Nov 5-7

Saturday, November 5th-

Busy, wonderful day!

Molly "reading" with the music stand this morning

It started out with cleaning the church. I signed us up for a couple more times because I want the kids to learn to serve. Last time they were a little more negative about it but today they were kind and helpful. A lot of people showed up so we were able to finish quickly.

Silas took the kids home and I left for my 5.5 mile run. It was so GOOD! I was surprised. My time was good and I felt good the whole time. I am excited for the race next Saturday.

At noon the kids and I headed to the SUU football game. It is the last home game of the season and I wanted to take the kids since it would be warmer than the evening games. Silas got tickets from work for all of us but he had to go to a teacher training broadcast. We were hoping he would be able to meet up with us at the game but he finished about the same time as we did so he met us at Bulloch Drug where we stopped to get some ice cream after the game. He even brought his SUU tie and changed into it when he was done with his meeting.

The game was GREAT! SUU won and the kids were good so we all got to enjoy the game. Ryan gets really into it, which I love because I get really into it too.

Molly "drumming" on the blanket bag during
 halftime while the band was playing

Sunday, November 6th-

Blessings....

• Good kids who don't mind going to Grandma Warby's Sunday mornings so I can wake her up.
• Kids who like each other
• Chicken that is individually frozen! (Silas bought a 40 lb. box a while back and this morning was the first time I opened it. I was so grateful they were individually frozen instead of a big frozen mass.)
• New, comfy shirt that made me think about wearing my Grandma Rowley's earrings today.
• Finding a random file on the computer that is a certificate 
• Totally enjoying playing the piano in Primary today!
• First ward choir practice since last Christmas. I LOVE singing in choirs!

Monday, November 7th-

Feeling yucky

Napping with Daddy during his lunch break

After being home from the gym this morning for just a few minutes, Molly had a fever of 101.8 F. By evening she was miserable. Poor thing. I feel so badly for her. I am also sad that someone is sick and sad for the possibility of everyone getting sick. The last 2 winters we have been sick so much….I really hope that pattern doesn't continue this year.

Sad girl!

Playing with my phone during intermission

Ryan and I went to the high school's play alone tonight and had a great time. The play was Thoroughly Modern Millie and it was hilarious.

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Nov 1-4

Tuesday, November 1st-

• Let the kids sleep in a little today. Cleod was a few minutes late for school but Ryan and Grant were on time.
• Took the girls to Emma Slade's and met Silas at the Stake Center for Ryan Shakespear's viewing and funeral. It was so hard but the family gave amazing talks about the Plan on Salvation and the Atonement.
• Silas picked up the girls, took Cora to school and hung out with Molly until Cleod got home from school.
• I stayed at the church and helped with the luncheon for the family. It is the first time I have helped so I learned a lot from all the wonderful ladies that were there. Deruchette was there too, as well as Allison Maxwell, Trish Topham, Tammy Greener, Kathy Engman and Suzi Gatherum who are some women I admire. It was a blessing for me to serve with them today.
• Tonight I went over to Amber's for a while and visited with her. It's her birthday and we are going shopping on Friday night!

Wednesday, November 2nd-

Today was one of those days that I wondered why we are doing the paper route. They don't really make a ton of money and some days they are weird and don't seem to be working as hard as other times. But we are going to stick with it a little longer because I think they are learning some skills and they do really enjoy having some money to spend.

We left early for Cleod's piano lesson so we drove up to look at the temple for a few minutes. Molly always asks if it is done yet. I wish, Molly! We need to be patient. But we could see some progress in the landscaping as well as the new windows in the steeple, so that was exciting!

Thursday, November 3rd-

I spent the day today cleaning and cooking. It was a great day! I hosted Book Club tonight so I prepared some goodies for that, including little pumpkin pies.

It is nice to have a deadline for cleaning at least part of my house. The main level looked great by afternoon. I even mopped! That is rare lately. 

