The Family Invasion

Well the Fam made it out to Nashville for a week of fun! Mom and Dad flew in from Salt Lake City and Chris and Allen flew in from Orlando. It was nonstop excitement (or at least it seemed like it) while they were here! Mom celebrated her birthday while she was here. She loved having all of her family with her to celebrate. Her favorite part of her birthday was seeing her favorite child (me!) perform in the Christmas Spectacular. Here's some pictures of us and the many things we did.

My parents and I drove to the state of Alabama. I can now add that to the list of states I have visited.

Our first full day began (way too early) with a trip to ICE. ICE is an exhibit filled with ice sculptures. Everything is made out of ice. This year's theme was How the Grinch Stole Christmas. ICE was super fun with all the bright colors and super cold! My fingers were frozen by the end of it.

There was even an ice slide which Mom totally loved. She had to be dragged off of it!

Then we headed off to the Belmont Mansion. (Yes, Jim, apparently you have a fortune awaiting you here in Tennessee. Who knew?) This lady named Adelicia had a HUGE fortune. She had three husbands and gave birth to 10 children. (Only 4 children survived to adulthood.) After touring the mansion, it made me immensely grateful I live now instead of 200 years ago. Here's a picture of Mom, Chris, and Allen on the steps of the Belmont Mansion.

Another day we went miniature golfing in the outlet mall near the Grand Ole Opry. The miniature golf was totally dark inside but the course glowed thanks to flourescent colors and black lights. That was a lot of fun! I even got two holes in one!!

Thanksgiving Day was spent with my cousin Vanessa and her family who drove to Nashville from Blacksburg (or something like that), Virginia. We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, via buffet, at a hotel. I ate too much because I felt lazy the rest of the day. Lazy is fine if you sit around and watch TV the rest of the day. Unfortunately I had the privilege of playing perky elf that evening. Boy, was that fun! Anyway, I had a great show which my mom and Vanessa were able to watch. Then I gave Va the exclusive backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry (which I gave my family the evening before when they came to the show)!

I love my family and am so grateful they took time out of their busy schedules to visit me. But I must admit, I love being back on my own time. I enjoy not being rushed in the morning to be ready by a certain time. I love to lay in bed until I am ready to get up. I love to exercise at my leisure (is that an oxymoron?). I love to eat breakfast between 11 AM and noon. Oh yeah, I HATE alarm clocks! They are the bain of my existence!