Barbecue Stain

There was a time in my life I'm certain where I could hear a Tim McGraw song and not squeal like a twelve year old girl ... but ever since Hubs and I saw him and Kenny Chesney at an outdoor concert in Cincinatti, OH those days are long gone. The man literally is aging in reverse and is one of the only male humans that can wear the tightest black t-shirt on the plane with legit intentions to display "man-cleavage" because apparently that's a thing now ... and I don't bat an eye thinking that's the slightest bit odd. Holy Mackerel. 

A few weeks ago hubby and I hit the road for a much needed weekend getaway to see the Tim and Faith, Soul to Soul tour in our old stompin' grounds ... Nashville, TN! Sigh, I miss it there. The city, the people, the music, our friends, my routine, the excitement, the cranes, heck even the traffic, ha! But, either way I'm thankful it's so close and such a great getaway!

Our annual family reunion unfortunately happened to be on the same weekend as the concert (we bought the tickets forever ago -- when we had no idea we wouldn't be living in Nashville at the time) ... so the littles packed up and head to Cincinatti with my parents for the weekend. We had an unexpected date night Friday (we left Saturday am) - WAHOO!

We were having unseasonably AMAZING weather so Hubs and I hit up a great little patio here in town and had the BEST night. 

Then Saturday we hit the road - with nothing but Tim and Faith on the radio and tons of laughter in the air (that sounds so ridiculously cheesy, but really ....).

 One of my long time pals is the PR director for 21C Hotels so she hooked us up with a sweet room down on Broadway - thanks Holz - you're the BEST. And if anyone happens to go there and stay ... take my word for it and order the fried chicken bucket to your room. HOLY YUM.

 We changed up and headed out to go Honky Tonkin -- with one of our first stops naturally being the sushi car at Acme -- because duh it's so great.

 Then we hit up lots of our favorite staples - Tooties, Rippy's ... you know all the usuals :) and headed over to Bridgestone!

 Hubs was super excited because they sell Tin Man Brewing inside the arena ... it's the latest acquisition Falls City Brewing  has made (and the acquisition that has completely stolen my husband - whew! Hello giant workload!). But I'm super proud of him and the growth of this little beer brand!

 And then this happened and we were all smiling and singing the rest of the night.

I mentioned earlier we purchased our tickets FOREVER ago. They were running a special through our credit card and we had no idea where the seats were - they were just relatively cheap and we were down. And then near the end of the show - HOLY SMOKES they walked right in front of our seats! I was all fan girl Snapchatting -- but here are some screenshots.

 And just like that it was time to come home and snuggle these sweet kiddos. I love weekend getaways with my boyfriend, but coming back to these little things sure is sweet too!

All of that to say ... if you exist out there and don't sing along to "I had a barbecue stain on my white t-shirt" we cannot be friends :) 

Smokey Mountain Munchkins

Good ole' Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee!

Last week our little family piled in my parents ridiculously awesome astro van and settled in for the long haul to make our trek to the Smokey Mountains ... with an impressive stop in Nashville too!

Long story short, my pops is a big time game fisher (like blue marlin and stuff) and has a fishing boat in the Bahamas, so he heads down for big tournaments and always comes back with crazy stories. His latest and greatest is a young fella he met at a tournament: Colton James.  He's an up and coming country artist and basically, dad's getting involved with the whole shebang.

So, we headed to Nashville for a full day of "laying some new tracks" (I learned the lingo) in the Ocean Way Recording studios. Thank heavens for the upstairs lounge area where BUBs snoozed away while the band kicked it up downstairs.

I've never seen that side of things ... SO cool. It took some serious self control to not touch all the BUTTONS! I'm such a child.

After a LONG day in the studio, we piled back in the car to head on to Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg had a dual purpose. One, we were just havin' a hollerin' good time with the babe on our first real trip. Two, Colton was shooting a music video for his song 101 Proof and we were gonna see some Hollywood movie makin' magic (so stinkin cool). 

After we checked out the music video and got lost for nearly 3 hours trying to find "the cemetery"

We decided it was time to actually see Gatlinburg and let Bennett be strolled and Bjorned until his little heart was content. 