Book Club was really good. We discussed the book Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. I had picked it and enjoy the story but didn't realize until tonight that it is a Brothers' Grimm fairy tale. I always learn something at Book Club! :)

Silas was a good sport and watched our kids and the Huff boys in the basement during Book Club. He's so great!

Friday, November 4th-

I love Fridays so much! I'm sure I have written about this before but Fridays just feel super relaxed. I don't worry about doing as much housework as other days so I am personally more laid back.

Today I worked on my planner for next year. I really like planners and NEED them to survive. I have been thinking for a few months about making my own planner so that the space is used wisely for what I need. Today it really started coming together. I think I have everything I need. I am going to print it out on nice paper and put it in a 3-ring binders. I'm excited.

After taking Cora to school at 12:30pm, I dropped off Molly at Mary Armour's and picked up Amber for our shopping extravaganza! We stopped for gas and a smoothie before heading to St. George.

It was an amazing night! We tried on things we never would have tried before and had fun showing off to each other. Because we had no time limit and no kids with us the normal pressure to hurry was gone. It really was a different experience and was so much fun! We stopped at Habit Burger for dinner, which was delicious. Between us we came home with lots of new clothes, a couple pairs of shoes, a purse, and a necklace from our six store shopping spree!

Kids' adventures while we were in Nashville

Here are some pictures that my mom sent from her time with the kids.

Toy at the Family Dollar

On at walk while Cleod was at piano

Grant's first day of Cub Scouts!

Cora on Pajama Day!

Cora had the bucket and took at water bottle

Molly dressing up in one of my old
costumes in Vegas

Ready for Aunt Deni's ward's Trunk-or-Treat in Vegas

Oct 30 & 31

Sunday, October 30th-

• Wake up Grandma (kids played Monopoly again)
• Church was good- felt really good about playing the piano in Primary
• Amber and Bethany came visiting teaching 
• Silas had a High Priest Quorum Meeting this evening
• Still adjusting to being home from our GREAT trip

Monday, October 31st-

Today I was thinking about how we thought we were having a boy when we got pregnant with Molly. We were SURE of it. At the ultrasound we were shocked and the first thing that Silas said was, "I guess we are having 6 kids!" haha. We were just sure we were having another cute, Aitchison boy. Even though we were surprised, we have always been happy to have Molly in our family. 

Today I looked at her as she was reading on my bed with sunglasses on and a weird, miss-matched outfit on and I had an overwhelming feeling of love and gratitude for her. I can't imagine what we would do without her. She is bright and happy and makes every day better for me.

                             *      *      *      *

Grant and Molly eating snacks on the rug

This afternoon Molly and I went to Grant's class to help his class during their Halloween Party. Grant got Molly to come to him right away and he took her around to the different stations with him. He is such a nice brother. I went outside and did the Monster Tag station. It was really fun! We also played Monster Simon Says and when we got tired we laid on the grass and looked at clouds. It was a nice Fall day with fluffy, white clouds!

Cookie making station

We went trick-or-treating this evening with the Stonelys. We meant to only be out for an hour or so but the kids were having so much fun that we stayed out until after 7pm. Cleod trick-or-treated with us for a few minutes and then Silas came and got him so that he could go to the school's party at the middle school. At first I didn't want him to go because I wanted us to be together as a family, but I decided that part of the night with his friends would be OK. When we finished with the Stonelys, we picked up Cleod. We had visited Grandma Warby and Kathy at the bank after school but we still needed to visit Kathleen and LaNor. We stayed and visited for a few minutes and then got home and ate a super late dinner. 

Heather, Cleod and others

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday but today was fun, mostly because we got to spend time with friends!

Trick-or-treating

Oct 27-29

Thursday, October 27th-

The Hermitage

Today we found a jewel in the middle of Nashville. After breakfast and checking out of our hotel, we went to see The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's home. Silas had wanted to get out an enjoy some countryside while we were there but we didn't have time this morning. This ended up being EXACTLY what we were looking for. It's over 1100 acres of countryside in the middle of the city.

