AUGUST 8th- SWINGING IN ST. LOUIS

Nathan was asked by a couple of guys to play in the company golf tournament. He is always up for golf, but this tournament just happened to be in St. Louis....4 hours away! The guy that he used to work with in Texas that relocated to Michigan instead of Nathan wanted him to be on his team. And the guy that Nathan replaced in Tennessee that is now in St. Louis was also going to be on the team. He thought about saying no just because it was so far away but, the fact that lots of corporate head honcho type people would be there was the key deciding factor. And with two of the guys on the team being the unjustly pampered Ohio State boys in the company, it was even more important for Nathan to show his pretty Texas face and add another little asterisk by his name in the minds of the big wigs. The 4th member on the team was a guy from here that helped encourage Nathan to go. So, Nathan left Friday afternoon and rode in the divorced narcoleptic chain smoker’s car all the way to St. Louis. They stayed the night with the guy that now lives there and hit the course that Saturday morning. Turns out that actually did pretty well and had to do a play off with a couple of other teams and ended up finishing in 3rd place.

Here is what we did while we were so rudely left at home.

Yes, I cut my hair. And no, I don't like it either.

AUGUST 1st- NEARBY NASHVILLE

Grandma and Grandpa came through town on the way to my dad’s softball tournament in East Tennessee. They stayed one night with us and then took the kids with them to Hendersonville. Nathan and I got to have a kid free 24 hours until we met up with them. The kids rarely ever stay the night with anyone so it was very strange for us to sleep at home and not to have them there, too. When we got to the hotel in Hendersonville the next day, we found the kids at the pool. Much to our surprise, Brooke had finally gotten up the courage to jump in the pool by herself. And she did it over and over and over again.

We couldn’t believe it so she jumped in the very cold water one last time just to prove it.

What a big girl! Nice form!

Grandma took the kids to a pretty nearby park while Grandpa started his tournament.

Since Nashville was only 20 minutes away, Nathan and I went downtown to see the night life. I've never been too fond of the big social scene or one to go to clubs, but when in Rome...

We ended up at the Wildhorse Saloon where they had a band playing cover songs. We enjoyed watching people dancing and ended up staying even longer to watch the hilarious dance contest.

There were all kinds of giant horse statues everywhere.

These were actually hanging upside down from the ceiling.

Here is just a little bit of the "concert". The guy wasn't all that amazing but he had good energy and kept the crowd going.

We heard on the radio that the Tennessee Titans were holding an open practice where fans could come and watch. I didn't think we'd get in but I guess a lot of people didn't go since it was overcast. We actually got to stand right at the fence and see the players close up. No cell phones, loud noises, or video taping were allowed...But we could take pictures!

The Quarterbacks

Former Texas Longhorn Michael Griffin

Former Texas Longhorn Vince Young

Former Texas Longhorn Bo Scaife

Jevon Kearse

Kerry Collins

Cole thought it was soooo amazing. It actually was pretty cool except that it was raining most of the time.

Brooke thought it was soooo boring. She doesn't care about football and was disappointed that the cheerleaders weren't there.

We drove by the Wildhorse Saloon during the day to show the kids where we had our date. Brooke wanted to ride in the horse and carriage in the rain. It was $25 per person...Uh, no thanks.

Driving back home I kept noticing different signs for cities ending with "ville". I'd already counted about 10 cities so it peaked my interest for some weird reason. When I looked it up I found out that there are actually 50 cities in Tennessee ending in "ville ". Hmmm...You learn something new every day, huh?

Here is a little Tennessee geography for you:

Adamsville, Brownsville, Caryville, Centerville, Clarksville, Collierville, Cookeville, Cornersville, Crossville, Decaturville, Eagleville, Enville, Fayetteville, Friendsville, Goodlettsville, Gordonsville, Graysville, Greeneville, Hartsville, Hendersonville, Huntsville, Knoxville, Lobelville, Louisville, Lynnville, Madisonville, Maryville, Maynardville, McLemoresville, McMinnville, Milledgeville, Millersville, Mitchellville, Nashville, New Johnsonville, Nolensville, Parrottsville, Pikeville, Rogersville, Rossville, Sevierville, Shelbyville, Smithville, Sneedville, Somerville, Stantonville, Surgoinsville, Tiptonville, Whiteville, Yorkville