We set out on a family vacation with Danny's mom, step-dad, sister and niece for Nashville... We were excited to be spending time with them and the fun things we had planned along the way.
A stop at "The Whole Hog" for lunch in Little Rock, AK- fabulous BBQ and especially the ribs
We stayed overnight in Memphis to see the ducks at the Peabody hotel and Graceland. Here's the craziness of the Peabody hotel- we arrived 30 minutes before the "show" and the entire lobby was FULL of people waiting! It was unbelievable!
We we lucky to walk up behind some nice adults who let Brayden and I sit on the floor to watch the ducks make their nightly march to the elevator and up to their home on the roof of the hotel- a tradition that's been going on for 30 plus years!
http://www.peabodymemphis.com/peabody-ducks/
And the 30 second march began...the music played, the duck master put the stairs down in front of their fountain in the middle of the lobby, the ducks marched down the red carpet to the elevator and got on it with the duck master.
Sunday morning, we headed to Graceland- the home of Elvis Presley
On the bus, headed to the house, listening to the audio tour
The house is only 3000 sq ft- I had imagined it being MUCH bigger- they only have the bottom floor and surrounding buildings open for tour- the only areas Elvis let visitors see as well.
All ready for our tour
They left the home exactly was it was when he died upstairs- pretty remarkable- it even smelled like a dusty, 1970's home-
Downstairs basement room with three tv's- very unsual for that time- he found out the president watched all three evening news shows at the same time and wanted to be able to do the same
The famous jungle room- the backwall is a big fountain- with Lisa Marie's panda bear in the chair- it was very worn and obviously loved
The raquetball arena that the've turned into more gold/platinum record storage walls and outfits
His grave, along with his parents
His car museum- Priscilla's famous pink cadillac
We finally arrived in Nashville Sunday evening and headed to a local restaurant for dinner- the kiddos loved the cow out front
A trip to a new city wouldn't be complete without a stop at the zoo for us- this one wasn't much at all, but I do have to say the habitats, that are overgrown, look much more realistic than many other zoos :)
The tunnel in the meerkat exhibit
The super small train
Kelbie and Aunt T-T
One of the first times Brayden wanted to ride the carousel and was happy to do it-
One morning, we took a hop on hop off trolley tour of the city- it would have been much better if the mini-bus had a working A/C and it wasn't over 100 degrees outside- but we learned a bit of history and got to see the city
Our only stop was for lunch and we ventured to the famous Pancake Pantry- we didn't see anyone famous that we could recognize- but it's a frequent stop for most of the stars
Brayden had "Bears in the Snow"- chocolate chip bear shaped pancakes with powder sugar- he LOVED them, can you tell?!
We spent a lot of our time relaxing and by the pool- the resort had a kids activity similar to Build a Bear, but much cheaper- so we took the kids and they loved it!
Slowly stuffing his bear with LITTLE bits of stuffing
Making sure it was soft enough
Coloring Percy the Tiger's new shirt
He took his time and did all of the coloring on the shirt-
Kelbie with her Pig and Brayden with his Percy the Tiger
After visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame, we ventured to another historic ice cream shop- Brayden loved his mint chocolate chip ice cream with cherries on top :) ( I promise, we did it healthy most of the trip, but did have quite a few treats to keep him entertained)
Danny and I celebrated our 6th anniversary on the road, so while we were there his parents and sister offered to watch Brayden one evening so we could go out to eat-
Danny found this lovely restaurant in old Germantown, that had views of the city- very good meal and great company! I love you precious!
Friday we went over to the Gaylord Opryland to look around and took their little boat tour-
And watched the fountain show....
We had a wonderful, relaxing, vacation- enjoyed spending it with family and being together.
