Nashville on Labor Day

It's been forever since I have posted on here.  Brent has been working lots of overtime and, you know, my job and summer and life with two kids has just been keeping me super busy.  But, I took my nice camera with us to Nashville last weekend for a little Labor Day getaway (Brent had 4 days off with us!!!) and I want to document it!  Let me start by saying, taking trips with kids at this age is exhausting.

We spent our Friday at home getting things packed and ready.  We left out Saturday morning around 10 (after I forgot aforementioned camera and Brent insisted that we turn around to get it....oops!). Landry napped around half of the drive down as I was hoping, but it just wasn't quite long enough.  We had lunch at Chili's before we headed to what brought us to Nashville to begin with...Thomas the Train!

We had purchased tickets for a 20ish minute train ride and I knew there would be other things included, but I really didn't know what all it would be.  Sadly, we had to walk a long way in some pretty hot and sticky weather to get to it, so we were all already pretty exhausted when we walked in. But once the kids saw the bounce houses they had set up, they were happy again.  Landry wanted in so bad, but she wouldn't leave our arms!  Carter had a big time, though.  They had lots of other booths set up with different activities, but we spent the rest of our time before our ride playing with all of the train sets they had out.  Both kids really enjoyed this...I'm thinking possible Christmas present??

Then we had to wait in the hot, hot sun on blacktop for our train ride for about 30 minutes.  That was really fun with two tired kiddos. We finally loaded on the train for our ride at 3PM, which was not a good call on my part when I was buying tickets.  I definitely know from now on to schedule things earlier in the day before we are worn out!! 

We also picked the wrong side of the train to sit on.  We spent most of the twenty minute ride looking out the other side's window because our side was boring trees while the other side was looking out at the river and the bridges/roads. Probably wouldn't bother older kids, but my little ones were really bored!   

So we had to pull out the pacifier for Landry and try our best to entertain them.  When it was over, there was a long line to take a picture at the front of the train (with Thomas).  Thank goodness we were some of the first in line, or we would have just skipped it! I did my best with the pro photographer in the way and one kid who would not give up the passy.  

Needless to say, we were pretty over it all by the time we got off the train.  We skipped out on all of the other activities (farm animal petting zoo, mini train ride, etc) and headed back for our long walk to the van.  Poor Brent carried both kids the majority of the way.  Thank heavens for him!

We went down to the indoor pool for a bit before we ate supper.  We planned on eating at the hotel for ease and free! but the line was ridiculous and there were no tables, so once again, my sweet husband saved us by walking down a block or so to McDonald's and bringing us back some food to the room. We all ate and were asleep by 8PM!

Everyone slept until after 8AM and we made our way down to the lobby for breakfast.  Thankfully, we were able to get a table and a high chair this time.  Carter was in a terrible mood all morning and we threatened to just go home there for a bit (3 year olds!!!).  Thankfully, he straightened up and we were able to go forward with our plans of visiting the zoo.  

I had not been to the Nashville zoo since I was a little kid myself (and I don't even remember it), so we weren't 100% sure what to expect.  But we were really happy with it.  We usually go to the Saint Louis zoo which is free and amazing, and visited Memphis last year which we also enjoyed, but this one was great too.  It was kind of expensive and there was lots of construction, but what was open was really neat and seemed more real life than most zoos with their small cages and so much concrete.  

There were several exhibits where you could pet the animals, including the kangaroos (who were sleeping when we came through) and the tortoises.  The kids really enjoyed the tortoises and I'm sure they would have the kangaroos too if they had been up and moving.

Landry is such a little animal-lover and it was so much fun taking her around to see the animals this time around.  I sure wish we lived closer to a zoo!

One of the neatest parts of the zoo was the play area.  They had a toddler area that was all padded and a huge kid play park with slides and swings and all kinds of fun stuff.  

Landry was asleep within minutes of being back in the van for the ride home, but somehow Carter hung on and watched movies all the way home.  We ate some supper at my Mom's house and headed home for baths and bed nice and early again!

On Labor Day, we walked in the local parade for Brent's union.  Carter really had fun throwing out candy to all of the kids.  Landry, on the other hand, enjoyed several suckers herself!  

We ate lunch with my inlaws and after a good nap, we went on a family ranger ride. We dropped it down in the creek and had so much fun!  It was probably the highlight of my weekend...I guess Brent has officially country-fied me! :)