Fun in Nashville

After the Parks left on Thursday morning, we headed out to the Opry Mills Mall in Nashville. We had lunch at the Aquarium Restaurant and spent time on the sea animals carousel and petting the sting rays before making our way around the mall.

Susan got this picture of Alex because he'll never let me take pictures of him. He was sitting next to one of the aquariums while we waited to be seated in the restaurant.

The kids next to the Aquarium Restaurant after lunch.

Petting the sting rays. Susan bought some food, but the kids were all afraid to feed them.

The one thing that Gabby really wanted to do was ride the manatee on the carousel, so I was glad that she got to do that while she was here. Here's a few more shots of the kids on the carousel.

Jarem always wanted to be next to Tessa. He just loves being with Tessa. He gets jealous if she plays with anyone else. She is a good friend to him.

I thought the frog was really cute.

While the other kids were on the carousel, this is what Alex was doing...texting. I guess he's too old for the carousel. He's never been one that is much for rides anyway.

We were tired after shopping and walking around the mall, so we saved the Opryland Hotel until the next day. Saturday morning, before heading to the airport we spent a couple of hours at the Opryland Hotel. I always enjoy all the gardens and the atmosphere there. Susan and I have always been "gardening friends", so we enjoyed admiring and trying to identify all the plants, discussing which ones we should plant in our own yards, and the plant selection layout.

I love these dark pink flowers just outside the hotel. Anyone know what these are?

Susan and Gabby with Sunny G, the hotel mascot bear

Susan and I...one of the first times she's ever looked taller than me. I must have really been slumping. :)

Susan and Gabs...you can tell that Gabby loves to dance, she has a pose for every picture.

Pretty flowers that looks similar to double impatiens but have pointy leaves

Susan and Gabby on the boat just before the ride began.

Susan and I liked this green plant with the red veins. I'd love to have these in my yard...it's pretty next to the impatiens too.

Probably my favorite flower in the Hotel. I really wish they were labeled with the names of the plants.

Gabby and I enjoying our gelato from Bravo Gelato. It was better than ice cream, but very expensive. I had Raspberry Cheesecake, Gabs had Caramel Creme, and Susan had Cherry something.

Gabby took this picture of the ceiling above one of the hotel desks. It turned out so pretty.

This is a picture of the Cascades room with the rotating circular lounge. The double waterfall is to the left of the lounge.

These are my favorite waterfalls in the Hotel.

You can walk behind the waterfall, and this is the view from behind through the water.

After spending a couple of hours in the hotel, I dropped Susan and Gabby off at the airport to head home. We had a great time, we appreciate them coming all the way to Tennessee to visit us.

Friends from Washington

We had the priviledge of having visitors from Washington this past week. Susan and Gabby Connors came on a little trip to see us. They arrived in Nashville last Tuesday evening (July 21st) at around 6pm. After driving back to Clarksville, we had a late dinner and got settled in.

The next morning it was raining pretty hard. We decided to spend the day indoors so all of us went to see a free movie "Space Chimps" at the Great Escape theatre. I thought it was extremely lame, and wouldn't recommend it, but the kids seemed to enjoy it. Even considering the fact that it was free, I still don't think it was worth watching, but at least we had good company. We stopped after and got pizza at Little Caesar's and that made it a little better.

Later on we walked through some new construction houses in our neighborhood and then Susan took me to see "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince". I had seen it already, but it was Susan's first time, and it was good enough to see again.

The girls just before we headed to the pool Thursday morning.

Thursday, we took them to Swan Lake pool for some swimming. Alex couldn't find his swim pass, so he conveniently got to stay home (he didn't want to go anyway). The water has been the perfect temperature all summer, but because of the week or so of cooler weather, it was SO cold (not that I'm complaining about the cooler weather though). It felt good when the sun was shining. All in all, it was a good time swimming.


Later on, we went shopping at Wal-Mart for a few things. We don't usually have many drink choices at our house, milk and water are usually the extend of it. But, I was feeling bad for Susan because I know how much she loves Coke, so I went to buy she and Gabby something to drink. While we were there, Gabby and Jesikah found matching backpacks for school. It was just chance that the backpacks matched their outfits too. And, yes, I have proof now that Susan shops at Wal-Mart! :)

That afternoon, more good friends from Washington, the Park family, stopped by on their way through moving to Georgia. It was great to see them again. They have been travelling and vacationing all month and were finally getting close to their final destination...their new home in Georgia. We're happy they will be closer to us now.

That evening, all the kids hung out at the house while Mike, Nikki, Eric, I and Susan had dinner at The Cracker Barrel. (The above picture was taken outside Cracker Barrel after dinner). It was the Parks first time to Cracker Barrel, so we were happy to be part of that momentous occasion. :)

Susan mixing eggs for brunch casserole to be for breakfast the next morning.

That night McKell slept over at our house with Gabby and Jesikah while the rest stayed at a hotel. The next day they took off for Georgia. (Above, McKell, Gabby, and Jesikah)

Above in the picture (l to r) is Nikki, Alex, Paige, and Gabby. Alex and their daughter, Paige, have always been hot and cold in getting along, but Alex admitted after they left that the day they were here was one of the highlights of his summer in addition to Scout Camp and our trip to Washington.

