that one time when i drove 28 hours to see my parents

for spring break this year we headed down to the oh so fabulous state of tennessee! and it was so fabulous that i have to separate it in different posts so i don't overwhelm anyone.

my parents are there serving an lds mission in murfreesboro and we haven't seen them since july, so we thought it was about time for a visit. plus, i've never been to tennessee and have only heard fabulous things about it....especially the food...{and lets be honest...most of the things i do are motivated by food}.

so norman, kelsey, and i made the 28 hour drive...one way......{straight...no stops for sleep...don't ever do it.....it's terrible} to the south. and although the drive was absolutely awful, the trip was totally worth it! :)

we arrived friday night and went to bed shortly after saying our hello's...obviously...after a 28 hour drive we were all pretty beat.
 

saturday morning we went to do a session in the nashville temple.
which was wonderful, of course.

afterwards, my parents drove us around to look at all the fabulously charming and massive houses.

{dolly parton's house}

after that we went home and just hung out. played games. ate some of my ma's cookin. it was great.

sunday was pretty relaxed, natrually, as sundays must be. 
this was probably one of my favorite days of the trip. we got to go to church with my parents and an exciting thing was happening.... we got to see a major result of all of my parents hard work so far. they have helped get enough young single adults to come to church every week that they were approved to make a murfreesboro single adult branch! and it was happening that sunday. everyone there was so excited and to be honest it was really cool to see everyone so thankful for my parents and their help in making this happen. the meeting was so so good. the speakers all did so well and my mom sang a song that was beautiful as always. it was really a touching meeting and i left feeling completely uplifted. then that night we had some more of my mom's great cooking and played some games :) always a good time with the rhoades family.

monday was pretty chill as well. we knew we would be eating pretty heavy that week so my sister and i joined my mom every morning to work out. afterwards my mom put me to work and i gave her hair a much needed makeover. :)

we then headed to see some civil war sites. one of those was the stones river battlefield. one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war, and also a major game changer...if you will.

these are all pictures from the battlefield and the cemetery:

then that night we had the opportunity to have dinner and meet a woman and her son that my parents have worked with and become close to. it was so nice to meet her and she had that sweet southern accent and all. so great. :)

now tuesday was exhausting. we had lots planned and it was a blast! {probably another favorite day}.

my sister had to go to vanderbilt hospital with my dad cause she's having some tests run to see if she's viable to donate a kidney to my dad. she had to be there from 7:30-around 2. so norman, my mom, and i had to kill some time.

and kill some time we did. in a very big way. 

 i have a story to share about it...but it gets its own blog post. :)
{story here}

but one of the things we did was went to breakfast with norman's cousin and her husband who live in goodletsville {i think i spellled that wrong}, which is about 20 minutes away from nashville. so they met us at a place called "the pancake pantry"

we got there first and there was a line out the door...so i knew it had to be good. it was this cute little corner shop in the middle of town and was absolutely adorable. so we get in line and start mentioning how long the line is and the man in front of us turns around and says "this is actually quite short compared to what it normally is, that's why i decided to come today. i'm from new york and whenever i've here for business i come here every time because it's so good." he was quite nice and even waved to us when he left and asked us how we liked it.    

below are us in line and then a picture of the inside:

and i'll have you know...it was absolutely delicious.

after that we needed some more time to kill, so we went and took some pictures at the parthanon. {which is very impressive...we all went back later and went inside and took more pictures...so that'll come in a different post} 

well, i'm gonna end it there...sorry to leave you mid-tuesday...but it just is too much if i add the rest. :)