Cotton

Have you ever seen a cotton field up close and personal? Me neither, and it was something I wanted to see/capture before we left the South (assuming that we will next fall). There is something about a cotton field that is so surreal and mesmerizing to me. Harvest was quickly approaching so Meg filled me in on some good fields she has passed. Scott and I grabbed Jay and drug him and his family out to capture the cotton fields of Tennessee.

Here's some of the shots we got. I love them!

The cotton boils are so soft, just like a cotton ball. That may seem obvious, but I expected it to be much more coarse and then become softer as it was processed. I tore down some cotton branches (or whatever the technical term is for them) and took them home. I vowed to pay full price on my next "made from cotton" purchase :)

Lyla June

Megan and Justin welcomed Lyla June to this world on Monday, August 29 at about 6:00 pm. Poor Meg, it was a long labor! She filled me in on all the details though (at my request). I'll spare you those....

Lyla June was 8lbs 14oz and soo long! She looks just like her daddy and is just adorable. Scott and I went up to see the family at the hospital on Tuesday night. Lyla as barely 24 hours old!

She is just the sweetest, and so well mannered (ha, for now!). No, really she is. I went and saw Meg a couple weeks ago and little Lyla just slept in my arms for over 2 hours.

Congrats guys!!

Anniversary #4...The Arch

The last couple posts were getting a little long....here's our pictures from our Arch Tour on Monday. 

While we waited for our tour to start we bought candy sticks and raced to suck to a point. Scott won. I'm sure he cheated somehow ;)

The door to the elevator that took us to the top

Inside the elevator...Grandma would have died! It was so small and tight.

Our hotel is the black building. You can see the rooftop pool.

The little windows at the top of the arch

Scott didn't like the ride up so much. It was long  (a few minutes) and jerky and made lots of clicking sounds....

At the top!

In the elevator on the way down. I think they need to put the elevator on the outside of the building and the build it like they do in hotels with all windows...and plexi floor. 

Anniversary #4 (Kentucky)

I've been dying to go to Florida since we moved here. Destin is only an 8 hour drive and Orlando is only about 12. I want to go to Disneyworld so bad! I thought I could convince Scott to go to Florida if I agreed to camp instead of get a hotel, not to mention I think it would actually be really fun to camp on the beach.

I looked up campgrounds where we put our tent in the sand, had it all planned out....but then we decided not to take the Thursday off before the long weekend, and we had to be back at work on Tuesday so it wasn't worth the drive for just Fri-Monday. Back-up plan: backcountry camping at Land Between the Lakes, KY. 

We planned our trip, were all excited to go "backcountry" camping and on Friday morning we packed up and headed 3 hours north to Kentucky. Let me just say two things: 1. it was SO hot, like 100 degrees and 2. backcountry camping is pretty much just regular camping to any Canadian/Oregonian. It wasn't really the rustic, serene, put your tent on the lake shore kind of camping we were excited for. 

So, day 1. We are in Kentucky and have checked in/paid for our permit ($10 for 3 nights) at the main house. We have our maps and begin driving around checking out all of the "backcountry" camp spots. The park is huge and is surrounded by 2 lakes (Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake) as it straddles the Tennessee/Kentucky border.

While out looking for campsites we stopped to fill up our drinking/cooking water jug. There was a tap in the bathroom  just a few feet away, but as you can imagine, it was disgusting looking. I'm sorry, but I can't drink water that I saw come out of that tap. Instead, I filled up our water jug using the water fountain. It was hilarious and took forever. The fountain would run out of steam and we'd have to stop and let it rest and then start back up again. The best part- we dumped the whole jug out the next day.

We drove around and found ourselves driving down this dirt "road" that we were sure would lead us to the best, private camp spot...the one from our dreams. WELL...Lets just say we learned the the Honda Civic can actually become an off-roading vehicle when necessary...and we'll never travel down any road marked "141" again. We weren't sure we would make it out with our car still in one piece. After we finally maneuvered our way off road 141 we just went back to the first camp spot we had come upon and set up camp by our neighbors. 

