Catching Up

I want to post a few things we did while Kris’ family was here. Before Thanksgiving Day we all went downtown to walk around and see some of the parks and pedestrian areas that we haven’t been to before. We got to Deiderick street just in time to see them putting the big Christmas tree in at the little park by the courthouse. I was surprised to see the little maple trees there still full of colorful red leaves. It was windy and cold but not so bad that we couldn’t walk around with the kids and take a few pictures around the memorials.

This little fellow is Caleb. He is Kris’ youngest brother’s son and he’s just about as sweet as they come.

I circled the Christmas tree here because it’s a little hard to distinguish what’s going on. They put it over the spot where it’s going to stand and then use chain saws to cut the bottom of the trunk to the desired length and trim back a few branches. Then they drill a large hole up into the center of the trunk and place the entire tree over a big round metal stake that sticks up out of the ground. It is then tied down at the corners as well. I thought it was fun to see how the whole thing was done. We didn’t get to see the final placement and missed all the pretty stuff too. There was another tree being decorated at the capital building at the other end of Deaderick street.

This is Ivan attempting a smile into the sunshine so I could get his picture. I just think this is funny.

Owen was at school. He misses all the good stuff. Don’t tell him I said that.

Two shots down Deaderick street from the park at 3rd Ave. toward the war memorial at the other end. There are historical markers and even a tower for viewing the river, the football field and some of downtown Nashville.

I like old buildings.

Fountains near the courthouse.

We walked the length of Deaderick street to the war memorial and along the way I took several pictures of Ivan at the bike thingys. What do you call that…where you tie your bike up? My brain is blank. Anyway…Music City has musical symbols on their bike thingys. Racks! They are called Bike racks. Duh.

The rest of these are all pictures at the war memorial. I took a lot more pictures but I have to stop somewhere when it comes to blogging. You should just go see it all yourself. It’s a nice stop downtown. I love huge pillars, mighty statues and well kept gardens and tiny people running around oblivious to what it all means.

When we got home Kris and I went to Owen’s school for his class’ Thanksgiving celebration. They read stories to us, made things out of tortillas and cake icing and we ate some yummy Thanksgiving finger foods.

That night, Kris and I went to the Opryland Hotel for the church’s annual Leadership Banquet. We had a good time and were able to stay out late and not worry about the kids because Grandma and Granddaddy were there to put them to bed. Of course we were too tired to stay out very late, but it was nice to feel unhurried as we strolled around the hotel.

Wednesday was Ivan’s birthday party and I am still in the midst of posting about that on his blog. I will have to finish both of these at the same time so my links can work together. We spent most of the day at home, other than a little grocery shopping for the big day to follow.

Thursday was Thanksgiving…I said in an earlier post that it was good. We had planned months ago to get some pictures of all the little Kelso boys when we could get them all together and this was the best time. So we pulled out the matching shirts and lined them up on the staircase. Kris loves taking pictures of squirming little boys and really enjoys the challenge of getting them all to look at the camera at the same time and making sure they are all sitting down and not screwing up their faces or yelling “hooray” when they should just be smiling nicely. I just lied about Kris. He does not like any of those things, but he was able to make a nice picture for us anyway…next time I’m going to fight a little harder for making an appointment at a studio somewhere.

Friday it was planned that we go to visit some more Kelso’s on the other side of town. Aron had a fever the night before and woke up with a croupy sounding cough, so I opted to keep him home while the rest of the gang went to see the cousins. They had a great time and I rested. I made some leftover turkey and sausage stew with sweet potato biscuits for dinner which was ready and waiting for them in the crock-pot when they got back. The only mishap of the day was a fat lip on Ivan’s little face. He apparently had a great time running around with a black lab puppy that one of the relatives had with them. Kris got a picture of them running together before they got a little too close to each other and sent Ivan sprawling face first onto the black top. Poor baby. I know it hurt, but I think he would do it again to play with that dog.

Well, I’ve caught up a little. I’ll be back.