Gilmores Take Nashville

Emmy's birthday is next week and we will be hosting family for the special day.  My parents actually came out a week early because Big Daddy Mike attended the MGMA Healthcare Conference in Nashville this year, so we tagged along and spent a few days in the Music City.  The conference was being held in the Gaylord Opryland hotel, which is where we stayed.  It was massive and felt almost like a miniature theme park.

One of the sections of the hotel was a huge shopping and eating area with restaurants and stores.  It also had a man-made river flowing through it and boat rides you could enjoy.  It had the feel of a little town, but it was all indoors.

We think Emmy loved taking it all in.  There was always something to look at or observe.  She also insisted that we let her try on some cowgirl hats.  She couldn't really find one she liked, but we thought she was cute in all of them.

Here I am standing on the balcony of our room.  Our window and balcony faced the inside of the hotel, which only was annoying when a guy walked down those stairs at 3:00 AM with music blaring on his phone.  Overall, though, it was fun staying at the hotel.

Right next to the hotel is the Grand Ole Opry and a mall.  When we weren't at the hotel, we went exploring over that way.  In the mall there was an aquarium restaurant we tried one night.  The food was good, but it was mostly interesting for Emmy to watch the fish swimming in the massive tank in the middle of the restaurant.

When my dad was done with his conference sessions, we went out to explore more of Nashville.  We jumped on one of those trolley tours that takes you around the city on a guided tour.  You can get off at any of the stops, but we just cruised through the whole thing so that we could see everything.  Here is the Tennessee State Capitol building:

At the end of the tour, Cory and I walked a couple of blocks to the Goo Goo Cluster store.  Goo Goo Clusters are delicious and Cory kind of became addicted to them on this trip.  Once she saw the store, it was all over.  We had to go inside.  We watched some clusters being made and bought a box for the road.  I also learned that Al Gore (from Tennessee), when he was vice president, would hand out Goo Goo clusters to kids at Halloween from the Vice President's mansion.

Speaking of elected officials.  The state of Tennessee was home to the 7th President of the United States, Andrew Jackson.  Just outside of Nashville is The Hermitage, his home, which has been turned into a historical landmark and museum.  Andrew Jackson is also on the $20 bill.  We thought we would see what Emmy would look like as President.

Cory couldn't resist either.  She definitely has my vote.

The actual house and the grounds were very impressive, considering when it they were built.  We got some of the headphones for the self-guided audio tour, so we could pick and choose things we wanted to learn more about.  

Here is where General Jackson and his wife are buried out in the garden, along with Uncle Alfred, a slave who was freed but stayed at the Hermitage working for the family.  There was a whole section about him in the audio tour, but I had a difficult time believing that Uncle Alfred's life and experience at the Hermitage was as romantic as the tour made it out to be.

We had a great time in Nashville and have Big Daddy Mike and Gigi Page to thank for that!  They always made the effort when I was younger to take Lacey and me to fun places, and also to historical landmarks for educational experiences.  In fact, it became a joke in the family that Dad would take a 100 mile detour if he saw a historical marker sign on a road trip.  We are glad we could tag along in Nashville.

Stax Records

We are always on the lookout for free things to do in Memphis.  This week we headed to Stax Records, also the home of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music.

It didn't look like much on the outside, but this was a really extensive museum.  They had great exhibits.  I recognized names like Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes, both Stax Records artists, but most of the content of the museum was foreign to me.  Even though we didn't know much about the artists, it still was really entertaining.  Some of the highlights were a Soul Train dance floor and Isaac Hayes' restored 1972 Cadillac El Dorado.

Story Time!

Cory has been fantastic about taking Emmy to the weekly story time at our public library.  Every once in a while, they do special ones on Saturday that I can go to as well.  This Saturday is was an international story time all about China.  It was for the kids, but I was enthralled and learned a few things, too.  Emmy was speaking in Chinese the whole time.  No one could understand her.

We try to reinforce her love of reading at home, too.  She loves turning the pages of the books that we read with her.

She loves reading by herself, as well.  We didn't have the heart to tell her that she wasn't actually reading.  Fake it 'til you make it! 

Can You Walk?

With Emmy crawling, she has a lot more fun at the little play area at the mall.  She will crawl all around that place, and today we watched her pull herself up onto her feet.  She looked over at us like she was thinking about walking over to us.  We kept calling to her, "Can you walk? Walk to us!"

