Sunset on the Beach - Merry Christmas

Our Trip to Florida for the holiday was a whirlwind of Amazing!  Getting to spend Christmas with my Parents is of course Awesome and we haven't done it in many many years which made it all the more special.  

We saw a  neighborhood that every house decorates for Christmas we were one of many cars going slowly through this area and all the homeowners were out socializing it was pretty GREAT.  We saw Santa and even Snow(albeit from a snow machine).  We relaxed in the hot tub and pool every single day we were there.  And my Mom fed us way too much food which is what Mom's do on the holidays.

We also came home to super happy puppies.  They had Correy all to themselves for 3 days and that was just fine with them!   Then we had a wonderful Christmas day on the 26th.

Hope everyone had a Wonderful Holiday!

Giant Gingerbread House

 We were lucky enough to visit the Ritz Carlton in Naples FL to see the Giant Gingerbread house this Holiday Season.  It is truly impressive.  We were so excited since we watched the Holiday Baking Championship and were great supporters of the Ritz Carlton's pastry chef Lerome Campbell. 

 This house is built of 1200 gingerbread bricks, 294 lbs of honey, 240 lbs of sugar, 464 eggs, 13 lbs of baking soda, 74 lbs of milk, 8 lbs of baking powder, 48 lbs of ginger, 3 lbs of cinnamon, 756 lbs of AP flour, 44 lbs of egg whites, 391 lbs of icing sugar and wait for it.....

 60,000 pieces of candy!

 As well as 1,000 labor hours to build it!

It was quite impressive we had a great time visiting it and admiring all of the beautiful work by amazing the amazing artists.

Recap Franklin Visit

 

Vienna is home in Tennessee where she can run and play in the sun.

You know she's thinking I never want to go back to that Snowy Place.

First day we all spent outside it was near 70 and a relief from our long winter.

 Out to dinner with Jayce!

Cousins playing.

 Awesome Birthday Headgear for the Birthday Girl!

Ok maybe she likes it or is she just pretending?

 Daddy thinks she looks great!

With Grandma and Grandpa!

Blowing out the candles!  The staff at the Mellow Mushroom was Awesome!

Couldn't resist the ducks in the claw game!

Last night dinner and live music at Puckets Grocery! 

Last day of Trip

Last day of our trip to TN we drove to KY and visited Diamond Caverns where we did the cave tour and then the kids bought bags of fossils and arrow heads and enjoyed finding in the picture above.

After that it was a super long drive home!   We didn't get here until after 10:30pm and everyone was exhausted.  I hope everyone had a great time it seems like except for the whining in the car Dave and myself included!

So today it's totally back to normal for everyone! Phew...

Today we were off to the Zoo, one of the things the kids really really wanted to do on this trip.  We were lucky to have Amazing weather the entire time we've been in Nashville.

Last time we were at the Zoo the Flamingos weren't in place yet.

Can you spot the little girls in the tree house at the Zoo, the main reason they love it here....

After that we made it to the Puffy Muffin for Lunch and then to relax for awhile before picking up fired pottery pieces and heading off to dinner at the Mellow Mushroom.  I did get the opportunity to meet Mom's Art teacher who seems wonderfully talented and totally sweet I can see why she enjoys her classes so much.

We are off to bed early tonight we head home tomorrow with a couple of stops along the way.

Relaxing Sunday

Meet Gary....  Abbi found him in the backyard at Grandmas under a rock.  She carried him around and played with him for a long long time. 

Today we just explored downtown Franklin and then grilled and ate outside.  A very pleasant day.  After dinner Dave and I headed off to a lantern tour of The Hermitage, which was wonderful.

Shot from the staircase in the foyer of The Hermitage.

Farmers Market, Babies & Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday Dave and I explored Antique stores while the girls were out and about with Grandma.  We ran into them at The Factory where we had lunch at Sapphire's and they were painting pottery in a little shop. 

This morning, Emily and I made it to the Franklin Farmers Market this morning!  WOW compared to our little local markets it was amazing.  Here are a few photos.

A subscription box from a local farm ready for delivery.

The tents went on and on.......

Geraldine's Chess Pie was utterly AMAZING we tried both the regular and the chocolate.  Later we had a minor pie emergency and caught up with her just in time to save the day!  Emily had lots of fun!

Gavin and Addison came for a visit they are so adorable aren't they. 

Off to the pumpkin patch in Leiper's Fork to pick pumpkins!

The entire day was a lot of fun!  Phew!  Time to rest.

On The Road

Just outside of Mammoth Cave in KY the deer walked right up to our car.  The wild turkeys ran away quickly when I tried to take their picture, all I got were butts as usual.

Today we left from home around 7:30am and headed to Nashville.  We stopped and did a 2mile hiking tour of Mammoth cave.  There were 440 stairs which Emily thought was horrific.  Abbi on the other hand only said, watch your head Daddy well that is until she stood up in one spot and hit her head, and she's the shortest of all of us!   Anyway we learned a lot about the miles of caves and had fun.  Then it was on To Grandma's House.  We didn't arrive until around 9pm so we're off to bed....