Nashville and Everything Else

After the white coat ceremony we decided to let Chris be our guide and hit up the famous Broadway street in Nashville, which, surprisingly, is just about 5 miles down the road from Vanderbilt. Who knew? Broadway is the street that has all the famous country bars where country singer wannabes pay their dues and get discovered.  It is definitely one of those things you just have to do while in Nashville.  And according to TripAdvisor.com you also have to get some ice cream at "Mike's."  Which we did.  For dinner!  I had something called "Take That" which was like eating a Take 5 candy bar mixed with a treasure chest.  Every time I took a bite I was finding something new; pretzels, chocolate, caramel, fudge, whoppers, a doughnut hole, flan, some skittles- it was an extremely tasty treat to eat while people watching.  And by "people" I mean mean "thousands of single ladies in short shorts and cowboy boots ready to go clubbing."

We didn't go in or eat there, but it's a giant guitar with Stark Tower in the background!  

It begged to be photographed.

So we basically walked around, went in some shops, listened to all the live country music coming from the clubs and I finally got a hand-painted Christmas ornament in this store:

COTTON EYED JOE's!!!

(The DJ in me couldn't resist)

Here is a lovely photo of the Cinderella-esque carriage you can rent on Broadway.  Right in front of the open air, two-story bar we dubbed "The Great And Spacious" Saloon.

And now for everything else I didn't show you, in completely random order:

Brian's apartment complex pool...

There is nothing cooler than getting to catch fireflies with your dad :)

Here is Brian rocking out while playing the Olivia guitar....

I had seen this place both times I had been to Chris and Molly's previously. It always made me laugh and wonder.  Well, not anymore!  Trueloves' Pizza and Grits- you are mine!

I have no earthly idea why pizza and grits is a combination.  By all accounts it makes no sense. Other than a publicity stunt to get people to spend money finding out for themselves.  Well, it worked!  Here is Jacob eating the grits in question.

I think they should be called mexi-grits. Tomatoes, peppers, chiles, cheese- not a bad way to jazz those things up a bit!

Here is an excellent photobomb by Ana...

Here is a sign from the Pizza restaurant:

(Just for some background, this town is obsessed with mules.  Yes, mules.  They have mule days once a year, with mule floats and mule parades.  Need more proof?  This poster is hanging in the pizza restaurant, remember?)

The cousins about to hit the pool... 

Sadie let me borrow a headband for church.  I was feeling pretty stylin' with my straight hair.  Yep, straight hair in July.  That just shows the amazing weather we had for our trip.  It was cool at night, low humidity during the day and we only had one day of real cloud cover.  Heaven! Jacob and I even got up three days in a row and went running through the neighborhood.

Cindy loved getting to hold Sadie and Ana's rabbits.  Here she is with Flopsy.



This is the inflatable slide that provided hours and hours and hours of cousin fun :)

And here is Uncle Jacob showing Luke and Wyatt the secrets to becoming Plants vs. Zombies masters...

Here is Luke wearing Sadie's hat...

Me and Cindy with the incredibly happy Olivia.

And finally, here is a little fun we had with the camera and the trampoline.  

I present our version of Vadering:

It's ALWAYS a party when Aunt Kelly is there :)

Vanderblog

We didn't plan it that way, but our trip to Tennessee allowed us to be there for Brian's "white coat" ceremony at Vanderbilt, which is where all the first year med students are given their little outfits that they will wear for the rest of their schooling lives.  This was an especially fun event to attend while sitting next to my brother Chris, who had his own white coat ceremony 9 years ago at Florida State.  Chris's wife Molly went home with all the kids an hour before and did not have to attend the ceremony, but before she left we were given firm instructions that if we were supposed to cheer for Brian when he got his coat we needed to be ready with what we would yell out.  Chris immediately shouted, "You're making a huge mistake! Don't do it!" I don't think Molly liked that cheer.

Sadly there was no actual cheering at this ceremony.  It was only 45 minutes long and was no more complicated than 105 kids in a classroom putting on a jacket.  As we were sitting and waiting for the ceremony to start, we were looking over the program, which was basically a list of names and the universities for each show off.  Lots of Princetons, Harvards and Yales among that group. (But five Mormons. Oh yeah!)  At one point Chris leaned over my shoulder to scan the names.