She just stared...

Trips to the Zoo

We spent a lot of the summer visiting the zoo.  We have mentioned before that it's free on Tuesdays, so it is a family favorite.  Emmy is getting big enough to start to notice the animals, and it is fun to watch her watch them.

Cory likes going through Cat Country, and the elephants.  I will admit, the big cats are pretty cool.

My favorite, though, has always been the apes.  Gorillas have been my favorite animal for most of my life.  The big male silverbacks exude coolness and power.  This dude is super buff, like me.

Keep Crawling!

Emmy has started to crawl!  We were starting to wonder if she would ever do it.  We are so proud of how hard she works to get around.

Emmy Learns to Swim

This summer we have been taking Emmy to the pool for some fun in the sun.  She has become quite the water baby.  She floats around in her personal barge, complete with shaded hood.  It is fun to watch her explore and discover what it is like to be in the water.

As soon as she is out of the floaty, I start playing with it.  I thought I could sneak up on everyone using it as camouflage. 

It is hot out here in Memphis, so we enjoy the family time keeping cool.

Here is a video from our YouTube channel of Emmy jumping into the pool.  She is fearless! 

Visit From the Sabeys

Elder!!!  My old mission companion, Tyler Sabey, and his wife, Emma, were driving through Memphis on their move to Georgia and stopped in for a visit.  He is starting a PhD at The University of Georgia.  Go Bulldogs!

It is always fun to see them and visit, even if we only got an afternoon together.  Best of luck to the Sabeys as they start a new chapter in Georgia!

Our Day At Dollywood

Soon after getting home from Wyoming, we were off on another adventure!  We headed east to Knoxville, Tennessee for the weekend with our friends Steven & Katie Skovran and Jaimen & Cali Dixon.  Steven is from Knoxville so we stayed a night at his parents house and then headed the next morning to Dollywood!

You may remember that we took Emmy to Disneyland earlier in the year, but this was going to be our first time having her at an amusement park for an entire day.  We were a little worried we would have to leave early, but the day started out pretty well.  She started to feel the excitement on the tram ride from the parking lot.

Dollywood was a lot bigger, and cooler, than we expected.  It was a really nice park.  There were fun rides, tons of awesome smelling food, neat stores, and cool Dolly Parton memorabilia.  We were on the lookout for Dolly all day, but never found her.  We did go through her tour bus, though. 

Emmy was a trooper the whole day.  We never had to leave, and she never fussed.  We made sure to keep her hydrated and well fed, which was all she really needed for a happy day.

Steven was an expert on Dollywood, which I appreciate as a self-proclaimed expert on Disneyland.  You need to know a park well to get the most out of it.

In the afternoon, when the heat was at its peak, Cory, Emmy and I broke off from the rest of the group and headed to the air-conditioned theater to watch a bubble show.  Mostly we just wanted to escape the heat and rest, but the show ended up being spectacular.  I didn't know you could do so many cool and entertaining things with bubbles.

The finale of the show was filling the whole place with bubbles.  Emmy was LOVING it.

This sweet girl took a few naps throughout the day, which made us feel good.  She would just quietly catch some zzz's without fussing.

The naps helped her have a happy disposition when she was awake!

I don't know if you have heard of Dippin' Dots.  They have been the ice cream of the future for the past 20 years.  They were necessary to keep the body temperatures at an optimal level.

From Dollywood we headed to a cabin we rented in the Smoky Mountains, where we were going to stay for a couple of nights.

It was a fun and rustic atmosphere.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out at the cabin and exploring Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.  We heard Gatlinburg described as the Redneck Riviera.  All I know is, Pigeon Forge should be crowned the Pancake House, Mini-Golf, Outdoor Go-Kart, Dinner Theater Capitol of the World.  Gatlinburg had some of that stuff as well, but Pigeon Forge was on another level.  We caught some of the live music while walking through Gatlinburg.

Steven requested eating dinner at Bubba Gump's, so we all headed there for some seafood and Forrest Gump movie trivia.  I had never been to a Bubba Gump's that I know of, so it was a fun experience for us.  We loved our trip to East Tennessee, and appreciate the invitation from our friends.

