8 Years (almost!)

Dinner Friday night

in our room

This place had great coffee, great desserts, and great gelato!!!!!  In our hotel....right next to our room!!! 

The hotel was one big atrium of plants and flowers and fruit trees.  And fish.  And ducks! All inside!

Yep, inside!

We took the boat ride

Marty's from Madagascar.....had to show Ryan!

Sean and I will be celebrating 8 years of marriage on February 12th, but we celebrated last weekend.  We left Ryan and Hunter here with some of the Bates girls (they are so sweet!!) and Sean, Andrew, and I headed to Nashville to Gaylord Opryland last Friday.   We had a coupon for buy 1 get 1 night, which was an incredible deal!  The hotel is the largest non-gambling hotel in the world and it is HUGE!  There are 2,881 rooms and 90% of the time they are at capacity!  Pretty amazing.  Our room was so pretty.  Friday night we walked around and ate Mexican.  Then we got some coffee to bring back to our room.  There are a ton of restaurants, shopping, and exploring to do right in the hotel.  Saturday we had breakfast there and then we headed to my uncle and aunt's house.  They live in Nashville.  They took us out to lunch and it was nice seeing them and spending time with them.  We headed back to the hotel and did some shopping, got a bite to eat, and rode the boat.  YES, there is a boat IN the hotel!  We got some coffee again (notice a theme??) and went swimming in their pool and checked out their outdoor jacuzzi.  That was so relaxing.......getting in to a super hot bubbly jetted bath outside in the cold night!  Andrew went into the pool for the very first time, had his first boat ride, and his first shower!!!  ha ha!  Sunday we drove to Springfield, TN to go to South Haven Baptist Church, recommended by The Bates.  The people there were so sweet and we are so glad we went.  Then we went to Opry Mills (a HUGE shopping mall next to Opryland) and ate at the Claim Jumper, one of our most fave restaurants that is mostly on the west coast.  We did a little bit of shopping and then we headed home to see the boys.  They did great with Miss Michaela and Alyssa and Katie Bates and even got to make snow cream (it snowed a few times over the weekend).  We are so grateful for the girls watching our little blessings and allowing us to spend some alone time (well, with Andrew).  It was wonderful!