready to leave for the drive back home.

We ran into traffic issues on the way home so it took an extra hour to get back.  Doug commented that he was glad we hit the traffic coming home instead of on the way down or we would have missed the wedding! The kids had a good time at grandma's...overall a good weekend for everyone.  Congratulations to Mel & Ben on their marriage and thanks for inviting us!!