Opryland: Making up for Lost Revenue

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we had a family night and headed to the recently reopened Opryland! I don't keep up too much with the news and I had heard back in the summer that they hoped to have the mall opened for the holiday shopping season. I was surprised to see that it is still closed. It was like a ghost town. Crazy!

Anyway, we headed to our usual parking spot at the end of the mall parking lot. This was where we always parked and walked to the hotel. It wasn't the closet spot, but it was free! We were also shocked to see that they put a fence up everywhere restricting hotel access from the parking lot, basically, forcing us to pay to park at the hotel. Parking at the hotel: $19.66. Ouch, but I guess they are making up for that lost revenue!

Reesi loved the hotel since she loves all things fancy. Elye loved all the water falls, streams, fountains, and shooting water everywhere. Reesi made so many wishes that night on the fountains. She decided that whatever the coin you threw in was worth was how many wishes that you got. Even with all those wishes she wouldn't even tell us one of them. We ended the night with a delicious sugar "coo-coo", as Elye calls it, from Christie Cookie. We had a fun night and I am glad at least the hotel is open for the holiday season.

Challenge: Entertaining a 1 Year Old

When Reesi goes to school and it's just Elye and me sometimes we both go crazy if I don't have some kind of activity built into the day. One day I decided to let her paint. It kept her entertained for about 5-10 minutes, but when I took her to the kitchen sink to wash her hands she decided to climb right in. I gave her a couple cups and left the water running. She loved it. She loved it so much that I cleaned up her paint mess, swept the floors, and mopped the floors all while she was playing away in the water. I have never had a longer span of time to get things done. I don't care how much it cost me in running water. It was well worth it!

Halloweens!

Cowgirl and Indians

"Do my tights really need to be pulled up this high?"

Ice Cream at the Pumpkinfest. I had to give her something to stop the screaming in the stroller. The peace was worth the mess.

The only shot where she is actually wearing her cowboy boots.

The Red Carpet

Reesi on scarecrow day at school

Ah, the candy! Too many Halloweens and too much candy! Reesi doesn't like the chocolate candy, which is my favorite, and it has turned into quite a problem for me. I've only had one Reese's Cup today so today's been a good day! We've been to two Trunk or Treats, a Pumpkin Fest, and trick or treating. Reesi has loved it all!

She took her friend Caroline to Trunk or Treat and had the best time. Their favorite booth was the limo and red carpet. They got to climb through the limo to the red carpet where an announcer announced their red carpet walk. They loved it.

The real Halloween was, according to Reesi, the best ever. She didn't fall this year so that qualified it as the best Halloween. Elye was the cutest trick or treat I have ever seen. She carried her bucket around the whole time following the big girls. She would go right up to the door and try to say trick or treat(it didn't sound like trick or treat at all). Then she would reach her little hand into the candy bucket and grab some candy and then say, "dank doo" and "bye-bye" over and over again as she walked away. It was absolutely adorable.

Another funny incident was the scary house on the block. Spooky music, flashing lights, and to our surprise, a Sasquatch hiding by the tree. When it walked out Jenny screamed and Grace and Reesi took off sprinting down the sidewalk. They didn't stop until they were three houses away. We laughed about it all the way down the block. Reesi was right. It was a great Halloween!

Zoo Day

Jack was so sweet and well behaved the whole day. I am hoping that this is what Elye will turn into in 6 months!

Last weekend Reesi's cousins, Sophia and Jack, were in town from California so Meemaw planned a trip to the zoo for some quality time. It was a beautiful day and Reesi and Sophia had the best time together. They both got out their zoo maps and started leading the way. We didn't make it around the whole zoo because approaching nap times and the enormous playground, but we saw most of the favorites. Sophia then came over for the afternoon while the little ones slept. We love it when Sophia and Jack come to town!

Elye @ 1.5

See what I mean about handful. Snooping in my stuff, oranges in hair, and marker in mouth. She's a mess!

Elye, at 18 months you are . . . .

-love to be outside. From the moment you wake up until you go to bed you want to be outside. You'll walk to the door and say, "ou-si, ou-si." Sometimes you'll even come to me carrying your shoes saying, "ou-si."

-love you're Mimi more than your mom! Mimi kept you this week while I worked. When she's around you don't even want me to hold you. When she left on Friday she put you in my car and then drove off. It broke you're heart. You just didn't understand and you cried and cried and cried.

-have started putting words together. You said, "Mimi, bump me" when you wanted help on the trampoline.

-throw fits and bang your head on the floor when someone tells you no.

-sleep from about 7:30-7:30 and nap 2 to 2.5 hours in the afternoon. You always lay right down and cuddle up with your pillow and blanket. Your daddy says you love to go to sleep.

-love to swing, especially underdog.

-are a handful, but an adorable handful. We can always enjoy eating out later in life right?!

-weigh 20 lb., 10 oz (5th percentile)

-are 31.75 inches tall (50th percentile)

-have a head circumference of 17.91 inches (20th percentile)

Petting Zoo-Private Tour!

My friend, Celia, and her family own a petting zoo business. They have tons of animals and invited us out to visit them. Reesi had school, but Elye loves animals so I had to go. There were alpacas, roosters, sheep, goats, pigs, and I am sure I am missing some others. There were a lot of animals! Elye's favorite were the roosters. They were crowing like crazy the whole time. They are fast like suckers so she never got too close to one, but for the whole rest of the day whenever I would ask her if she saw roosters she would crow, "dooo-ddd-doooo!"

Fall Break

Reesi spent her fall break at one of her favorite places in the world, Mimi and Papoo's farm. They went to the museum, explored the dried up creek, cleaned out a section of the barn for a play house, rode the go cart, played in the tent, and ate lots of goodies. I went up on Sunday to spend a few days before heading back. It's always good to be home.

Molasses Festival

We hit the Molasses Festival at the Ag Center this year. Reesi was in Indiana so it was just Elye for the day. Her favorite was definitely the goats. Unfortunately, she was more of a danger than the goats. This poor boy was just standing there next to her. She looks over and pushed him for no apparent reason. I guess she thought he was getting to close to her goat. Stinker! We also walked around looking at the different booths and rode a wagon ride. Karen met us there for the morning and we saw Granny and Papa Snoddy as we were leaving. It was a beautiful day.