Our camp on Lake Barkley

As I said before, it was hot! And our food needed to be cooked over a fire. Scott decided to go for a swim in the lake. I wanted to join, but the lake was stinky, had lots of bugs swarming around AND a really muddy bottom. It wasn't the swimming section of the lake. Scott didn't mind though and he was off. He swam across the lake to the other side and back while I waited for our fire to die down so we could roast our potatoes and sausages. 

Scott swimming across the lake

Scott got back from his swim and was already asking if we were really going to stay out here all weekend. Yes, I said. It was our anniversary and we have never done anything fun for it and so yes, dang-it, we'll be staying out here all weekend! He said okay.

We roasted our potatoes and sausages and sat down to a lovely camp dinner. 

I had forgot to pack s'more stuff, so after dinner we had ourselves a game of cards and got ready for bed. We set up our beds in our little tent and laid down to read. Our camp neighbors in our "backcountry" camp ground had a generator. Yes, a generator. Hooked up to their trailer. (In fact, besides one other site, we were the only ones with a tent. Everyone else had a trailer/ 5th wheel.) So, needless to say it was a loud night as we laid in our tent, under the stars and listed to the frogs, the crickets....and the generator.

It was a long night. It was so hot! Even without our rain fly on, it was still so hot. There was no wind and therefore no breeze blowing through the mostly net tent.

Day 2. We woke up with the sun (what I think is a great perk to camping) and again, Scott asked if we were really going to stay. He kept reminding me there was a lodge a few miles away :) I thought about it, and yes, it was really too hot to camp, and certainly too hot to do anything outdoorsy during the daytime.

Camp on Saturday morning.

We pushed the thoughts out of our minds and went on to eat breakfast. I had bought this camp toaster at Wal-Mart and it was only a couple of bucks, so Scott was making fun of me for getting it. He was certain it wouldn't work. I showed him!

Cooking breakfast- eggs and English muffins.

Toasted perfection! Well worth the $2 and change. 

After we finished eating we continued our discussion on staying out the weekend. I said it was our anniversary weekend and so we could pack up camp, but we weren't going home. I casually mentioned that St. Louis was only about 180 miles away...and Scott replied "why wasn't I informed of this yesterday!". I was shocked (and thrilled) that he so quickly agreed to drastic change of plans, without any pre-planning or pre-budgeting. It was spontaneous and just what we needed.

We had a horseback trail ride scheduled for that morning, so we quickly packed up camp (and by packed up I mean we took the tent down and threw it in the trunk along with our sleeping bags and sleeping pads. We had no time to pack everything away properly before having to be at our horse ride!) and headed to ride horses.

The horseback ride was a lot of fun. Scott's horse had a mind of it's own and kept stopping to eat. We were told by the guide that we weren't allowed to let them eat, so Scott kept getting called out by the guide to "stop letting Twobug eat!"...and his horse didn't want to stay on the trail so Scott spent a lot of the ride fighting his horse.

My horse. Her name was Cowgirl. She had a bit of an attitude.

Scott and his buddy Twobug.

Helmets were mandatory and we had to be concerned about the ticks. Hence our sweet outfits of helmets and high socks!

After our horseback ride was finished (about 10am) we refilled our cooler with ice and hit the road. We were St. Louis bound with no plan, no hotel, camp clothes and minimal toiletries. It turned out to be the best weekend....

Brent & Bethany Come to Memphis

Over Mother's Day weekend Brent and Bethany stopped by our place on their way to live in Virginia. We got to have them from Saturday-Tuesday! I worked Saturday, so the boys went biking and Bethany hung out at the house. (They didn't arrive until about 3:30am Saturday, so I'm pretty sure she enjoyed sleeping in a quiet house :)

Saturday night we enjoyed a meal at the Germantown Commissary and on Sunday we had a Mother's Day dinner with Jay, Courtney and Riley. Also on Sunday, we had Hale Family photos done by Jay. Cyndie wanted to get them done since we were all 4 together, and who knows when that might be again. It was a very good idea!

