Memorial Day Weekend 2017- Nashville

Memorial Day Weekend...

Nate's cousin got married on Sunday in Nashville, TN...so we decided to make a long weekend out of it.  We lived in Nashville for a year before coming home to start our family, and we hadn't been back since.  We looked forward to seeing our old places, visiting some of our favorite restaurants (the food in Nashville is CRAZY good!), and just reminiscing on our time in Nashville.  Nate and I got so much good time in just the two of us there.  

..Thursday..

We drove down Thursday afternoon and stopped in Bowling Green, Kentucky for the night at a hotel.  It's about an hour north of Nashville, and the boys were just DONE.

..Friday..

We woke up and got breakfast at an amazing little place and then drove straight to the Nashville zoo.

To be completely honest, I was so disappointed in the zoo. We went there once when we lived there but I didn't remember it much at all, and it was before we had kids...so the experience was really different.  We have a zoo pass here at home and even though our zoo is about 1/4 of the size...I think our zoo had WAY more animals.  It felt like you walked a whole mile in between animals, there were some dead ends where there were no animals, and then sometimes there were places where you couldn't exit if you wanted to...you just had to keep walking on a forever long bridge while your two year old is screaming mad because he got disciplined because he hit you... Fun times y'all. Not only that, but the signage was really poor and they would have an arrow for the "exit" and then you'd go that way and then there would be no more sign for the Exit and also no exist. Huh? 

ANYways.  Not our favorite zoo nor favorite memory. Can you tell from the lack of pictures? haha.

We hit up Chuy's for lunch before crashing at the hotel for afternoon naps.

Then we went to The Pharmacy for dinner (if you're ever in Nashville...go here and request to sit outside in the garden. It's beautiful).  The boys played in the rocks while we waited- I told Nate at that point it was their favorite part of the trip :) The Pharmacy has awesome burgers and probably my most favorite shakes. Yum.  The shakes made up for the bad day. That's how good they are. 

..Saturday..

Saturday was rainy, so we spent our day at the mall.  We went to Outdoor World (we don't have one anywhere close to us) and looked at all the big boats, 4 wheelers, and fake? bears, deer, etc. Jacoby LOVED it. We tried to get a good picture but real life set in...and the pictures above are all we got :) There was an old couple just cracking up watching the boys scramble all over the place while I tried to snap a pic!

We ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe...both kids were in awe and I'm pretty sure it was Jacoby's favorite meal ever. $60 lunch, of course it was ;)

We went back for naps and then met Nate's family for pizza at Mellow Mushroom. 

..Sunday..

Sunday was supposed to be rainy but ended up beautiful.  We drove by our old apartment (I was almost in tears...just so many memories, particularly with Wiley) and by my old work.  We got Starbuks and we headed to one of the best parks in Nashville, Centennial Park.  We walked along the pond, Coby threw rocks in, and Nate + I just talked a lot about our life in Nashville.  It was refreshing to be back for a bit.  Sometimes you don't realize that you miss a place until you go back.

The boys played on the playground at the park and then we went to Newk's (one of Nate's favorite spots) for lunch before driving around for an hour while the boys napped.  I had every intention of going to Savannah's, the best candy shop in Nashville, and getting the boys a treat.  We got downtown while driving around so the boys would sleep (...we had already checked out of our hotel), but downtown was INSANE.  So many people, and I was sure the line would be unreal at Savannah's , so I opted to not go.  I think that's the first time I've been to Nashville and not gotten something there :( 

We went back to Nate's parents' hotel to change for the wedding.

The outside wedding was beautiful (yay Emily + Andrew!) and both boys behaved really well.  I was hoping to get a family picture of all of us, but it turns out chasing both boys around made me forget.  Then Jacoby had a meltdown and Maddox was tired, so we left without a picture.  #ugh

We put jammies on the boys in the parking lot before we left the wedding site and hit the road rightaway.  Our ETA on my phone was 4:30am.  We stopped once in Indy to stretch, get gas, pee, and get a snack.  Both boys went back to sleep and we got home at 4:45am, put the boys down, cleaned up Jacoby's throw up from his car seat (car sickness I think?) and then went to bed at 5:30am praying that the boys wouldn't wake up in 2-3 hours.  

..Monday..

Praise the Lord they slept until 11am!  We did nothing all day on Monday and it was awesome...In the evening we went to a park and had a picnic before coming home, doing the normal nighttime routine (bath, lotion, books + bed). 

Whew. What a weekend.  I love traveling with our boys...it teaches us all patience and flexibility...and we get to have so much fun exploring together.  

But let me just say how excited I am to travel to Greece, just the two of us :)

Hoping your weekend was long + spent with those you love. Thankful for the people who fight every day to keep our freedom. 

xox,

Naomi