1 Down, 14 To Go

After moving into our home, we began working to unpack everything.  After that was done, we started organizing and decorating.  We would do a little here and a little there, but nothing was ever complete.  We decided to make a goal to do one room each month.  We decided that back in July and we are just now finishing our first room, so maybe it was a little unrealistic with both of us working and a baby taking up our time!  Nonetheless, we are very excited to get it done.

The room that had the least done and most potential was Adelyn's room, so that is where we started.  When we started, all she had was a crib and nothing else.  I wish we had a before picture.  Now she has an almost complete room!

This beautiful crib was a baby gift.  I adore it!  My talented mother made the crib bumpers and crib skirt!  Adelyn has loved sleeping in her crib ever since we put up the bumpers.  She will sit and grab at the design.  I found the flower poofs at Hobby Lobby and  I made the banner using my silhouette.  Travis wants to find wood letters eventually.  The flower light is from IKEA and...drum roll please...I made the curtains!!  It is the first thing I have sewn all by myself!!  There is a chair in front of the window too.

 This bookshelf was relocated from the living room.  It was black so we painted it and put matching wrapping paper in the background.  The painting is from Hobby Lobby (I love that store!).  You can't tell in this picture, but it is glittery.  All the other odds and ends are from around the house.  Notice that the picture is of me and Jessica from college.  We will change it eventually!

 The dresser came from my grandmother's house.  I guess it is the accent piece since everything else is white.  The lamp and frame are from Hobby Lobby.  I added the ribbon to the frame to hold her bows.  That isn't even half of them!  She has a whole basket on the changing table. 

 I have always wanted to do a photo collage somewhere and this seemed like the perfect spot.  Obviously we still need to print pictures and find something to go in the bottom left corner.  The changing table is a hand-me-down that we sanded and painted.  You can't see, but Travis added another shelf in the closet for all of her clothes.  Eventually we will put up board and batten and paint the walls, but we are waiting until after our 10 month touch-up to do that. 

 

The room is totally different than I imagined when I was pregnant, but this fits her personality!  I wanted a frilly, delicate, girly room but she is spunky and needed a room to fit her.  I actually love the way it turned out!

Grand Ole Opry

Ok Ryan Homes friends, next post will be for you!  We have finally semi-finished a room that I will post about.  Just hang tight.

For now, I am going to tell you about my favorite part of our Nashville trip!  The day we got there we went to this delicious Mexican Restaurant.  Since it was slow at the time, we asked our waiter for suggestions on what to go do from an insiders view.  He talked with all the staff and the hostess brought us a list of their top 10 recommendations.  It was soooo nice of them and way more than we expected!  The hostess kept saying to go to the Opryland hotel.  We would not have gone without her recommendation and it ended up being my favorite part of our visit!

This was the biggest, most extravagant hotel I have ever been in!  I told Travis that I could get used to living in riches!  Everything was so nice and I felt like one of the elite being there!  After going through the foyer, the hotel opened up to several different areas.  This waterfall was one of the first things we saw.  It was gorgeous!

There were 5 different areas to walk through, each with a different theme.  They did all have fresh foliage in every area though.  There was also water everywhere!  You could take a boat ride through the hotel it was so big!  We just walked around admiring the scenery and going into the little shops. 

My favorite was a water fountain.  I think water is so mysterious.  It is so beautiful and powerful that is scares me at times.  As we walked up, the fountain was shooting all these different heights and formations.  I told Travis that the only thing that would make it better was if it was done to music.  Just as I finished saying that, the music started.  It was AMAZING!!  I could have watched it all day.  I loved it!  You HAVE to go and see it!  The water went at least 2 stories high at one point!  Simply amazing!

After walking around the hotel, we headed over to the Grand Ole Opry house. We didn't plan on going to a show so we just walked around outside a little bit. 

Adelyn was so happy the entire time!  She loves observing everything around her and there was definitely a lot to look at on this trip! She is such a happy baby!

Opry Mills is also in the area.  It is a giant shopping center.  A man that we stopped and talked to said that I needed to go there if I loved to shop.  He said they have every store that you can think of.  We will have to go next time!  Opry Land was definitely a highlight of the trip and I would tell everyone to go!

Mammoth Cave and the Parthenon

These posts have been in backwards order, but as you can see, we took a trip down to Nashville for Labor Day weekend.  In planning our trip, we wanted to make a stop halfway so that I could feed Adelyn and let her stretch out a bit.  She doesn't like being cooped up in her carseat all day.

