Happy 4th - Nashville Style

Well, happy belated 4th! Aaron and I decided to spend our time in Nashville to do some Nashvilley type things and to enjoy the N'ville fireworks at least once in our lifetime. On Friday, which Aaron and I both had off, we headed out to see the Parthenon and to enjoy Centennial park before heading downtown for a yummy dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Aaron had never done any of the above and I felt it was extremely important for him to experience such things before we leave.

My parents and siblings (except for Rachel) made the haul up to join in on the Saturday festivities which included cramming the whole family into our apartment for a delicious cookout, Wii bowling, and some swimming. We had so much food! We had to set up the food table in the guest bedroom because there wasn't enough room elsewhere, and to keep Newton from being tempted! We had steak, shrimp (3 different kinds), corn on the cob, okra, gren beans, pasta, rolls, and the list goes on. I even made a fun patriotic dessert.

Once evening was upon us, we loaded the coolers with drinks and snacks and headed downtown for the firework festivities. My uncle is a cop, so we got access to a special parking lot and therefore we didn't have to fight all the parking craziness. Once we parked, we had to wait out the rain for awhile before walking downtown to grab some dinner. Bad idea. I told Aaron that I wanted 2 corn dogs, because I was quite hungry, then headed off to the portable. Which, by the way, was nasty. Here's a conversation that took place.

Aaron: I'll take 3 corn dogs
Vendor: That will be $18.
Aaron: I'll take 2 corn dogs.

$6 for a corn dog. $6. each. ridiculous. though it was a pretty yummy corn dog, I must say.

Anyways.. the rest of the night was quite interesting as we got to start the fireworks show extremely early due to the storm they were trying to avoid. no such luck. It started pouring. We got drenched and that's with being right by our cars! I felt pretty bad for all those people downtown having to run for cover. All in all we had a wonderful weekend enjoying time with family and celebrating our freedoms.

Click here to view the complete album

Sunshine and pillows

I've been wanting some furniture for our patio for quite some time now, though I had basically given up the search for until after we moved. However, I recently ran across these oh-so-cute chairs at an oh-so-cheap price. I just had to get them! Of course we will have a patio at our apartment in Atl, so it worked out great.

Anyways, as cute as they were, I just couldn't resist adding a bit of color with some fun pillows. I had some extra throw pillows laying around, just waiting to be covered. I found a really cool fabric store here in Nashville and went and picked out some bright and fun fabric.
I think they turned out great! I think the blue one is my favorite!

Affretti prego a casa

Affretti prego a casa - italian for "Please hurry home"
My sister and best friend (Rachel and Maggie) are currently in Florence, Italy for a sightseeing adventure. They left the United States 3 weeks ago to head over seas on a mission trip with Lipscomb University. Their 1st stop was Greece then Ireland. Now they are visiting Italy for 2 weeks for their own sightseeing purposes before heading on to Wales for more mission work. Rachel was previously in Honduras for 5 weeks - so I haven't seen her since Mother's Day!!
Anyways... I miss them both like crazy and can't wait till I can pick up the phone and give them a call anytime I want.
To Rach and Mags - please hurry home! I miss you!
PS. Have a blast!

Rach and me. :)


Mags and me :)

A picture I found of them on facebook. :) (not sure who the other girl is)

Beach Reunion

Aaron and I were actually able to make it to the beach this year, which was totally awesome, especially since we didn't go last year! Each year my grandmother's siblings and their families get together. The location changes up each year, as a different sibling hosts. This year was Gulf Shores, Alabama! At first I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to go, due to our other trips we had already planned... but then I decided to make it happen. I just couldn't miss out on the beach (or family time!). Aaron and I loaded up our car (after a few delays) after work on a Thursday evening and headed south. We finally arrived at 1:46am. Though it was slightly crappy to drive through a bit of the night, it was definitely worth it to have 2 whole days at the beach. We enjoyed spending time with my wonderful family (including some that I had never met!) on the beach and eating yummy food. James was added entertainment as always. :)

Here's Grandma with her siblings (along with one sister-in-law):
My grandma is on the left.
Some pictures of us enjoying the beautiful beach:


Some family shots:


We had a wonderful time and can't wait till next year... no matter where the location may be. :)

and of course... Aaron and I had a mini-date out to get ice cream and cruising the streets. yummy Scoops!

Complete Minor Family Reunion Album

Tooth Fairy

My sweet niece, Abby, just lost her 1st tooth!


Isn't she just adorable??

Fun Times in Oregon

Alright... well I officially missed my own imposed deadline of having all my posts from the West Coast trip done by the end of June. Along with that I am getting further and further behind in my posting. So it's time to catch up.

Aaron and I took a train from Seattle to Portland which was pretty awesome. It was neat to watch the beautiful scenery pass by. When we arrived in Portland, we took our very first taxi to our fantastic hotel right on the waterfront. Our room even had a cool balcony that looked at the river and the city. After a while of walking around the city and snacking on a burger, we took the aerial tram up to see the city from up high and the towering moutains in the backgrounds. Beautiful. Afterwards, we(I) decided that we should rent bikes and join in with the rest of the entire city and go biking. We found some right off the water front. After hopping on, we rode down the waterfront and back and forth across the bridges. I had a whole lot of fun. Aaron was pretty concered for his safety most of the time. I was pretty sore the next day from it. After bike riding, we feasted on a delicious italian dinner at Mama Mia's - a recommendation from our hotel staff.


The next morning we went to return our bikes, via Voodo Donuts. I had heard about Voodoo Donuts on the tv before and it came highly recommended by someone at the hotel. I will say that the donuts were quite yummy.. but the place seriously gave me the creeps.


Our time in Portland was short lived, as we had to head to the airport to pick up our awesome friends, Tim and Morgan. Along with this came our 2nd car rental. The Prius!! Aaron and I were in complete awe at how many priuses (is that how you make it plural?? i dunno) there were all over the West Coast. It was crazy. Aaron was counting for awhile and even considered taking pictures on his phone of each one, but soon realized his memory would be gone within an hour. So can you imagine our faces when our rental car guy said, "It seems that we are all out of the mid-size car, so we are going to give you a free upgrade to a Prius". hahahaha. Oh. my. goodness. I will have to say that driving the Prius was quite fun and I really enjoyed it. Once we were back in Nashville, Aaron claimed that he revved the escape engine for an extra 30 minutes one day, just to make up for the Prius we drove. haha.



Anyways, we hopped in the Prius (our luggage barely fit in the tiny trunk) and headed towards Eugene/Creswell for the wedding festivities for Stephen and Emily's wedding. We had a great time hanging out and catching up with everyone, while Emily's dad made some awesome fried rice. Afterwards, Morgan and I headed out with the girls, for some delicious cake, bowling, and other things.... :)

The next day we decided to head out to the Oregon Coast. It was time to put our feet in the Pacific Ocean. We went to driftwood beach, which was absolutely stunning. The water was absolutely freezing, but totally worth it. We enjoyed hanging out and getting some beautiful shots of the scenery.


Saturday was Stephen and Emily's wedding. What a beautiful and fun wedding! I loved all the brightly colored lanterns and other decorations. We were so happy to see our friends so wonderfully happy and in love. We wish them the very best. :)