Total Takes on Nashville

TOTAL Youth Leadership visits the State Capitol

TOTAL Goes to Nashville

Ally and her TOTAL Leadership group traveled to Nashville today to visit the State Legislature and our Capitol Building. I was a little concerned about them riding on a school bus with the temperatures so low and more snow threats on they way. I had her backpack filled with lots of emergency goodies...a flashlight, hand warmers, battery backups for her phone, a blanket, snacks, bottled water, etc. Pretty much everything you could think of you "might" need!

They made it fine, of course! But, I have tried to teach the kids it is better to be prepared than not. She really enjoyed the trip, as she has enjoyed ALL of the TOTAL activities. If she heard once, she heard a million times, how "natural" she looked in this chair. 

Abby Goes to Nashville!

Abby, being the West TN Area Representative for the State of TN Student Council Board, has to attend several meetings throughout the year in and around Nashville. She had her first official meeting at the state park right outside of Nashville. Of course, we had to tie in a visit to Aunt Jan! Abby was able to spend the night with Aunt Jan on Friday night, do some serious shopping, veg a little bit, and head to her meeting Saturday morning. 

Abby being silly while we were shopping! 

A Nashville tradition (yes, I just got a pedicure with Ally two weeks ago)...pedicures!

You have to be quick on the trigger to get a candid shot of Abby these days. This is her when we were making a mad dash to Green Hills Mall. After we dropped Abby off at her meeting, Jan and I went to a birthday party for a friend of hers. Then, we had dinner at my new favorite place, one of the M Street restaurants. I LOVE going there with Jan...Awesome time!

Abby pictured with her "Executive Board" friends. She left her retreat motivated and ready to take on the world! Gotta LOVE it! 

Ally Goes to Nashville!

Talk about a last minute weekend rendezvous! Abby was headed to St Louis with the youth group and Ally cooked up a girls weekend in Nashville! In a matter of minutes, Ally decided she and I would drive her Sittie and Jidi to Nashville and visit Aunt Jan for the weekend. What was a last minute weekend getaway ended up being an awesome shopping excursion and nice visit with Aunt Jan. Sorry Aunt Jan, this weekend was "ALL ABOUT ALLY"! 

We headed straight to our favorite shoe store, Off Broadway, where Ally purchased several pairs of cute shoes. I grabbed a couple for myself, too! 

Friday night we ate at the Cheesecake Factory! Yummy!

Saturday we headed to Opry Mills and took advantage of the tax free weekend. Look at Sittie and Ally trying on fascinators...aren't they so cute!

Ally just had to take this picture for our friend, Eric. He has this exact outfit. He is such the clothes connoisseur. Looking good, Eric! 

Whoever thought that Sittie and Jidi would be so attached to their iPhone? They are BOTH addicted to SOLITAIRE!

Wouldn't you know that it started to pour down rain the minute we decided to leave. Ally got Sittie a shopping bag to put over her precious hair. Aunt Jan, well she just decided to wing it.

Backpack shopping...

Green Hills Mall shopping...

A Nashville tradition...pedicures and manicures at Signature Salon...a MUST do when we go to visit Aunt Jan!

Ally was in her "delirious" state by the end of the night.  You should have seen all of the goodies she bought. She is definitely ready for high school now.

Ally and Sittie eating their ice cream on the way home. As you can see, Ally was EXHAUSTED on the way home and slept most of the way. What a fun weekend in Nashville! Thanks to Aunt Jan for having us!

Nashville Bound

Ally had a student council state executive board meeting at Montgomery Bell State Park August 13-14.  We have been trying to get to Nashville all Summer to visit with Aunt Jan. So, I decided to plan a "girls weekend" in Nashville and a "boys weekend" in Covington. Jud and O did "man stuff" and we did "girls stuff"! We all decided that we should do that more often. It is nice sometimes to be able to focus on one or two kiddos instead of all three. We always have such a good time in Nashville when we go...we leave saying we are coming back soon...and then life happens!

Friday when school was over, we hit the road. We made great time. We went to Aunt Jan's place and unpacked. Then we all decided we were ready for our pajamas, so we ordered The Cheesecake Factory to go. Just as we were starting to eat Aunt Jan walked in the door from her happy hour for her friends birthday. We just sat and visited and enjoyed each other's company. It was a nice night and we went to bed by 10pm! FYI...food was delish and cheesecakes were AWESOME!

We hit it pretty early saturday morning because we had "things to do" before Ally had to be at the meeting. We started out at The Donut Den a Naifeh tradition! We got the usual...glazed, chocolate, blueberry cake, and donut holes...

We grabbed our goodies and went to Signature Nails & Spa for another Naifeh Nashville Tradition - a pedicure! Ahhh...it was great...I hadn't had one since before July 4th! It felt wonderful. Thanks to Sittie for treating us!

Then we went to the sporting goods store that always has great deals. We picked up some spandex, UA, running shorts, etc. After that, we raced over to the shoe store, Off Broadway, where we had NO LUCK and NO FUN. We left there and raced to have lunch at yet another Naifeh Nashville tradition...Otters Chicken!

We devoured our lunch and raced to take Ally to the meeting. She DID NOT want to leave us and miss out on our plans for the rest of the day, but she had to. We dropped her off and then went to the mall. We had a little success there. Abby's favorite store was the candy store, of course!

Abby (and I) was POOPED by then and we were ready to go back to Aunt Jan's and rest and veg. We went back to the house and started working on Aunt Jan's Ipad! We had lots to do to get her setup. She is new to Apple so we were trying to teach her the basics. We downloaded a ton of Apps - her favorite - Pandora. We started getting hungry and decided to go to Mafiaozas for pizza. It was delicious. They have the best breadsticks with cheese. We watched a little of the Titans preseason game and then headed back to the house.

Abby went straight to the pajamas and bed. I think we had worn her out! Jan and I worked on her Ipad a little more and had another early bedtime! NICE! This picture is of Abby going through the "toy trunk" from when the kids were little. I remember Abby wearing this visor that the Easter Bunny gave her one year. Her Daddy brought her the Groovy Girl from Las Vegas one year!

We left Nashville around 9am and went to pick Ally up. When we got there, she wasn't finished yet so Abby and I took a picture through the peep hole!

We  met Dad and Oney in Jackson for lunch at Coyote Blues'.  We got back home around 3:00pm. What a fun weekend! Aunt Jan - we are coming back REAL soon!

P.S. I will have to do a separate post on what the boys did all weekend:-)