Summer Fun

I love Nashville for all of the opportunities to listen to live music. In fact, I attend concerts multiple times a month. Sometimes with family, sometimes with friends, sometimes by myself. A friend of mine at the gym usually asks on Thursday mornings,  “Who are going to see this weekend?” She knows me well.

CMA fest was a great start to summer. Some of my favorites performed; many of them I’ve already heard live but I wanted to see them again. I was lucky to find a friend willing to ditch summer professional development to catch a few free performances riverside.

Sometimes you can get lucky and get a front row seat.

Later in the month, to celebrate Vikki’s 50th birthday, we attended a concert at an outdoor venue in Franklin. 

We get to do it again in a couple of weeks! 

Hiking Adventure

One of my dearest friends from work took me up on an offer for a road trip to the plateau to hike waterfalls. After three hours, after driving through a scary meth lab with lazy dogs in the middle of the road (that caused us to slow down in said scary meth lab), and after missing our turn because we were talking so much, we finally made it to our first stop: Stinging Fork Falls. This was two miles, but it was very steep. 

Next stop was the two mile Piney Falls Loop. We had no missed turns, but it took us a good minute (or ten) to figure out the All Trails map because one trail was above the other. 

Our last stop was Ozone Falls. This was not really a hike, but the shaded park was almost empty making it very peaceful and beautiful.

In May we vowed to hit a different park every week, but then my vacation, her vacation, my plans, her plans mean it will be more like a two time summer event. Next time, though, we are going to choose something closer to home and learn to read trail maps.

Summer Time

School’s out! Summer’s in! It has rained for four days in a row, though, so there’s been no time in the pool and no vitamin D production. Even with the heater on, the water’s too cold for me. By August I’ll be ready to get in, and by then, I’ll be back to work.

We hosted the family on Monday for a cookout, bags, and a dip in the pool. I took only two pics, but we had a house full!

But while we enjoyed the day together away from school and work, we are always cognizant of the reason for the holiday. 

This is the last year for the boot display. More than 8,000 combat boots line the headquarter’s lawn honoring the men and women connected to Campbell that have passed while defending our country since 9/11. A permanent display will honor them instead. 

Spring

Spring is my favorite season! I love the colors and watching everything bloom after the harshness of winter. My beds are looking so good this year. 

My tiger lilies should be blooming next. 

He is Risen

Saturday morning Evan woke up and exclaimed, “Mom! The Easter bunny didn’t come!”

No worries. He made it by Saturday night and left a basket full of treats for sinners - shooters and scratch offs. Because the Easter bunny is fun.

The family was reunited for church, lunch (the highlight was the coconut cake), and soaking up the UVs. We were at six today - perfection. 

Evan was a trooper and stood without support for a long time while we were taking pics. He’s in week 3 of non- weight bearing post-surgery and week 5 of not walking. His crutches are there hidden in the background. 

Look at that! Dad’s smiling. He must be thinking of that ham. 

He is risen. 

He is risen indeed. 

Vegas, Baby!

We retraced our steps and drove six hours back to Vegas for our flight home. We decided to spend our extra two hours on Fremont Street. 

I was captivated by the live music, the Michael Jackson street performer, and the weird people. Wes was not. Our two hours turned into 20 minutes. And then we sat at the airport. 

Home. Sweet Home. Can’t wait! 

Dead Horse Point

Today I was awakened at 0700 by my phone. Wes sent a text, “Are you up?” I thought for sure it meant something bad had happened overnight. I mean why else do you text that? Was it a tornado? Missing roof? House flooded? I jumped up, responded yes, and then got pissy mad when nothing bad had happened. He was just ready to start the day. I stayed up late reading last night, and I could have really slept another two hours. 

So all that to say we were up at the crack of dawn. We returned to Arches since we missed Double Arches yesterday during the pop up snow storm. Because it was so early, few people had made it this far into the park. 

From here we drove to the state park Dead Horse Point, a park not on my radar when I planned the trip, but we had the time so thought why not. I’m so glad we did. It was stunning! The legend says the point at the edge of the mesa was used as a natural corral for horses until one day the men had to leave and couldn’t take all of the horses with them. They left the weaker horses who eventually died of thirst. Ironically, the horses could see The Colorado River below them, but they had no way to get to it.

This was Utah’s little known version of Horseshoe Bend in Arizona. We hiked almost six miles today along the rim of the mesa. It was an easy hike with just a little wind. A few snowflakes threatened to ruin the day, but it was quick lived. 

Tomorrow we start the return trip home with a six hour drive back to Vegas. I’m ready for home. For warm weather. My boys. My bed. The gym.