Chris: You know, a medical school is only as good as the number of Patels that are in the class. How many does this one have?

Me: One.

Chris:  Fail. This whole school is a failure. 

We were going to tell my mom that this was the ONLY picture that we got of the whole entire ceremony and that my camera died.  She loves a good joke, right?

Okay, here is one photo of the super exciting moment at the end when all the students read some docotry oath all together.  It seriously sounded like they should have ended it with "We are the Borg. Resistance is futile."  

And here we have me and my brothers; the future Dr. Brian and my inactive brother Chris.  That was the joke with this picture anyway.  Probably because he looks like he is holding a beer.  He wasn't.  But I am still not going to reveal the actual contents of that glass :)

I thought this picture would make an excellent meme...

Well if anyone could do it, it would be him.

After the ceremony we hit the school bookstore for some birthday shopping for my dad. 

And a few shenanigans....

That helmet is now in my dad's office being worn by the life-size Ronald Raegan. I think Chris looks like an Angry Birds Darth Vader, don't you?  And I am currently in the process of photoshopping that picture of Jacob to make the Vanderbilt logo into a giant blue Y.  I will need to post it day one of college football season so we all can see how much Jacob supports the Cougars!

Another fun thing to do in the bookstore is to add the prefix "Vander" to anything that starts with the letter B.  Need a Vanderbook? A mini Vanderbat and Vanderball? How about a Vanderbelt or some Vanderboots?  They got it!  And they will even put it in a lovely Vanderbag for you when you're done.


And just as Mormons flock to visit temples across the country, teachers flock to uppity university signs to get their picture taken.

Final post tomorrow! To Nashville and Beyond!

A Luke Quickie

Luke is a man of few words when it comes to discussing things he does not like.  In fact, one of his most identifiable qualities is being too shy to tell you when food tastes gross.  Most kids will spit something out in two seconds and tell you they hate it.  Luke on the other hand would probably grimace his way through a bowl of paint if I told him he had to eat it.  Last week when we gave him an oatmeal and butterscotch chip cookie, he went outside to eat it.  Almost thirty minutes later I found him out in the driveway pacing around and holding the cooking with two hands like it was a bug he didn't know what to do with.  I said, "Do you like the cookie?" to which he very excruciatingly and very quietly said, "No." All that time he was outside trying to think of how to get rid of it without anyone knowing.  Oh, Luke.  He's just a tender little guy :)

Yeah, Yeah....It's a Waterfall

And now I will blow your mind with too many pictures of a waterfall we hiked to.  The coolest part about where my brother lives is that 45 minutes north is Nashville, which a huge cool city, and then 30 minutes anywhere else you can go out into the wilderness.  Probably to die....

Raise your hand if you're a goofball

Yep, looks just like Florida....

Cousin nirvana.

You can't see it, but Jacob is wearing his Star Trek shirt.  Which is perfect because in the future when we can start beaming to other planets, this is where I want my landing party to energize.

Here is where you can "slide" down the falls...

Without padding...

Or with the padding :)

Luke was the only one who persevered long enough to figure out how to correctly get the foam pad to slide on the rocks.  Then everyone else followed suit.

Photobomb level: Chris

Luke and Wyatt were fast friends. Members of the "I only have sisters" club have to stick together.

And tomorrow it's time to have a little fun at Vanderbilt!

Meet The Juice!

I have to admit that now that my job at work has changed from filing and phones to typing medical notes for eight hours a day, it is a little hard to come home and type this blog.  But, I must press forward!

Let's be honest for a moment.  We went to Tennessee to visit my brothers, but the real star of the show was this little lady.....

We finally got to meet my new niece Olivia.  So here is a montage of pictures of her adorable little face :)  This is what you call a very gratuitous post for the grandmas and anyone else who wants to steal a few pictures.

 Chris is so good with babies.  And then I remember, oh yeah, he is a pediatrician! Makes sense.


Yep, we passed Olivia around like the 98th bottle of beer on the wall.  She was pretty good most of the time, but was pretty quick to figure out when her mom or dad weren't the ones holding her.

