Weekend Fun in Nashville!

**I have to start this post with praise for both Kevin and Ava.  I am a planner, especially when it comes to vacations (no matter how big or how small).  I like to have all the details worked out--a daily itinerary including places for fun family activities, places to eat, places to see, and places to shop.  I even schedule in relaxation time! :)  I just have this need to make sure that we squeeze in every single bit of fun that we can and I LOVE researching cities and planning our trips.  Fortunately, Kevin understands how I work and he just willingly goes right along with whatever I come up with.  I really appreciate that.  I am also fortunate that Ava is the kind of child who loves to be on the go and she never complains about the sometimes fast pace.  Also, I love that she has become so accustomed to me taking pictures of her everywhere we go for our blog.  She has gotten to where she just automatically strikes a pose whenever she thinks she is doing something picture worthy.  I may be excessive sometimes with the picture taking but it is so worth it when I read back through these posts.  We will enjoy looking back at this blog for years to come!

Anyway, we just got back from a long weekend trip to Nashville.  We thought it would be fun to get out of town for a few days and just visit somewhere a short distance away.  Ava had never been to Nashville so we headed up that way.  We left Thursday afternoon and stopped in Jackson at Casey Jones Village for dinner.  It had been years since Kevin and I had eaten there but he thought she would enjoy the trains and the restaurant.  It was a fun stop--the food was decent but nothing to right home about.  

By the time we made it to Nashville, it was about 9:30.  We decided to go down to the pool and hot tub for a swim before bed.

The next morning, we got up and met my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nieces at the Nashville Shores water park.  I hated that I couldn't take my camera in without fear of it getting wet or stolen because I would have gotten some great pictures.  I managed to take just a couple on my phone.

Ava and our niece, Mallory

 See the lake in the background?  Ava had to test out the kiddie swings.

We were there for about 8 hours and had a blast!  Nashville Shores is situated on the lake so it is a really pretty place.  You can ride banana boats, jet skis, or play beach volleyball by the lake.  The water park has a lazy river, an awesome wave pool, a really nice playground area for the smaller kiddos, lots of slides, and a bunch of other stuff.  Ava, our little water baby, was totally in her element.  We all played in the wave pool until we were pruny.  It was a really great day of family fun.

This is what happened as soon as we got in the car to head back to the hotel.

Kevin says that is when Ava resembles me the most. ;)

Unfortunately, when we got back to the hotel to get showered this is what we discovered.

Poor Ava's very first sunburn!  She was a trooper about it.  We had reapplied SPF 70 on her at least 3 times throughout the day but I guess she was in the water so much it just wasn't enough.  This required an emergency trip to CVS for aloe vera.  

We had planned on eating that night at a restaurant exclusive to Nashville but it started to storm badly.  There was a J Alexander's right down the street for our hotel so we just headed over there due to the close proximity.  The hostesses were so sweet to Ava and gave her an etch-a-sketch to play with while we were there.  Our waiter hooked her up with a fancy, three cheese grilled cheese sandwich so she was happy.  After running back to the car through the rain, it was time to head back to the hotel and continue our night swimming routine.  

At bedtime, Ava said her pj's were rubbing on her sunburn so we put her in one of my t-shirts so she could wear something loose and she was out like a light!

First thing Saturday morning, we made our way over to the Adventure Science Center.

Ava fished with magnets

Added a roof to a house

Learned about chain reactions with dominoes

Explored electricity

Lifted a car with the weight of her body (really!)

Visited the moon

learned about the importance of healthy portion sizes

petted a baby duck

watched how blood flows through the body

played "Dr. Ava"

and "Paramedic Ava"

traversed a cargo net three stories high

and climbed a tower structure to the tip top of the building

Kevin and I climbed too though it was a little bit more difficult for me to manage the tiny, narrow spiral staircases with my camera and my huge, bulky camera bag.

Made it to the top!

After the science center, we drove over to the newly reopened Opry Mills and scored some great back to school clothing deals for Ava.  Our little fashionista has put on three different "fashion shows" for various family members since we have been back.  Kevin already knows he's in trouble because she loves clothes shopping just as much as I do!  We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.  These guys watched over our table the entire time we were eating and they were quite vocal!

And these guys stalked us to the restrooms!

After we left Opry Mills, we drove over to the Green Hills mall because I never pass up an opportunity to go to the Cheesecake Factory when I am in Nashville.  I got some chocolate mousse cheesecake to go and enjoyed it later back at the hotel.  Yum--heaven in a clear, plastic box!

We were pretty worn out from the days activities so we went for a swim and then had pizza delivered to our hotel room and lounged around in front of the TV for the evening.

Sunday morning we ventured back over to Opry Mills so I could do some more shopping and Kevin and Ava could spend a few hours playing games at Dave and Busters.  It was a pretty leisurely day and then we headed back to Memphis.  We had such a great weekend that we decided to make the water park/back to school shopping trip a tradition each summer!