We left behind lots of very good friends when we left Texas. New Year’s weekend we got the chance to see some of them. Emma Price was one of Benjamin’s school mates in preschool in Texas … probably his best friend. We became very good friends with her parents. When the opportunity presented itself we jumped at the chance to meet them in the middle somewhere. We all decided on Nashville.
Benjamin was so excited at the prospect of seeing Emma again. About every two miles he’d ask us how much farther. That started getting a little old so Allison told him that we’d let him know every ten miles that we travelled.
When we first made our plans we thought we’d be staying at The Gaylord. The Prices had a camper though and were staying at the local Jellystone Park. It turns out that they have cabins that you can rent. We thought that it would be a lot nicer and more convenient to be closer to our friends, so it was the cabin for us! It also turns out that they had a Christmas light show that people staying at the camping area could go through for free (it was $25/car for everyone else) along with a kids area with bounce houses, a stand with fair type food, and a petting zoo. The light show was actually pretty amazing. We were at the park for four nights and we drove through the show three of them.
We spent New Year’s Eve in the cabin. We only stayed up to watch the ball drop in New York city which was 11pm since we were in Central Time. Even at that I was surprised that all of the kids made it. Maybe it had to do with the fact that they all got Christmas presents. In the case of our boys it was for the fourth time.
There wasn’t a whole lot open on New Year’s Day. One thing that was open was the Adventure Science Center. It’s a science museum with a million things for kids to do. I think that the children would have been happy staying there all day, but the grown ups started to get hungry … and hungry leads to hangry.
Noah and Dad in a flight simulator
On our last full day in Nashville we decided to head over to the Gaylord. There was a carved ice display in their convention center that we thought might be worth a look. It certainly was. Ben didn’t want to go in at first, but he warmed up to the idea. See what I did there? It was beautiful, and the slide was a lot of fun. It would have been more fun if we’d brought gloves and hats though. Luckily the coats were provided. Allie wondered how they were going to remove all of that ice when they were done. Brandon and I figured that they just turned off the air conditioning and let nature take its course.
After visiting the ice display we walked over to the hotel proper. That place is huge. It seems to be built around three huge arboretums. One of them even had a little boat ride that you could take while the “captain” gave a little talk about the history of the place. It was like a little self contained city. We sure had fun in the camp ground, but maybe we’ll stay in the hotel on our next trip.
For our last night in Nashville we first took another drive through the light show (of course) then headed over to the Price’s RV for hotdogs on the grill, a camp fire, and smores. The kids ran around like crazy people playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Even little Anna got in on the fun. Noah loves smores … like he would probably eat them until he threw up. Ben wouldn’t eat them, but he had a blast roasting marshmallows. It was a great way to spend our last night with friends.
After a sad farewell on Sunday morning we hit the road and headed home. It was marvelous to see Brandon, Deedee, Emma, and Anna. We’ll definitely to it again. Promises have already been made.
