Nashville, TN

Is it too late to blog about June?

Short answer: Yes, but I'm going to anyway.

Speaking of My very generous Father paying for and sending us on vacations as Gifts...  (seriously, who does that???)  This Christmas my Mom & Dad treated us to the trip away to Skamania Lodge, last year's huge gift was a trip to Nashville, Tennessee with my parents.  (Again I say, seriously, who does that???)  It was a long weekend jammed packed full of fun with none other than Michael W. Smith.  The man, the myth, the legend.  Truly, just the man...he was unbelievably humble and gracious and made us and his other 500+ guests feel like we were all sitting in his living room.  Here we are..just hanging out with Smitty at his Family Farm....


The girls stayed "Out on the Farm" with their Grandma Julie & Grandpa Tom.  They (all) loved it, sounded like a really special time between them all!  Lots of helping with "horse chores", leading the mini horses around, getting lots of fresh air, etc...  So glad to have such a great place for the girls to go for fun!! 

Back story: we had found out I was pregnant with Hunter one week before we were to leave for Nashville.  We kept it our little secret until the day we were flying out.  We met my parents for dinner before we were to all stay in the hotel near the airport to fly out early the next morning.  Aaron & I had talked about maybe telling them, and at one point in the dinner I couldn't hold back and chimed my water glass with my fork to make a formal announcement that went something like this "well.....I'm apparently pregnant!"  (remember how I had no idea how or when that occurred...someone needs to give me a biology lesson again I think).  My parents both cheered and got up out of their seats to hug us--they were very surprised and thrilled!  They were the very first people we told this time.  :)  It was a really special memory of beginning our fun trip with them :)  We flew out the next morning. And in the airport we ran into this guy!!!  Matt (one of Aaron's closest friends) was flying out to Chicago I think? Around the same time we were...How fun!!!


We got to stay in a nice hotel with glass elevators in the middle of the huge lobby surrounded by all the rooms.  It was pretty neat, but by the end of the weekend I was officially 6 weeks pregnant and started to resent riding that morning-sickness trap of an elevator...  We got to see concerts by Michael W. Smith in the hotel conference rooms, as well as performances by his super talented children. 

We also were bused (newly pregnant + tour buses...I do not recommend), to "Smitty's" local project for Youth called "Rocketown"  It was a really cool place for local kids to hang out complete with skate park, etc.  They served us dinner there and talked about the organization.  While we went outside and took a group picture, they turned the dinner tables into a concert hall and we were given a very special, memorable intimate concert by Michael W. Smith. 



He talked a lot through out the night, giving little background stories of different famous songs of his.  He is absolutely the most talented pianist I have ever had the privilege of sitting 4 rows from.  He never once had any music in front of himself and would play and play and play and sometimes end one song but continue to play a long intro to the next song.  It was beautiful!!!  He took requests a few times.  For the amount of songs he has ever recorded you'd think he'd forget a line or two, but my goodness, he just seems so filled with the spirit of God's blessings on him in the form of an amazingly talented pianist and singer/songwriter!  Like I said before, he is such a humble man.  The entire weekend he would deflect his talents towards God.  I loved that.  It was easy to admire his Gifts, but at the same time, he made it easier to worship God WITH him, because it was evident he was fully worshiping Christ in front of us.  I loved truly believing he's just a normal guy with his own weaknesses who is fully dependent on God each and every day.  On the last day he shared his testimony and again, it was a humble reminder that God can do amazing things with any one of us screw ups!

We also had some time to explore the city of Nashville.  Wow, what a fun city! 
On stage....we were with the band.


We were told this top picture is the green room (one of 15 that they had, I think?) that Taylor Swift requests. Kind of cool to picture her and other famous singers in these rooms waiting to go on stage.




Mom bought the girls these adorable kid-sized cowboy hats...so naturally we had to pose with them outside the Opry House!



Aaron & I would love to go back, it was a pretty great place to visit!  Especially to this place...most beautiful & unique "hotel" I've ever visited...more like a Disneyland of a huge hotel/garden/shopping/restaurants/indoor rivers that you could boat through/live music bars/beautiful architecture....wow is all I have to say.  The Opryland Hotel.  I didn't get too many great pictures, but it was gorgeous, I dream of the day we could spend an anniversary there!!!
Lots of musical history in this town of Nashville.  We spent a good few hours going through the Country Music Hall of Fame!  I loved it!!




Aaron snapped this picture for his Mom--the Reba display!  :)




(Eating at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville with Margaritas!  Mine was non-alcoh.... wah wah)

It was humid & hot out...which was a nice refreshment from the rainy Summer in Oregon we were having!
Here I am soaking up a few rays while we wait to hail a taxi.

A really special part of the weekend was being bused (again...newly pregnant & riding tour buses don't quite mix well, but I survived!) to Michael W. Smith's Family Farm. 

Here's my Mom just chatting it up with Smitty!

We were bused as far as they could take us then we walked a gorgeous path through the woods a ways until we arrived to his beautiful little country paradise.  There was a Cajun band of siblings rocking out when we first got there, they were a lot of fun!! 

And they had a hot air balloon you could "ride" up a little ways (attached to a rope), but after standing in line for 45min in the humid hot sun and moving about 20ft we decided to scratch it. 

They had huge tents set up and a delicious Tennessee catered dinner of BBQ and pulled pork sands, cornbread and other southern deliciousness. 

Then Michael W. Smith gave a fun/meaningful concert, as well as Matthew West and a few other local artists who were songwriters for some of my favorite country artists!  It was fun to hear the back story of some of the songs these people had written for the big names.  (Sorry...I should have written this blog back in June, I could be more specific, but can't remember now!).

I still cannot believe Aaron & I got to go to Nashville with my parents!!  It was so memorable for so many reasons!!  I fully realize being given a vacation with my husband is very rare, which makes me appreciate their thoughtfulness even more.  We ate well, we slept great, we got to visit places I've only dreamed of seeing, we got to spend an entire weekend hanging out with Michael W. Smith! But above all, we laughed a lot and made some really great memories with my Mom & Dad!

Thanks Mom & Dad!!!!  We Love You for wanting to spend time with us!!!!!!!!!! xoxo