Nashville

 For our anniversay this year, Heather and I took a vacation, just the two of us, to Nashville, TN, the home of country music! 

Day 1, we went to the iconic Grand Old Opry for a tour and to check out the history of the music

Giant guitars on the front lawn!

The tour was great, we got to see everything from behind the sceens to the famous stage!

What an iconic venue

After the Grand Ole Opry, we went over to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel & Cenvention Center, so just walk around their huge indoor atrium and gardens. It was decoracted for Christmas with giant ornaments....

 and 16 celebrity decorated Christmas trees

We found all 16 trees and took a picture in front of each one...but that's alot of pictures, so I just included these two.

And, of course, huge guitars hanging from the ceiling!

We also went to the Country Music Hall of Fame, another amazing tour of how country music became country music

Such a rich history and amazing to see how many artists have impacted music!

We also went and explored The Gulch, a great nieghborhood between Nashville's Music Row and Downtown. Lots of shops, food and plenty to see! Pit stop at Hops & Crafts for a snack and a beer!

Walking around Nashville, you can't help but see all the awesome murals on the sides of buildings!

The dutch girl!

We found the iconic "What Lifts You" butterfly wings!

...and I found some good wings too!

The Ryman!

On our last day, we headed to the 12 South neighborhood to explore, shop and eat!

We stopped at Five Daughters Bakery for some doughnuts...they were pretty solid!

We had a great time exploring Nashville, listening to live music and seeing the city at Christmas time! We would highly recommend it and would totally go again!

Christmas cookies

Another annual tradition at our house is to make Christmas cookies! This year we tried our hand at making the cookie dough from scratch! Add all the ingredients and then mix.

Garrett is all smiles as we get this party started

Rolling out the dough and getting out the cookie cutters

more smiles from this guy

Trigg making cookies

Not everyone enjoys pictures in their jammies...

The whole crew!

Once the cookies were made/baked/cooled, time to decorate

Frosting and some sprinkles

Two thumbs up!

Frosting stations

Those are some good looking cookies

Yum!

The ladies working on frosting

Garrett and his gingerbread man

A wooden shoe Christmas cookie!

We love making Christmas cookies each year as Christmas approaches, we make a big batch and then we also love giving them away to friends and neighbors. It's a great tradition!
 

Lefsa

Every year as Christmas comes around, we head down to Indianola for our annual Lefsa making day. Lefsa is a traditional Norwegian potato bread.

Garrett and Grandpa manning the 500 degree skillet cooking the lefsa

Trigg tries his hand at the wood flipping stick

All smiles as we are making lefsa!

A fun tradition that marks the start of the Christmas season!
 

No Shave November

 We had a little mustache growing competition at work. I didn't shave for a bout 6 weeks and had a good full beard going and then the day of the competition, I trimmed off the beard and left the mustache!

Yep, looks pretty goofy but I did win the Tom Selak award for the best 'stache!

Garrett's room

 Garrett has been wanting to make some changes to his room lately. He also was wanting a different bed. His request: I want a bed that there is nothing under it...

Step 1, paint one wall with black chalkboard paint and add some sweet soccer chalk art.

Second, build a new bed frame that nothing can be under it...no storage, no losing stuff, no monsters, nothing under the bed.

Add a giant soccer ball to the corner of the room!

Make some custom artwork with G's favorite things; video game controler, soccer ball, Lego speed champion

And that makes for a quick room makeover, the space feels more and more like Garrett. I love the addition of the artwork made from G's own stuff!

Center Grove Apple Orchard

 It's fall y'all, time to hit the apple orchard and pumpkin patch! We went with our good friends, the Day's to Center Grove Orchard for a fun (little cold) day!

Here we go Center Grove... little windy, but plenty of smiles!

Hit the hay rack ride out to the pumpkin patch, at least the sun is shinning!

Heather borrowed Blythe's extra jacket to make a modified stocking cap!

It wouldn't be a trip to Center Grove without the giant slide!

Full send for this guy...hair is flying in the wind

Thumbs up at the landing!

Blythe and Kylie flying down the slide

Let's go twice!

Plenty of thumbs up from these two!

Even with the cold weather, we had a ton of fun with the Day's...didn't take a lot of pictures due to cold hands, but fun all the same! We loved it!

Trigg showing some love, we tried to get Garrett to take a picture but he was too busy playing with Nolan to stop long enough for a picture!

The corn pool is one of our favorite stops, both because it's fun and this year, out of the wind!

Blythe and Kylie synchronized jump

...and how about a headstand

Let make it two!

Nolan and Garrett, the dudes, enjoying a fun day at Center Grove!