The first stop we made was Fort Knox, Kentucky.  Travis really wanted to make this stop.  It ended up that we weren't really able to do much because everything was on base and we weren't allowed in. 

We were able to see the U.S. Gold Bullion Depository Building from the road, but that's it.  There was a perfect picture opportunity but there were signs everywhere that said no photography and they had security cameras at that spot.  We had to settle for a picture taken from the freeway instead.  This was the building that Travis wanted to see the most so we were bummed that we couldn't go in.  He knew all these random facts about it. 

We did find a museum that we could go in.  It was all about the life of General George Patton.  I am not a history buff and did not know much about him previous to our visit.  It was interesting to read about his life and role in the military.

 

After World War II, he was in an automobile crash that resulted him him dying from a blood clot 12 days later.  This car is similar to the one he was in when they were hit.  

After hanging out there a while, we headed down to Mammoth Cave.  Travis has been wanting to go here all summer.  It is the longest cave system in the entire world!  Unfortunately we were only able to do the self-guided tour because all the other ones were sold out.  It was very busy because of the holiday.  We were only able to go in a small portion of the cave, but even that was impressive!  We talked about how there could be a whole underground city!  Not only was it long, but it was high too!  The shortest part we went in was still tall enough for us to walk under.

It was in the upper 90s this day and super humid this day!  Once you got close to the cave, you could feel the cool air coming out.  In the cave it was about 54 degrees.

At the entrance of the cave.  I love that they are both smiling!

It was really difficult to take pictures in the cave.  The flash was super bright and harsh but no flash turned out blurry.  This is still part of the entrance of the cave before it opens up.  This was the shortest area and you can see the path extending behind them. 

On our way back out.

One of the first things we did in Nashville was visit Centennial park.  It was huge!  We loved hanging out under some of the trees and stretching/resting after a day of sightseeing!

At the park, there is a replica of the Parthenon.  I liked looking at all the different pieces and how they fit into the building. 

This shows you how big it is!

After one of my other posts on Nashville, my mom gave me a hard time about standing on one of the statues because Travis is the one to do things like that.  Well, this picture is for you mom! I wouldn't jump off tall steps!  Doesn't he look tiny compared to the building?!

This is a statue of the Goddess Athena.  It was so extravagant compared to the stone structures all around!

I had to add in this last picture because I think it is so cute!  Even after being stuck in her carseat or stroller all the time, Adelyn was a sweet little angel!  She was so tired after all of our adventures!

Costume Planning

With Halloween right around the corner, it is time for me to start planning Adelyn's first costume!  One of my goals is to learn how to sew, but I have not really started yet.  I have made a tutu before, so I looked up costumes that use tutus since it doesn't require sewing.  Not to mention that I love tutus and Adelyn doesn't have one yet.  I say it is about time!  Travis doesn't really have a strong opinion and I am indecisive, so I am looking to you for advice.  Which costume should I make?  We narrowed it down to our 2 favorites!

A colorful witch Or little pumpkin?

Family Curse!

I am starting to believe that my family has a curse!  In the past two years, we have wrecked more cars than I care to count!  Previous to those two years, I only remember two car accidents my whole life and that was in high school when Lindsay and I got rear-ended and Mom got rear-ended in 2008 in her Crossfire but it wasn't totaled.

The string of accidents started in 2011 when Mom, Dad and Andrew were leaving a band concert and got hit.  Their Corolla was totaled in May 2011.  Unfortunately we don't have any pictures because they were taken on an old phone.

Just a few days later, Dad was driving his truck when a teenage girl rear-ended him in May 2011.  His truck is a clunker so there was barely even a scratch.

A couple weeks after that in June of 2011, Dad was rear-ended again in his truck.  This time it left a dent in the car, but we still don't have any pictures. 

In August 2011, Travis got rear-ended as he was waiting to turn into his office parking lot.  His Honda was totaled.  (It wasn't a sad parting for me.  I did not like that car!)

Just a few months later in December of 2011, Travis and I got hit head-on as we were traveling down to Georgia for Christmas.  Once again, our Camry was totaled.

After almost a year of no accidents, Andrew was coming home from school one day in November 2012, when he was rear-ended in his new Corolla. There was only a little damage and once again, no picture. 