This, by far was one of my favorite moments.  After we ate dinner one night, Brian was loading Olivia into the car seat.  Right then the song that came on in the restaurant was "Love Train" by the O'jays and Brian as grooving and singing along and Olivia LOVED it.  She was smiling and almost laughing.  I took this picture and I think if she actually could snap, she would have been.

Okay, tomorrow we get back to business and show you the rest of the story....

Hitting The Road

Normally when we make the trek up to Tennessee to see my brother we take I-75 straight up the gut through Georgia and drive like maniacs to avoid the endless boredom that is that highway. There really is nothing to see except for some really crazy religious billboards.  Surprisingly that isn't always enough to keep me interested.  So this time we decided to take the route that went through Alabama and up I-65 straight to Chris' house.  And what do you get with that little trip?  Well, you get.....

The Christmas Tree farm in Havana, Fl that had the absolute cutest little perfect pine trees you ever saw in your life.  Acres of them!  They looked fake they were so perfect.

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Acres of giant pecan trees that made me want to jump from the car and have a picnic right then and there.  And then immediately fill my trunk with a TON of pecans so I could eat them the rest of my life.  Pecan is definitely my number one nut.  Followed closely by Luke as the second.

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Havana is also home to a tiny little restaurant that looked like a mobile home and it was called:

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Because you know how much rednecks love Hobbits.

Then we hit Alabama and our first stop was at a restaurant called Baumhowers in Montgomery.  It was started by some sort of famous Alabama linebacker and was kind of like a more southern version of a sports bar.  It is home to the famous "Hot Bama Brown" sandwich, which of course I had to order.  

It is deep fried turkey on bread, with mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, tomatoes, bacon and Parmesan cheese.  It was not half bad.  The menu claimed it was one of "100 Alabama sandwiches you need to eat before you die."  ONE HUNDRED SANDWICHES?  IN ALABAMA?  I can't even name 100 sandwiches ever!  I was puzzled by this accolade. 

Here is Luke taking a picture of me and the 'Bama way before I was ready.  Our waitress was eternally slow, so we had to forgo the fried banana pudding and get back on the road.  Curse you, Tina!

I love this picture too.  Here is Cindy protesting our "No mac and cheese as a main dish at a restaurant" policy.

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Sorry, but I am not paying $5 for something that doesn't have meat and costs 25 cents to make. But guess what, I didn't even pay $5 for the chicken fingers because it was Wednesday at that restaurant which meant that the kids eat free.  My mad savings skills follow me wherever I go!!!

After lunch we plugged in the coordinates for the Birmingham, AL temple into the GPS and were led straight to a big field of nothing.  I was a little tired of being lead astray when it comes to temples! See "Oklahoma City Temple Debacle of 2012" for reference.  However, we drove through a neighborhood and tried to regroup and then, there it was! The Spirit gives better directions.  

This now makes the 14th temple we have visited with the kids. I never get tired of it :)

The temple was having its yearly summer maintenance and was closed at the time, but the parking lot was full of workers and their trucks.  Who else would you expect the Church to hire?

 Our next big sight to behold was this giant Saturn rocket in Huntsville, AL.  I believe this was the Saturn 45 rocket.  Davina, I hope you just face-palmed.  That was for you.

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And finally, we did get to see this fine sign in a field somewhere after that....

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Well, it's true.  And no one wants to get hacked up by a scythe.  To be continued....

I'm baaaaaack!

Took a summer road trip up to Tennessee for a week, but we are home now and I will soon be torturing you with vacation photos you don't really care about.  Whoo-hoo!  In the mean time, I am off to work to type medical notes all day.  Can I just say that acromiolclavicular and meniscectomy are two of my favorite words right now?  I guess me and Vandy-Bri are going to have some things in common after all...

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

TOP TEN NAMES FOR THE ROYAL BABY

10.  Smokey
9. Hagrid
8. Floyd
7. Jefferson Ling Ling del Bosque
6. Urkel
5. Hamburglar
4. Buck
3. Raykwan
2. David Beckham
1. Fonzie


It's all in vain however, William gave away the real name months ago....

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