NASHVILLE!

In June, we fulfilled two of my bucket list items... 1) going to Nashville and 2) going to the CMA festival.  It was an absolute perfect trip and perfect way to spend my 30th birthday and our 6th anniversary.

We drove straight through the first day.  It was a long 11 hour (+ with our stops) drive but we tried to enjoy ourselves.  We added to our list of states we have visited together as well... Arkansas and of course Tennessee

When we got to Nashville there was a full size Parthenon replica right across the street from our hotel at Vanderbilt.  We decided to walk over and check it out.  Then we walked to dinner before relaxing for the night in the hotel.

The next day was day 1 of our adventures and we started with a tour of the Grand Ole Opry.

A little of the TV show Nashville...

Some of the inductees to the Opry

One of the handful of dressing rooms

And another

This is interesting because the black line represents how high the water got in the backstage of the Opry during the Nashville floods a few years back

On the stage

The center circle is a part of the original Opry stage from the Ryman that they brought to the new Opry building when they built it

After our tour of the Opry, we headed downtown.  We started out just walking around a bit and having the biggest freak out of my life!  While we were walking it stopped raining so I took off my poncho.  Somehow in the process of taking off my poncho, my festival pass came off my neck without me knowing.  I didn't notice until we got to the restaurant we were walking to at which point I started sprinting through the streets retracing our steps.  We couldn't find it anywhere and I broke down bawling in the streets.  THANKFULLY, some good samaritan has picked up the pass by a hotel and took it in to the front desk.  While I was losing it in the streets, Jimmy went into all the businesses nearby and asked.  I am so grateful for the honest person that turned it in because there were plenty of people along the streets trying to get their hands on passes.  Anyway, after that ordeal, we grabbed a quick lunch to not delay our festival enjoyment any longer.  We did make it back to the restaurant we were originally going to the next day which came highly recommended and it did not disappoint and served some of the best pork bbq I have had!

Then we were off to check out the music and the events.  The entire festival and city did not disappoint!  We spent most days hitting up a few shows at all the different stages, checking out the vendor booths in the convention center and shopping and eating around town.  We usually rested a bit in the afternoon and charged our phones and Facetimed our boys in the convention center and then grabbed dinner before the nighttime shows at LP Field.  I really didn't take a lot of pictures while we were there because we were just enjoying ourselves but I think each day I got a picture of us on the bridge.

 Heading over the bridge on day 1, my 30th birthday!... it was a little rainy every day but it didn't hinder us or the music from going on

Picture of the Riverfront stage from the bridge.  This is where some of the bigger daytime acts played and it was a nice venue to just relax on the grass and listen to music.

Grabbing a birthday dinner and staying out of the rain before the night concert 

Walking up LP Field to our seats...

Our seats for the nighttime concerts.  Not the best but still great shows!

Day 2 bridge picture

At the convention center they had all sorts of booths, interviews, and little shows to see.  Here are a few things we checked out.

Kix Brooks bus, which was WAY nice

Jimmy hanging out in the bus

Billy Ray Cyrus

Avery from Nashville

Budweiser Clydesdales

Deacon from Nashville!

We didn't stay for the entire festival which went through Sunday night.  We left Sunday morning to drive back home.  So, on our last day, we again checked out music throughout the day and also toured the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Rocking our boots on the final day, our 6th anniversary :)

Checking out Elvis' gold cadillac

Country Music Hall of Fame

That night we celebrated our 6th anniversary.  That night it was POURING rain during dinner but we enjoyed such a nice dinner at Morton's steakhouse.  They really do it up for special occasions including printing personalized menus and taking a picture of you and framing it etc.

Here's a highlight of the artist pictures I got from our nighttime concerts... There were so many great shows that I can't even say what my favorite was.  The nighttime concerts were packed full of big names.  They were all so good!

Alabama

Luke Bryan... I didn't know much about Luke Bryan before the trip and he gained my fanship pretty quick :)  

Tim McGraw

Surprise visit from Faith

Jason Aldean

Surprise appearance by Carrie Underwood during Miranda's set

Blake Shelton

End of the night fireworks!

Meanwhile back home our boys were in great hands at Mimi and Papa's house...

Brayden talking on the phone with us one night... he wasn't feeling very good that night :(

Of course stayng with Mimi and Papa meant getting new toys :)

Kyle talking on the phone with us

It was a FANTASTIC trip! :)