Opryland!

We headed out after Evie's morning nap to Opryland. It was pretty magnificent. Not sure what I expected but it was so BIG! We thought it would be really busy with the holiday weekend but it was not crowded at all. Our lunch was okay but everything else was so nice. I was impressed with all of the lush greenery and beautiful flowers. It feels like you are outside due to all the atriums but you are inside the whole time. There are stores, restaurants, a boat, convention halls, bars, pools, etc. Lots to do! It is known as being a great first date spot in Nashville and lots of highschools hold their prom in the hotel. Today, there was a beauty pageant with young girls from Evie's age all the way to 6 years old. Not sure I'd ever put Evie in a pageant but different strokes for different folks. The boat runs on a quarter mile track through the hotel and had water samples from multiple lakes and rivers throughout the country. Including, Lake Norman and Lake Keowee. We thought that was really cool. Evie enjoyed herself at the Opryland. We did not see anyone famous but there was some really good people watching there. Can't wait to go back at Christmas. They have already started decorating according to their website. Evie will love to look at all the lights. We cannot wait to celebrate Christmas with Evie. It will be so much more fun! They had some cute Christmas outfits at Opryland. I will get her a cute one so she can enjoy it for the whole month of December. Only 108 days until Christmas.

We drove around exploring a little. There are some really nice areas of Nashville and there are some not so nice areas. Luckily, there are WAY more nice areas. We LOVE the area where we live now but it's about 30 minutes for Carl to get to work. Not horrible but certainly not ideal. He'd like to come home to eat lunch with his sweet Evie and me.

Evie has been so happy today and is making a lot of progress with her sippy cup. Apple juice is a bigger motivator than water. We will keep working on it. I love it when she gets on the floor with her sippy and tries to attack it with her mouth. It reminds me of bobbing for apples. She does better drinking when sitting on my lap or in her highchair. If you are shopping for a great sippy cup - get the Nuby with the handles. Evie prefers purple but will also drink from the yellow one occasionally. We went on a walk and Evie crashed from her exciting day. We are looking forward to two more days of weekend. Long weekends are so nice.