that time i gained 60 lbs from all that southern food

i'm back for the rest! ready?

so after the parthanon we headed to what is called "the district" {aka: downtown nashville} and just walked around a bit before we headed to vanderbilt to pick up my sister and dad.

after we picked them up we went to the bass pro shop {norm was in heaven} and the girls decided to go next door to the mall :) 

then somewhere in there we went to a place to eat called Demo's. not gonna lie....best breadsticks ever. 

 but, we were headed to the grand ole opry that night so my mom wanted to show us the opryland hotel....which i must say, was pretty impressive...

here's a couple pics of the inside:

then off to the opry house we went!! i was so excited! i like live music.

guys.....i don't love country...i like it...and i love some of it...but i absolutely loved this concert.

these girls could turn me....

{name the movie}

this was the line up:

Greg Bates {loved him}

Jeanie Seely

Maggie Rose {she had released her first album that day...i liked her}

The Steeldrivers {a little odd}

Gritz & Glammer {Pam Tillis and Laurie Morgan}

Jesse....something...a really old guy that played the mandolin really good....like really good.

and none other than Dierks Bentley

it was so good, guys. and my friend, dierks gave us a taste of his new album and tried a new song out on us and it was absolutely wonderful. can't wait to hear it again when it comes out.

my phone was dying so i only got pics of Greg and Dierks.

{greg}

{greg}

{dierks}

{dierks}

so to sum it up...tuesday was the bomb. best. day. ever. as my niece, jenna, would say.

wednesday was also a favorite day....i should just stop saying that and say that the whole week was my favorite. but we got to go to district meeting with my parents. i never served a mission so i have never been to one. and guys...i liked it a lot. it was so uplifting. they had the best trainings and we did some role playing. norman and i played a spanish couple investigators named Jorje and i was Pilar for the spanish sister missionaries to practice on. i could really feel the spirit as they were teaching, even though we  were just role playing.

after district meeting we headed to the loveless cafe that we had heard so much about. it was delicious of course....as was most the food on this trip. 

then we went back to the district so kelsey and norman could see it, too. plus we needed to get some souvenirs of course.

we saw this random band playing on the sidewalk.

{these guys got a lot of attention...and the single guy across the street playing the mandolin wasn't too happy about it} 

for some reason these guys reminded me of fantastic mr. fox....don't know why.

then we came home and decided to watch wreck it ralph....cause i thought my dad desperately needed to see it...he loves those movies. so my mom made carmel corn and we put the movie on the laptop on the chair in the living room and watched it. :) {they don't have a tv}

thursday was dedicated to resting. my dad was pretty worn out and we all needed a little break from site seeing. so we took it easy that day. ran some errands with my mom. went to a place called cheddars for dinner. {kelsey said it was the best ribs she's ever had}.

then we went to my dads institute class that night, which as always, was wonderful and uplifting and enlightening.

friday was our last day in tennesee. :( 

we went on General Jacksons steamboat cruise dinner...thing.

it was dinner and a show...on a boat down the river :)

this guy is Audie Shields. he plays the steel guitar in a little comedy band thing. he's really good. and he was in norman's ward growing up back here in idaho a long time ago. he remembered norman and gave us a free cd to give to normans dad who he liked a lot and wanted us to say hi to.

after the cruise we headed to the parthanon to go through it with everyone

these two statues above are portions of what is left of the original parthanon in greece. the first one is what's left of athena and the second is Poseidon.

this is the inside. a replica of the statue they had of athena in greece.

some massive doors. {the little sign said they're the biggest doors....ever} :)

my dad bein a cool kid.

after all our fun, we went home and had some dinner, played this hilarious game that we laughed for ever about...and went to bed.

saturday morning we woke up at 4:30 am to head out for our 28 hour drive home.....absolutely awful....again.

we left at 5 am saturday morning...drove non stop and got home sunday morning at 8:45. ugh....

i was so happy to see idaho that i snapped this blurry picture of the "welcome to idaho" sign. thank goodness.

it was honestly the best trip! we had so much fun and it was so nice to see my parents and see what they have been doing and to meet the kids that love them so much in that little murfreesboro branch.

until next time, tennessee!