Me and the Girls in Nashville

I ventured to Nashville, Tennessee earlier in October to visit my sister and make memories with our little cousins and make memories we did! We had so much fun and did so many things I wanted to list them as to not forget because I don't have pictures of everything.

* Visit the famous Loveless Cafe for the Biscuits and Bluegrass Festival.
(facepainting, pony rides, amazing biscuits, petting zoo, and bracelet making)

* Picnic at the Natchez Trail.

* A trip to Build-A-Bear. (thanks Nana!)

* Inspirational church meetings on Sunday.

* Agricultural Center.

* Opryland Outlet Mall

* The Nashville Library for an amazing storytime.

* The Chattanooga Aquarium

* Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Matinee.

* Crafts, forts, tea parties, hide-n-seek, slumber parties, movie watching, and playing outside at the house.

*I also got my hair cut and colored by Conny Anderson (a hair goddess)- it was nice to be pampered a little while I was gone.

* Gentry Farms Pumpkin Patch Extravaganza.

* Halloween at the Nashville Zoo.
(trick-or-treating, haunted hay rides, spooky carousel, characters for pictures, carnival games, etc)

Lilly rocked it at the bean bag catapult game!

On the spooky carousel.

The Zoo had trick-or-treating down the paths, haunted hay rides, carnival games, characters for picture posing, and spooky carousel rides. It was one of the best nights!

Picture with Spiderman, Ironman, and the X-Men

All ready to go to the Nashville Zoo Boo

The most amazing pumpkin patch EVER!- is in Franklin, Tennessee at Gentry Farms.
Tire swings, corn maze, hay maze, farm animals, hay rides, hot chocolate, pumpkin picking, grain troughs, mini cabin, mini teepee, and a mini grocery store in one of the barns made it a day to remember!

Waiting in line for hay rides by the pond.

The tire swings were a big hit with all our girls.

Playing in the grain troughs.

So stinkin' adorable!!

After the pumpkin patch we went to McDonalds for some lunch and the kids got to hang out with none other than, Ronald McDonald himself! -sweet!-

The Chattanooga Aquarium was awesome. Kid friendly in every way and the layout is really creative.

In front of the tropical water tank.

Tennesse River outlook point

The Nemo Tank

Virtual Rollercoaster at the Opry Outlet Mall

One of our daily tea parties

Meg watching a movie

Beading bracelets at Loveless Cafe

Megan L-O-V-E-D the pony rides! This is her right before she had to dismount.

Loveless Cafe had an amazing face painter there and we waited in line for about an hour. It was worth it I think.

Fall Colors on the Natchez Trail

Lilly on the pony

Petting Zoo-- Meg running away from the goat because it wouldn't stop nibbling at her.

Zach and Jesica's Wedding

Zach and Jess married August 28th, 2009 in the Boise LDS Temple

Stacy's family outside the temple.

the girls

our family

Sister Kisses

8 out of 9 little nieces. Megan isn't pictured. (tantrum)

6 nephews

the girls holding up the dress

Nate, Stacy, Zach, and Leslie

Jessica's parents held a reception in Fruitland the night of the wedding. Two words: cheesecake and dancing.

Meg thought dancing was jumping and subsequently said, "Bump Mom! Bump!"

The Merrill Grand-daughters

Jessica's Siblings and their spouses

The next night Patti and Cliff hosted an open house in their neighborhood park. It really was beautiful!

Patti rented an ice cream cooler and the men scooped for all the guests. We had tons of toppings to decorate your sundae with. It was a hit!

The girls getting a drink from the fountain.

My beautiful babies.

I don't know what is going on in this picture. I thought it was funny Lilly looked like she was pouting in the midst of all these boys running around her.

Lilly being picturesque.

First Day of PreK-4

Nate and I decided to send Lilly to Grace Lutheran this year. Their program is the best in the city I dare say. She is going 3 days a week for 3 hours each day. The preschoolers enjoy P.E. with the P.E. instructor, recess, checking out books at the library, doing homework, healthy snacks, lots of field trips, Bible story lessons, and they are lucky to take part in a reading program that includes computer programs and VHS tapes they bring home every week. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Flicker and Lilly is one of only three girls in her class.

Lilly has expressed that she does not like recess because they do not have swings and she gets hot out there. She also told me school was "for a long time and I miss you and think about you Mom." awww

Bye-Bye House, Hello Car

So in late July we finally sold our house. There was a catch though. The buyer needed to sell their car before they could buy our house.....sooooo.... Nate offered to buy their car. It's an '07 Toyota 4Runner. They took really god care of it exept for the fact that they SMOKED IN IT! (IDIOTS) We have been working on getting the smell out for the last 5 weeks and I think we're almost there. We plan on trading it in for a crossover of some kind with more seating capacity but it has been difficult finding the car we want.... so we wait and shop around. We are now living in a 2 bedroom duplex while we build our next house. We start next week digging the foundation!

July Fourth 2009

The night ended LATE after our own fireworks show.

This picture doesn't depict it- but Lilly was scared of the sparklers this year.

Lilly and her little guy friend Wyatt sat in this chair and watched the fireworks together- so cute!

Swinging was a new discovery.

I guess this is the sort of thing we all did when we were engaged- right?

Marley, Parker, Boden, Piper, Tandi, Megan, Lilly, and Koen!

Merrill Grand-daughters

Megan brought her purse to put her parade candy in-- and here, the parade isn't even over and she is scarfing it down.- Her favorite was the tootsie rolls.

The sassy bunch- seriously, i already feel sorry for myself and their parents for whats to come as these gals get older and sassier.

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