Wildlife in our Backyard

Over the last few weeks, we have spotted two doe and a couple of baby deer several times in our backyard. I hope to get a better picture of the deer with the babies in toe eventually. We have also seen a few bunnies. I got a few pictures of the deer and bunnies below. We also enjoy watching the birds.

My best picture of the deer I think.

I like this picture of the deer looking back.

This one has big ears.

Both in the same picture

The brave little bunny

Eric took a few pictures of one of the cardinals that is a frequent visitor to our backyard. We love to sit out on our back deck, listen to soft music, and watch for wildlife and birds.

He's facing forward

From the back

Learned a little Too Much!!

The afternoon after Alex and Eric returned from Scout Camp, Eric was taking a nap and I was busy doing other things. Alex kept asking us if he could build a fire and we kept saying no. Well, a little later I went out the basement door and this is what I found. Although I was a little irritated that he hadn't listened to me, I was proud of him for wanting to use his camp skills and I thought the fire was pretty cute and harmless. Things changed when it went out a little while later and he started pouring gasoline on it to get it going again. That was the end of the fire!

Boy Scout Camp 2009

This year our Scout troop went to a LDS encampment that included 10 Stakes or about 750 people. We went to Camp Buck Tom in eastern Tennessee, near Chattanooga. It is positioned in the western part of the Smokey Mountains. We left at 8am on the 11th of July and traveled close to 3.5 hours. We had 14 boys and 5 leaders from our troop go. Here are some of the highlights from the week that we spent there.


One the first day, the boys chose their tents and bunk mates and the leaders put up their tents. Our tent had air conditioning, courtesy of one of the leaders. Here we are relaxing after a busy morning. This is Alex and Matt's tent. Ty Parsons is also in the picture.

Here are the leaders that went with Troop 528. Starting from the left, Steele Parsons, Blaine Fuller, Loren Richards, me, and Heath Tennyson. Heath is actually about a foot taller than me, but I asked him to stand in a ditch so I wouldn't be the shortest. This is the group that kept the boys in line. Actually it was just Steele that kept them in line, while the rest of us took it easy in our camp chairs.



While Loren can be a nice guy most of the time, every once in a while his darker side gets the best of him and he succumbs to trickery as evidenced by the rabbit ears. My expression shows that I was onto his little game.

Alex, Matt, and Brandyn walking back to camp with me right after our swim test. Each of them made "swimmer", as did I. No one wants to be stuck with the white wrist band (non-swimmer).

Alex is getting ready to hit the sack in this picture. He bunked with Matt Fuller, who couldn't have been a better bunk mate. The two had a good time along with Nick, Jeremy and others. The tents were pretty nice; a lot better than I had growing up. Matt said that he was glad to have Alex in his tent because each night Alex would take care of all the spiders by spraying them.

Here is a picture of all the scouts that came. It was a LDS scout camp with 600 scouts and an additional 150 leaders. It made for quite a large campfire and church service on Sunday. It was an awesome sight to see so many. What was more amazing was how reverent the service was.

Loren Richards and I did most everything together during the camp. We helped out at the shotgun range in the mornings and worked the waterfront in the afternoons. We enjoyed the canoeing the best and spent more time playing around in the canoes than helping the boys most days. At least they learned what not to do in a canoe. On Friday we went white water rafting down the Ocoee river with Heath.

During the week, the leaders were busy with helping out at the mess hall, cleaning the bathrooms and showers, and helping out or teaching merit badge classes. In our spare time we could do a list of activities to earn a Scoutmaster merit badge. One of those was making a walking stick. Here I am carving mine and kissing it for good luck.

People will know that I (Eric) am posting this because Rozanne would never post a picture like this. I swear it was a leaky canteen. We all had a good laugh. Knowing Matt, one of our scouts, it is on Facebook already.

Alex and I outside my air-conditioned tent. It seems the area outside our tent was the popular spot, where we had all our chairs set up. We gathered there each night, after lunch and between classes to chat and shoot the breeze.

Alex working with his friend Brandyn in Pioneering. Alex also took Aviation, Lifesaving, and Rowing. I was proud of him for accomplishing so much. In Lifesaving he had to swim a half mile, show he could save drowning persons varied ways and bring a 15lb bowling ball off the floor of the lake at a depth of 8 feet.

As mentioned above, one of the classes Alex took was Aviation. He got to go to an airfield for a field trip and check out the planes. Here he is with his friend Nick Howe. Alex was lucky enough to have friends in each of his classes.

Photo opportunity with Brother Gibson of the General Young Men's Presidency. And I am not fat, even though it may look it in this picture. I blame the pants.

Alex with Brother Gibson (photo courtesy of Jeremy Howe)

Alex is enjoying his time with his friends, (from the left) Chris, Nick, Matt, Jeremy, and Bryan. This is just before the closing campfire.

The leaders had to bring their own chairs because there was only enough room for the boys in the ampitheater. I am sitting next Heath Tennyson and Loren Richards. Blaine Fuller is up two people from Loren. We did most things together during the campout.

Beautiful Sunrise on the morning we left...beautiful for many reasons, mainly because we were leaving. Matt our Senior patrol leader took this picture.

Overall it was a great time. I valued the opportunity to spend time with Alex, the leaders, and the other young men from our troop. I could have done without the humidity, heat, night time severe weather warnings and thunderstorms, humidity, bugs and humidity. But such is camping in the South I suppose.