Wyoming Weekend

A couple of months ago, my dad called me up and asked if, as a birthday gift to my mom, we would be able to fly up to Wyoming for her birthday weekend.  It sounded like a great idea to us, so we put it on our calendar.  Well, the weekend finally arrived and we hopped on a plane to Denver, where we would get on a connecting flight to Wyoming.  Just as we were about to land in Denver, the pilot announced that the airport had closed all the runways due to bad weather, and we would have to wait to land.  Emmy and I decided to take a quick nap.

We circled and circled and circled before the pilot said we had run out of fuel and would have to divert to Colorado Springs.  We then sat on the Colorado Springs tarmac for 5 hours because the airport would not let anyone outside due to lightning.  Once we got inside, it was chaos.  Fourteen other flights had done the same as we did, so the small airport was not prepared for 1000+ people to show up unexpectedly.  There were no rental cars.  They didn't have enough shuttles to take everyone to Denver.  While waiting and after having called my parents multiple times, I noticed a man at the rental car counter walking away with keys.  I ran over there and found out that they were renting out cars that hadn't been cleaned yet from previous customers.  He told the one girl ahead of me that they only had one car left: a 7 passenger van for $300+ dollars.  The girl declined and I stepped up to the counter and said, "I'll take it!"  It was past midnight and that van was like a luxurious paradise to us.

So we drove this baby an hour north to Denver and stayed the night in a hotel.  It was a bit of a nightmare, but Emmy was the best baby we could have asked for.  She wasn't upset at all.  The next morning we got on our flight and they upgraded us to first class, so that was neat.  The cookie was delicious.

We finally made it to our destination, 18 hours late, so we had to start making up for lost time!  Emmy had a fun time taking a bath in Grandma's sink.

Grandpa Mike helped out as well.

It was Emmy's first time to Wyoming and she seemed to be having a great time her first day.

The next day was Grandma Page's birthday.  Emmy met her cousin Ebin and Uncle Chris for the first time, and was happy to see Aunt Lacey and Rhiannon again.  Grandma decided to have empanadas and milanesa for her birthday dinner, and I was not complaining!  Happy Birthday, Grandma!

The rest of the weekend was spent going on family walks around the block, playing with Winnie (Emmy was very curious about her, but Winnie wasn't very interested in Emmy), taking family pictures, and playing with fun toys.  We also established that Grandpa eventually wants to be called Big Daddy Mike (I think he is serious), and Grandma can be called Gigi Page (She isn't sold on it, but I think it is awesome).  

Time seemed to fly by and it was already time to go home.  Here is Big Daddy with his grandkids.

Saying goodbye to Aunt Lacey, Emmy did a big smile at just the right time.

Saying goodbye to Gigi at the airport.  We are grateful we could spend her birthday with her and the family.

Another perk of the weekend was we were able to take a family photo.  Emmy thought we were doing serious faces...

Family Pics 2015

Now that Emmy has gotten so big we wanted to get a few family shots of her to show how much she has grown.  She is so different than when she was a newborn.

Cory's mom took some photos of us at Shelby Farms, and they turned out great!

Then about a week later when we were in Wyoming we had another opportunity to get some family shots.  They all turned out great.

It's so important to us to make sure we have photos of us all together and looking our best through the years!

Let Freedom Ring

Fourth of July is one of Cory's favorite holidays.  Now that we aren't in Utah anymore and can't attend the absolutely massive fourth of July parade there, we have been in search of a great parade.

Last year we moved to Tennessee right before Fourth of July and were able to find this cute little Cordova City Parade.

  We decided it was such a fun time we went again this year.  We got all done up in our Fourth of July red white and blue and headed over.  It's such a small parade that there are always great seats and free stuff for everyone.  We all got flags to wave during the parade.

Emmy loved the parade and all the little kids that rode through on bikes and wagons at the end.

We ran into a family we know from church and the wife is the photographer that took Emmy's new born photos.  She was kind enough to snap this awesome photo of us!  The perks of knowing a great photographer!

After the parade they hand out chips and Popsicles and free soda.  It's a great little community parade and was perfect for Emmy.  We headed home for a lazy day of relaxing and swimming.  We had planned on going out to watch the Germantown Fireworks show but with Emmy heading to bed early we spent the night in and watched the Fourth of July at the White House on TV.

Love this country, love our veterans, and love special family time like we had today!