We had another long calm streak before the accidents began again.  Dad and Andrew got hit head on in July 2013 and totaled the truck.  This was the only accident where there were some injuries.  Dad's knee got really swollen and bruised and Andrew had soreness and bruising from the seatbelt.

Late Monday night as Nathan was coming back from Moab, they hit a deer and totaled his Prius.

And today, dad decided he wanted to be like Nathan so he hit a deer in his Prius.  Only dad didn't total his car. 

Luckily no one was badly hurt in ANY of the accidents!  That is pretty amazing!  And with the exception of the last two, NONE of them have been our fault!  We have all gotten hit.  I am sure dad and Nathan would argue that the deer hit them and then we could say none have been our fault.  Pray that this curse is broken and no one else wrecks a car!  It is getting pretty ridiculous!  Lindsay seems to be the only one that has been left out of the equation!  She better be extra cautious these next few weeks!

Broadway

One day on our trip, we spent the afternoon exploring the popular Broadway Street.  It is known for it's bars, dives, and shops.  It was definitely popular with tourists everywhere.  I loved seeing all the signs and flashy stores. 

 

 

Posing with the King!

 

I don't know what it is about candy stores, but I love them.  I think it makes me feel like a little kid again.  I was so proud of us for not buying anything!  Travis is a sucker for candy and I am a sucker for fudge!  It looked and smelled delicious in there!

Rows and rows of hard candy...

 

 and barrels and barrels of chewy candy!

 Lining the streets were all things related to music.  They even had country music playing from every store!  Here I am practicing my singing with a giant microphone. 

 And Travis is brushing up on his guitar skills!

 

And Adelyn just chillin' and enjoying watching everything going on around her!

 When we were out to eat the first day, we asked our waiter for recommendations on things to do in Nashville.  The first thing he said was to NOT go down Broadway because it is just touristy.  Obviously we went anyways.  I enjoyed seeing it, but it wasn't my favorite thing we did.  I would say definitely go just to see it, but don't plan on spending a ton of time there.  The shops were tiny and the streets were crowded.  It is not something the kids would enjoy doing, but it is the perfect place to get a cheap souvenir and a taste of the local cuisine!     

Country Music Hall of Fame

On Monday, we spent most of our day at the Country Music Hall of Fame.  It was quite impressive!  There was a lot about the history and evolution of country music and a few featured artists.

The first exhibit we saw was all about Reba.  They had a video playing that began at the beginning of her career and ran through her life until now.  It was fun to see how she was at the beginning compared to now.  My favorite was probably seeing her in past performances and seeing the dresses that she wore on display.  Something that I found interesting is that once you become famous, everything you own becomes valuable.  She had 4-H ribbons, certificates of completion and programs that were on display.  She was just a normal girl.  It made me wonder what they would put on display if I ever became famous!

Playing with the jukebox.  Adelyn would kick her little feet to the music so it looked like she was dancing.  It made us laugh!

 I don't really know who Webb Pierce is, but he had a pretty awesome car!  It talked about all the custom designs he made.  The car was so extravagant!  Every little feature had a custom detail!  There were guns on the door handles, a horse head on the gas tank, over 1000 silver dollars lining the dashboard, horseshoes on the pedals and so on!  It was amazing!

 They had walls of platinum and gold records!  Adelyn loved how shiny they were! I love when she squinches her nose when she smiles!

 They had an interactive center for kids.  Adelyn got to design her own cowgirl outfit!  She loved it!  After playing here a little while, one of the workers came and entered us in a drawing to win a guitar.  The worker casually mentioned that Taylor Swift donated 4 million dollars to the museum to create a kids area.  I am actually really excited about that and want to take Adelyn back after it opens.  I just think that Taylor Swift is the most generous, down to earth person.  She really impresses me! 

 We didn't get tons of pictures in the museum, but it was pretty spectacular!  I liked the second floor the best because it featured modern artists.  There was an extensive display of Carrie Underwood's wardrobe from one of her music tours.  It is crazy to think that less than a decade ago she was a normal person and now she is so famous that they want to display her belongings.  I think I would have a hard time giving up my clothes and awards to display.  I guess when you are rich enough, you never have to wear the same outfit twice.  Wouldn't that be the life?!

There were other artists that had their cars or first musical instrument or microphones or banners and much, much more.  I loved reading about each person and about who they are and where they began!

I would definitely recommend going if you are ever in the area!  It shows artist old and new, tells the history of music, shows the music across the country and shows the evolution of technology and instruments.