Bahhh...the baby sunglasses and that hat. The cutest munchkin I ever did see. And his daddy's pretty cute too <3

We had such a great time ... a few more favorites:

And perhaps my most favorite of all ... Bennett fell asleep next to the real mountain river in PaPaw's arms. Gahhh. 

THE most precious. Ever.

And because no one is allowed to leave Gatlinburg without an old timey photo, we made sure to get one of those too. Just for good measure.

Until next time Tennessee. 

Redneck Yacht Club

Lake Cumberland. Our happy place. 

No judgement on the terrified look on Bennett's face. I promise he had fun ;)

I'd argue there's hardly anything better than music blasting, the sun a shinin', floating around in a life jacket diaper and tellin' stories with your buddies while sippin' on an ice cold beer in your favorite koozie.  Yep, the lake.  The most perfect way to spend Labor Day weekend. And this year our favorite little munchkin was able to join us! With the help of shade and way too many fans to keep little man cool it was absolutely perfect!

You better believe we are soaking up the last few days of summer!  

Happy Labor Day every one.

..Whiskey..

No, this isn't a story about how crazy I got on the fire water last night, sorry to disappoint, but I'm wayy too pregnant for that.  This post is about my latest and great country artist obsession: Jana Kramer.

Fellow country music lovers - are you with me?!  I'm loving this new artist.  She was up for the ACM New Artist of the Year Award, but unfortunately lost to 'Florida Georgia Line' ... although, if I'm being honest, they're pretty good too.

But, I wanted to share with ya'll my favorite Jana song "Whiskey" ... SEC girls everywhere can relate to the boys she's talkin' about - ya dig ;0)?!

Enjoy!

CMA's...Carrie...CMA's

okay, so the CMAs were Thursday night (Country Music Awards ... for the non-southern folk who don't eat, sleep and breathe country music like moi) and like every year - they didn't disappoint. it's by far my favorite award show of the season and i get overly excited, we're talking giddy school girl, pop corn tubs, special snacks, we will not run out of beverages, cute sweatpants and extra blankets excited!

Let's see featured highlights ---

1.  Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton still being the couple i aspire to be (winning a duet together?!, and her 'Thank You' speech in which she made sure to include all of her competition?! - SWOON)
2. Seeing Tim and Faith perform together (seeing Tim perform twice actually *wink wink*)
3. Willie Nelson tribute and his cute pig tails (do you think he braids his own?)
4. Carrie Underwood's amazing wardrobe changes
1. Carrie's incredible hair
2. Carrie performing 'Blown Away' and actually looking like she was in a twister
3. Carrie and Brad's Connie tribute
4. Carrie and Brad doing the Gangnam dance
5. Carrie's legs (seriously though?)
6. Carrie and Brad making fun of T. Swift
7. Carrie and Brad explaining 'Motorboatinnn" *giggle*
• And while on the Carrie topic, i feel the need to whine a little. Carrie came to Louisville in September and lucky me, it was on my birthday weekend. Which meant me and all my gal pals were going to put on our best country concert attire (see Quinn's blog to find out what to wear) and sing our little hearts out. BUT silly me, planned mine and Shane's anniversary trip right in the middle of the concert and i wasn't able to go - WAHHHH! -- it sure looks like they had fun though, so sad i couldn't be there :(.

1. Zach Brown's incredible voice
2. Vince Gill's appearance - he's an icon for real
3. Taylor Swift not winning Female vocalist of the year (not trying to be a hater, and i really do like Taylor, but I'm ready for some other artists to win some awards)
4. Eric Church performing' Springsteen', even though i just saw it live a couple of weeks ago (a small blurb on that here)
5. The gals from the new show 'Nashville' presenting an award. I am LOVING that show ya'll. If you haven't seen it - tune into ABC on Wednesday nights at 10pm. We're 3 or 4 episodes in on the first season - you'll like it. Promise.
6. Jason Aldean, Eric Church and Luke Bryan performing together
7. And i think my personal favorite performance of the night was The Band Perry performing their new song "Better Dig Two" (let me be honest, I've had it on repeat since the first time i heard it - LOVING it).