Tennessee Weekend

I'm baaaack!

Last week Thursday, my mom and I ventured on down to Tennessee to visit my cousin and her husband for a few days. I was a little unsure how well I would do traveling (even if it is only 9 hours) given the constant urge to pee and/or get up and walk around, but it wasn't bad at all! We stayed overnight near the Edinburgh outlet mall so we could do some shopping in the morning before hitting the road again. The weather was awesome...80-85 degrees & sunny every day! 

Cruisin through Kentucky

We stayed with my cousin Tammy & her husband Ken just outside Nashville in a town called Goodletsville. They have the most gorgeous home nestled up in the hills of a private golf course--I couldn't believe the view! It was so refreshing to see the trees and flowers in full bloom as Michigan hasn't quite reached that point yet.

views from K & T's

Turns out, we went down there at just the right time....the grand reopening of Opry Mills indoor outlet mall :) I swear we shopped 12 hours on Saturday, I literally had to buy new shoes (of course they are leopard print Sperrys) because my feet ached so bad! We scored some major deals!

Ken played tour guide on Sunday, and after church we got to see where all the stars live in Sumner County. We saw Reba's estate & riding stables on the Cumberland river, Loretta Lynn's family home (literally a 1/2 mile from my cousin's), the school where Taylor Swift shot part of one of her videos, Conway Twitty's, Lorrie Morgan's, and my favorite--the remains of Johnny Cash's estate that burned after one of the Bee Gee's tried to renovate it. It was so weird to see that these celebs lived so close to us "normal" folk. I'm not sure what else I was expecting though.

Reba's horse barn

Side view of Reba's property

More of Reba's old farms...named after her label, Starstruck

Some random house, but this is what I think of when I hear "Southern Homes". Just like in Sweet Home Alabama...close nuff.

Shoot...I forget who lives here...

The sign in Johnny Cash's brother's house...next door

The Cash estate...burned

Strange, you could still see much of the burned remains after all these years.

This was once Lorrie Morgan's Liberty House

Conway Twitty's "Twitty City"

Ugh. Such a sickening picture. It was about 2pm and I hadn't had lunch yet...not happy! {Outside Conway Twitty's}

Hard Rock Cafe downtown Nashville

Great American County drive by

Tootsies on Broadway--apparently lots of celebs are spotted here

Loretta Lynn's family home. Guess she was just a coal miner's daughter?

random..Loretta's grandbabies' treehouse

The Ryman!

All in all, we had a great time. We left Monday afternoon, and stayed overnight near Indianapolis on the way back. I could have probably made the whole trip, but my mom was pretty pooped too. So much traveling, driving, shopping, and family time! I need a vacation from vacation! Next time I will be taking Ross, he was so bummed he couldn't come along--Nashville is right up his alley! It was my first trip away from him {usually he's the one going on hunting/work trips away from me} and at first I wasn't sure how it would go over. The day I left he wanted nothing to do with saying goodbye, and told me he needed a vacation from me! Crazy boy must have gotten over it, because my phone was ringing a couple of times a day with him "checking in". He must have done ok...I got home and there was a new work truck in the driveway and he had cleaned the entire house, including the nursery! No joke, I thought I died and went to heaven...absence must really make the heart grow fonder...did I mention I love vacation?



Mexico!

Finally! We've been home now a week and I haven't yet unpacked. Priorities, people. I figured I won't need all those summery clothes right away, so why rush to wash them?! Girl has got way more important things like catching up with the gal pals and watching all those trashy shows I DVR-ed from the last two-ish weeks.

As promised, here's some pics! Hubby has not yet jumped on the blog-wagon or the picture-taking wagon, therefore there are very few pictures with me actually in it. Wah. Probably a good thing though because I literally busted out of my clothes this week. Just as expected, babe made him/herself very visible our last few days!

View from our hotel balcony. To the right there was a private pool and snack bar for Apple guests.

Half-Cowboy, Half-Drummer? Due to a nice bout of skin cancer on the side of his nose last year, this bad boy is required to wear a hat outdoors. I don't mind it one bit ;) As for the drumming? Too much rum.

Playa Del Carmen, where we went for massages on a rainy morning. My massuse (?) was actually blind. Weirdest massage ever.

Stopping for lunch in Playa Del Carmen. Notice my massive water bottle and all their coronas. Yea, not cool. Oh yes, the other couple we're sitting with is Ross & Mike's hired hand & his wife. For being around our parents' age, they're so much fun!

On the beach in Playa Del Carmen. Our resort had a crappy beach due to the reef that broke and seaweed that washed up everyday. Nothing like this bright blue caribbean! To the right (not pictured) is Cozumel!

Love me some virgin daquiris!

Lobby

Creepy crawlies in the "backyard"

Just reached 17 weeks here! Excuse the massive bloat, I was not accustomed to eating so many carbs (and few fruits/veggies + NO dairy) all week!

Our fellas and their umbrellas. The weather was quite strange--rained everyday, mostly between 2-4. Good thing we got to the pool by 8 am.

View from the pool.

After dinner. Note: when you forget to pack a clutch, cosmetic cases work well!

Brother-in-law & Sister-in-law

Need me one of these! You could drive a car in this shower!

Cosmetic case makes another appearance for dinner.

There you have it folks. Not much to say other than the fact that I did lots of napping and snacking and they did lots of drinking. And more drinking. I was decent and didn't post any incriminating pics, though I do have a hilarious video of Ross sneaking up to dance with some old lady in the pool. And the crew doing the YMCA. Talk about obvious Americans.

Other than the general swimming and sunbathing, we shopped in Playa Del Carmen and went to see the shows almost every night. Our resort even broadcasted the SuperBowl! The resort we stayed at was called Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda. It was very clean, the food was good, and staff was excellent. I didn't care much for the beach, but they had a couple of nice big pools to hang out by. The guys were a little upset that there wasn't a swim-up bar, but they did have girls that came around and brought drinks. I would recommend it to anyone, though I did enjoy the one we stayed at last year {Iberostar Playa Paraiso} a bit more, though it's also more pricey. All in all, this was a great, relaxing getaway with the Schutter Bros Builders crew!