October 2021 Nashville (Part 2)

We stayed at the Gaylord Grand Ole Opry Resort in Nashville.  It was all decorated for Halloween.  We had lots of fun exploring the resort.  My conference was good (8-1) each day so we had plenty of time to play in the afternoons. 

The resort has a beautiful big atrium lots to see and do. 

Finn was having a tough day after our first night.  When I got back from my conference I scooped him up and we went exploring.  That is why he doesn't have any shoes on.  This trip taught me that he and I get along best when on the move.  We walked without speaking anything more than, "up the stairs" or "turn here" for 5 minutes and that was enough to let us both clear our heads and start communicating. 

The resort also has a big indoor/outdoor waterpark.  There were two lazy rivers.  We spent about 4.5 hours there one afternoon, it was great. 

The twins and I went up 4 flights of stairs to ride the tube slide and at the top the attendant told me it was for 2 people only.  So down they went to find a very surprised mom at the bottom. 

There was a kids section, too.

Everyone had a blast. 

That night we wanted a simple dinner so we went to a small taco stand, turned out Mas Tacos is a world famous/wait for 45 minutes taco stand.  The food was good, we were pleased. 

My three girls... wait, that's not Lilian, that's a horse!

Enjoying the water show while dad is in his conference. 

Saturday afternoon we went to the Tennessee State Museum.  It was really interesting. They told stories of racism, wars, growth, development, etc.  The kids had lots of questions. Fun afternoon.  

Sunday as we headed back west, we came upon a wonderful playground in KY and spent most of an hour. 

We drove in to St Louis to see the Gateway Arch.  As soon as we walked out of the parking lot we saw a horse-drawn carriage.  We knew it would be expensive, but thought the kids would love it. It was a fun experience (and way more expensive than we thought), the kids had fun. 

We were able to get a few fun photos. 

Lilian was screaming her head off and didn't want to do this picture, but it looks awesome anyway. 

How many arches do you see? 

The next morning we went to the St Louis zoo. 

Halfway though our big trip and we had started getting on each others nerves.  The night before we stayed at a really cheap hotel east of St Louis.  It was the oldest, least nice, place we stayed.  The kids and I all had meltdowns. After way too much shouting I finally apologized and asked the kids how we could keep from having another explosion like that.  I was thinking the answer was, "do what dad says/leave my siblings alone."  Finley answer, "We could give you a hug!"  So for the rest of the trip I would occasionally say, "I'm going to start shouting, I need a hug."  It worked!  Whatever the problem behavior was, it had to stop to give hugs.  That usually defused the situation. 

Yeah, this is the curb outside a gas station on the way to Kansas City at 7 PM, long after dark. We had 1 hour left on the drive and we were sick of eating in restaurants, just to fight to get Lilian to eat anything besides grapes and french fries.  That girl's dietary habits regressed on this trip. Too much road food. 

We visited Independence and Liberty on Tuesday 10/19.  It was a good experience, but it is weird to be the family with little kids on a tour when the missionaries are trying to help all feel the spirit.  The kids liked the visitors centers and it gave us a good chance to talk about history. 

At Liberty Jail they talked about how the door is just a replica, the reorganized church has the original door. They never pointed out that we do have the key.  During the excavation and reconstruction, they found the original key.  If I were the tour guide, I'd point out that while we don't have the door that restricted the Prophet, we do have the key that freed him. 

Lilian was the only one up for a night walk with me in Kansas City.  There was an overpass a few blocks away from our AirBNB which had some great street art.  It was fun to be out with her for a while alone. 

October 21, final drive home.  We stayed in Limon, CO 10/20.  It was a great hotel, and a very relaxed evening.  We walked to the Del Taco across the street, bought a bag of tacos, ate in the hotel and went swimming.  Those were some of the best moments of the whole trip.  Playing in a random hotel pool with everyone smiling and screaming.  This was at a park in Vale, CO.  The kids had a blast, it was gorgeous.  Melissa even suggested we consider staying a night in this cute town.  It is about 5 hours from Blanding, plus a gorgeous and expensive resort town, so we kept driving. 

And we made it home! Well, this is Thompson Springs so we had another 2 hours. The kids spent 45 minutes climbing dirt hills and walking little trails at this rest stop. After this, we stopped for dinner in Moab and were home by 7.  Fun trip, new places we'd never been and awesome kids who traveled very well.  Still, it is always good do be home!.