Heather here and today is my 38th birthday, eep! I had planned on doing a layout of 38 random things to share with you, but well… I’m EXHAUSTED!!! Last week we took our annual trip to Nashville Tennessee. It was a business trip for Mark, but a vacation for me and the kids. I’m not gonna lie though, I was totally anxious about traveling with 3 kids. We did all the touristy stuff last year and that totally wore me out. This year, I decided that the kids have way more fun just hanging out at parks. I thought that this would be my nice leisurely vacation this year. Who am I kidding? I was told by everyone who passed us by, that I “had my hands full”. Yeah, it was a mad house getting up early, getting everyone dressed, then head down to the lobby for breakfast (which is awesome btw) and then drive Mark to work and then find a park to go play at. By the time we got back to the hotel for lunch, I was ready to take a nap with Asher. Speaking of naptime… I would be nursing Asher down for his nap and I’d hear Isaac trying to escape out of our hotel room. Thank goodness Moriah tells me everything and likes to tattle on her brother LOL. I don’t normally condone the tattling but in this case I was ok with it, sigh… Needless to say it was hard to actually get Asher down for his nap without having to tend to the other kids. After he was finally down for a nap though, we had school time. This was kind of fun because Isaac got to join in the fun and he learned all about the moon along with Moriah. He got so excited when he’d see the moon during the day and would tell me it was a half moon. I thought I was crazy for wanting to do school while on vacation but it was actually a ton of fun to do and I looked forward to it every day. After Asher got up from his nap we would head back to the park to play until it was time to pick up Mark from work again. We’d go out to dinner and then it was time for bed for the kids. I will admit that I really enjoyed after the kids were in bed… I’d grab the iPad and head down to the lobby and grab a bowl full of chips and a glass of sangria and catch up online. Really though… I absolutely LOVED my time with the kids and not having to be anywhere or having to stick to a schedule. We had a blast together, the 4 of us… and Mark whenever he could join us.

I did really enjoy this trip to Nashville this year. We’re pretty spoiled by the museums and zoos we have here in Chicagoland, but Nashville definitely has some gorgeous parks and trails that Chicago just can’t compete with. I loved the scenery around me when we got to the parks and walked the trails. I can’t wait to go back next year and see some more. We did get to enjoy the scenery inside Opryland Hotel too and the kids had a blast running around there. It was still closed last year due to the flooding and we were so excited to go see it this year now that it was open again. There are several other places I’d like to go in Nashville, but I think we’ll wait until the kids are older and can really enjoy it and understand it.

As much as I enjoyed my time away, it’s soooo good to be back home again and getting back into our regular routine. Today, I’m enjoying my first day of being 38 years old with my family. Mark has taken the day off of work and we’re going to go hang out at the zoo in the morning and just have fun as a family together. That’s the best birthday I could ever have.

What’s a blog post without pics? Here are some fun pics from our trip to Nashville, enjoy!

A Lakeside Retreat by Kristin Cronin-Barrow
All These Photos 4 by Janet Phillips