YEE HAW! Nashville 2010!

I am so glad I decided in a moment of weakness a few weeks back to book this trip! What a great time with such wonderful friends. I was weepy yesterday morning before I left. I must say, to my blogging family especially, you guys mean so much to me. You have been my life line for the past four and half years. It is so amazing to watch our children grow up and then to meet in person and have the kids so happy to be together. I wish us all a lifetime of memories together. I am already so excited about Anaheim next year and hoping the North East/Mid Atlantic group can do a few more get-togethers.

We did not stay in the main hotel. I figured with my son’s obsession for all-things trains, I would win the coolest mom of the century award for staying at the Union Station Hotel. This was a converted train station and freight trains rolled on by all day long. I mean this to Preston is the equivalent of myself in a shoe store. I called with a question a week prior and a very smarmy employee of said hotel who did not realize I don’t like to be spoken down to, tried to be “cute” and instead of me hanging up, I asked for her supervisor. I was upgraded to a suite by her supervisor. This suite would be every Manhattanite’s dream apartment! Including two bathrooms. I pulled the curtains back and there was a full view of the tracks right from the bedroom!

The hotel is a historic hotel of America-look how gorgeous the lobby is!

I have a ton of pictures, but most I will upload to Facebook. Saturday we spent the afternoon at the main hotel and met a lot of people. Here is Preston and Nate, Pres and Tonya and Pres and Nikki!

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Pres was obsessed with Baby Avery. He told me, “She’s the cutest little thing ever mommy!” He just talked about her incessantly!

Sunday more of our friends arrived and we we all met again at the hotel. Preston loved the stepstools everywhere! Courtesy of Jaime and Melissa, we had a huge get together for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Pres was a little less than savory at times. I think the combination of being overwhelmed at the convention and then people coming up to him to say “hi” was a bit much at times. I think I said his name 487 times a day. Sunday night was fireworks! The kids were so well behaved for waiting around almost two hours for the show to begin. Thankfully a wonderful fireman from the Nashville FD had a John Deere fire truck pull up and allowed all the kids a chance to don the fire helmet and “drive” the truck. We enjoyed the night with Jaime and Caty, the Camengas, the Weissers and Trish and Caden! I now totally understand Trish’s blog posts about Caden and his car, or vacuums or all things with wheels. He loved his stroller. He is the cutest. Caty-bug is a doll face and was one of the only girls. She got a LOT of attention. She finally stole Preston’s heart when she presented him with a train picture she colored herself!

Pres and Nikki being goofsters. Melissa is definitely one of Pres’ favorite moms. She would be an awesome mother to boys that is for sure!

Here are the three amigos. I just can have lunch with these three. I love how they talk to me too-if Seamus has a question it’s “Um Preston’s mom?” And Ethan it’s “So hey Kim.” Adorable. Love them both so much.

Monday we took a trolley ride around Nashville with Emily and Seamus and Trish and Caden. Nashville is not very kid-friendly at all and most of the tours were expensive and would never hold Preston’s interest. I’d love to go back with friends to enjoy the music and bars, sans kids.

How cool is this? The Parthenon is a replica of the original in Greece to 1/16th of an inch. If you look closely there are Pres and Seamus on the top of the hill!

The above is for Mel who really wanted to see Pres in a cowboy hat. Monday afternoon was the POLP meet and greet which Pres conked out for.

 

Then it was dinner and ice cream to celebrate Seamus’ birthday and a fun walk to the riverfront.

Tuesday was a bit of a bummer because we signed up to go on the Duck Tour (half land/half water) with Jaime and Caty and the Yiannakis family and the boat broke. But we had fun hanging out in downtown Nashville together. Sadly it was our last day and we got home late last night. It was so much fun. Check out my album on FB. Love you guys again. Thank you for the memories!