Check out Jay's website! He's done our family photos twice now and we've LOVED them both times!! Can't wait for our late summer shoot in the cotton fields...it's the only other picture I'll need to capture my most favorite things about "Southern Living".

On Monday Scott and I worked so Brent and Bethany hung out at the zoo and explored the flooding downtown Memphis. We finished of the night with our favorite pizza- Mellow Mushroom.

(For those that don't know, the Mississippi River crested at its highest level in 75 years. Thousands of people that lived downtown, along the river and in suburbs along the river were forced to evacuate while their homes were buried in water. We didn't suffer any damage in Collierville, but lots of other Memphians did.The river has crested in Memphis, but farther south (down to where the river empties into the Gulf, they are still waiting for it to drain/crest.)

Now that that has been noted for posterity, here are some of the pictures that Jay took. Cyndie, your disc is on it's way!!

Study Time!

The studying has begun at our house!! Scott is preparing to take the GMAT this summer so that he can apply to grad school in the fall. We're hoping to start grad school fall 2012.

Proof!

Nashville- The Departure

Sunday we didn't do anything too exciting. We stayed in our hotel until check out and then poked around downtown until lunchtime so we could eat at 5 Guys one last time :) We did the State House grounds and the Tennessee museum (kind of lame!). The grounds were beautiful though, and the weather couldn't have been better.

We headed home and that was the end! I can't wait to go back...we both LOVED Nashville. Maybe we'll get into Vanderbilt?

Nashville- Saturday

(For record keeping sake, we're on Saturday, March 19, 2011)

We started Saturday morning by heading to Franklin (where the stars live!). We went to the "historic downtown" and walked around the shops on Main Street. We sat and enjoyed a small breakfast/brunch at Starbucks and then continued our (my) window shopping. I did however leave Franklin with an adorable hat from this super cute store called Philanthropy. They don't have a website, but they do sell off Facebook. Unfortunately we didn't see anyone famous, and I forgot to stop by the Bluebird Cafe that a lot of people are discovered at (Taylor Swift, to name one), and apparently eat lunch. I was sad about that, but that just means we'll have to take another trip back!!

After Franklin we hit up REI in Brentwood and then headed back downtown to grab lunch at 5 Guys (yeah!!) and catch the Country Music Hall of Fame before getting the Predators played the Red Wings.

We didn't know the Country Music Hall of Fame would close at 5, so when we got there just before 4 we were nervous we wouldn't have enough time...but since the tickets were 1/2 off for being so late in the day we took our chances. It's a good thing we did because we finished the whole place in exactly and hour and didn't rush/skip anything we wouldn't have skipped in the first place.

The architecture was amazing. The building is built to look like the bass clef  when seen from the air. And the windows in the font combined with the facade of the building are designed to look like piano keys- blacks and whites. 

Keith Urban- Days Go By

Miranda Lambert- White Liar

 

The walls were full of floor to ceiling gold and platinum records. Very cool!

After the CMHF we walked over to Bridgestone Arena to grab our seats for the Preds vs. Red Wings. It was a crazy game, people were crazy loud (as it should be) and there was even some Red Wings fans seated by us. I may or may not have shouted mean things at them. Preds won, Scott learned that we don't say nice things to the opposing teams fans, even when they are nice to us, and we headed to the Flying Saucer beside our hotel for celebratory dessert. It was AWESOME!! Hands down, my favorite thing to do (go to NHL games, not eat dessert at Flying Saucer).

I know it's blurry but this was Krazy Kyle. He played the organ the whole game.  Mom- I think I found your new job. Scott said your name could be Tasmanian Tammy

Scott got us great seats!! And there was nobody behind us because we ended the first section. So nice!

In our seats enjoying the win!