Visting my Little Brother

Mark, my little brother turned 30 last year. Which means I am old! He also bought his first house. Somehow, while I was busy with my own life and figuring out how to be a grown up, my brother was as well.

This has been a bit of a crazy year for us – Daniel's work schedule has been a bit nuts (improved since he left nuclear, but still busy), and Mark has been busy himself – renovating his new house, working full time and traveling the world with recent trips to both Europe and Australia.

Before he left for Australia, he asked if I had time to pop over to Nashville to hang out and see the improvements he had made to his house. Daniel was actually in Colorado for work, so I thought a road trip with the boys would be fun.

When we arrived in Nashville, Mark took us to get groceries and also to get the boys to pick out belated birthday presents for themselves. The kids loved this. Jack picked out a new kind of nerf gun (it shoots balls instead of darts) and Isaac got a truck with figures. They were in kid heaven.

We also went out for ice cream at Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream. It was amazing. More kid heaven :)

For dinner, my aunt and uncle and one of my cousins came over to visit. We had such a lovely time catching up. Mark is becoming quite the cook and it's nice to see him in his own element.

Jack loved sleeping in a little couch fort Mark created for him and the next morning Isaac helped Mark make breakfast. I hope my kids grow up remembering all of these sweet moments.

We said goodbye to Mark before lunch and headed to the airport to pick up Daniel. It worked out for one of Daniel's sisters, Emily, to meet up with us for lunch, so we were able to squeeze in a little extra family time before heading home.

Speaking of feeling old, Emily has grown up too... she was barely a teenager when we got married!

Biscuit Love

When we first became parents, I read a lot about the importance of continuing to date your husband (even writing about it here). Weekly if possible. In theory, I think this is a fantastic idea, but our reality never seems to measure up to that standard.

 

Daniel and I have had plenty of time to date (10+years if you include our dating years), so we don't feel too guilty when current dates tend to lean more toward "family" dates. Part of that has been changing our expectations and being ok with this. More often than not our alone dates include a bowl of ice cream and Netflix. I think you just do what you have to do and don't get hung up on a date being leaving your house, without kids. I mean, we even took our kids on our recent 13th anniversary trip.

But if we have the opportunity to go out, sans kids, we try to jump on it. Holidays tend to work in our favor in this regard. Our family loves the chance to hang out with our boys and who are we to turn down free baby sitting?

Most recently we were able to sneak off on a brunch and furniture shopping date. We left our boys with Daniel's sister and headed out to grab breakfast for lunch (my fave). We had initially planned to go to The Pancake Pantry but the line was wrapped around the outside of the building (and it was raining). So instead we found ourselves wandering over to the Gulch for a little Biscuit Love.

Biscuit Love also had a wait, but if you were willing to sit at the bar (we were, we didn't have kids!), you could get in immediately.

According to Nashville Guru, The "East Nasty" and "Southern Benny" were the dishes to get. And they did not disappoint.

Getting away was just what we needed – uninterrupted conversation, followed by time browsing local stores for a new dining table that we are dreaming about.

Our next date may not happen until Easter (hopefully sooner), but until that time we savor these moments together and embrace the days that our dates involve our whole family or just the two of us, on the couch after our kids are in bed.

New Years with Family

This is the third year that at least some of our Canadian relatives have made the trek south to ring in the New Year with any of the Southern Lock Flock that could make it to the Nashville area. It is a tradition that I am growing to love. 

Over the course of several days, we all gathered at my Aunt Becky's house or my sister's house to visit and play games and enjoy good food.

This year, the Canadians requested that we do something with a Nashville feel. So my brother took a bunch of us to the Wild Horse Saloon in downtown Nashville for some line dancing.

It was actually a lot of fun. It cost $3 to get in and there was a live band and a guy that taught the dance steps. Also it is kid friendly, which was nice, since our cousins are all under age!

We had practiced the Electric Slide at my sister's house so that we had the basic steps down, and the dances were all a variation of these simple steps.

It was freezing the night we went out and my brother decided we should park at LP Field and walk across the bridge to downtown. Did I mention it was freezing! Even our relatives thought it was chilly! Thankfully the dancing warmed us up.

Afterward we went to Mikes Ice Cream shop for some hot chocolate to get warm before going back into the cold. My sister, brother and uncle make the cold trek back across the bridge to pick up the cars, while me, my aunt and cousins stayed warm in the ice cream shop.

I am looking forward to next year's New Years get together!

Thanksgiving 2013

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family at my sister's home in Nashville. We also squeezed in some visiting with Daniel's family. We have so much to be thankful for. I hope you had a blessed day, whether you were with your family, friends or on your own.

Two days before Thanksgiving Jack and I headed to my sister's house. As I buckled Jack into his carseat, he started to chant excitedly, "Cousins!" over and over. It was the sweetest thing. He had a ton of fun running around with Izzy and Levi all week.

My parents got in late Tuesday, after the kids were in bed. First thing Wednesday morning, the kids were up and ready to play with their Grandpa. He read to them and they had fun trying to wrestle with him. Later my mom played hide and seek with Izzy for over an hour. Izzy was thrilled to play for so long.

Over the course of our visit, there were many opportunities for baking and Izzy did not miss a moment in the kitchen.

Jack and Levi were sure to get their cooking opportunities as well... or at the very least a beater to lick!

Thanksgiving morning, we cooked and cooked. My brother-in-law, Robert, tried a new technique with the turkey. He spatchcocked it (cutting the back bone out) so that it would fit in his smoker. The turkey (and smoked ham) were ah-may-zing! Kuddos to Robert for always making us excellent food when we visit.

While the food cooked, my brother danced with the kids to the Christmas music that we had streaming.

Around lunch, my aunt and uncle and their kids arrived. We squeezed in a game of pinocle and spent the day visiting and playing games.

We are blessed to be able to see so many in our large family this holiday.

Thursday night, we left the kids with the extended family and my sister, brother-in-law and Daniel and I snuck off for a double date. This is the first movie we have seen in a theater in about a year. Catching Fire was the perfect movie to watch in the theater.

Friday morning, Angela and Robert snuck off to go appliance shopping and score some Black Friday deals. We had fun with the kids while they were away. Jack and Levi invented a game of climbing on the love seat and jumping off. They thought it was hilarious. 

While my sister was scoring her good deals, Daniel and I received some surprising news (stay tuned for my next blog post).

After lunch my sister and her family and my parents went to get a Christmas Tree. That afternoon, the tree was set up and decorated with lights by my brother and Izzy. Mark is the go-to person in our family for amazing decorating at Christmas time. He makes sure that every branch is lit :)

While they worked, we got in a game of Rummikub.

That night we went to see the lights at the Jellystone Campground in Nashville. It was $25 per carload, so we squeezed 7 adults and 3 kids into the minivan and enjoyed a little holiday celebrating together. After the lights, we stopped to see the petting zoo. Unfortunately to do anything extra cost an arm and a leg. The kids were disappointed, but none of the adults wanted to spend more $.

For dinner, we went to Cock of the Walk. We had fun taking pictures in the giant rocking chair. The food was so so and seemed overpriced. Plus we weren't expecting to be served family style. It was an interesting experience, but I don't think I would go back.

When we got home, the kids got to open their Christmas presents from my parents. They were all excited for their gifts and I am thankful we got to spend that time with my mom and dad since we won't see them at Christmas.

We had such a great visit and I look forward to seeing everyone again.