At the Hermitage

We enjoyed learning more about Andrew Jackson and his family in the museum and in the actual house. We spent a little time walking around outside and though the gardens were the family is buried. There was a class of 4th graders from a local school there helping with the tours as well which was super cute.

We could have walked around for hours but we wanted to get some more Goo Goos chocolate from the mall and have enough time at the airport.

We ended up being an hour earlier than necessary so we waited at a lounge/restaurant before we could check our luggage. I read my book and Silas checked his email, something he hasn't done much on the trip. It felt like we were getting back to normal. We weren't very happy about that.

Do we HAVE to go home?

Once we got on the plane we took a few more pictures. The sad one is the most truthful. We didn't want to go home. That sounds awful but we had such a good time and I didn't have to deal with all the things that have caused stress lately (kids, dishes, laundry). Sigh.

Friday, October 28th-

Gifts for kids

Got home super late. The flight was ok although not really comfortable. Dad picked us up at the airport and visited with him for a few minutes at the house before heading home. We did stop in St. George for dinner at the Black Bear Diner. It was good but late and we were super tired.

Happy birthday, Uncle Ryan!

Molly on my lap while I started getting trip pictures organized

This morning mom stayed for a while so I started laundry and then we went to the cemetery. It's Ryan's 42nd birthday today!

Molly and I went and helped at the school and then Silas took her to lunch and I went out with Amber. It was really nice to chat. Good friends are so important!

It was a cold and windy day today. Fit perfectly with my gloomy attitude about being home. Haha

In the evening we were lazy and caught up on Studio C.

Saturday, October 29th-

Luckily, we didn't have any plans today. I did my run (5 miles today!) and the kids played outside most of the day (after their chores and computer time). With some of the neighbors they are building a fort or something in the back back. They are pretty serious about it.

In the afternoon Silas and Molly napped and I worked out blogging about the trip. Silas didn't vacation wasn't exactly as relaxing as mine, since he had to go to meetings during the day. He is exhausted!

I am grateful for this stress-free day. I feel like it helped us get back into the groove without running all over town or without entertaining anyone.

Oct 24-26

Monday, October 24th-

Getting settled

This morning we headed over to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel for Silas to start the security conference. He started earlier that they were ready to check us into our room but they let me go up to the hotel gym while I waited. Within an hour our room was ready and we got our things settled in. I got right to work getting some family history work done. The old laptop is getting slow and Silas ended up not needing his laptop during the conference so by the afternoon I had both of them on and just went back and forth.

By lunch time I was feeling a little headachy so I went for a walk around the hotel. It is huge (3000 guest rooms and convention center) and amazing! There are several sections and they all have atriums, fountains, ponds, restaurants, stores, and more. I found a chicken salad sandwich at one of the cafes. They are my favorite and this one was SO GOOD!

Silas had a few breaks here and there so we got to see each other a little during the day.

Amazing hotel!

After Silas was done for the day, we decided to go to the IMAX theater that is in the Opry Mills Mall, which is right by the hotel. The movie was super pricey but we enjoyed going out. We don't really go see movies much because we like to be able to have time to talk on our dates so even though it wasn't a very touristy thing, we had a good time.

Evening at the hotel

For dinner we decided to stay at the hotel and try the Italian restaurant, Ravello. It was fancy and yummy. The waiter was from Egypt and very kind. We had to wait for about 30 minutes for a table so we walked around and took pictures.

One of the nice things about being on vacation and having hotel rooms with lots of TV channels is that we have watched a lot of college and professional football games. Super lazy and relaxing!

Tuesday, October 25th-

Today is Grant's 8th birthday!!! Before Silas and I headed out the door (Silas for the conference breakfast and me for the hotel gym) we gave him a call. Grandma is sufficiently spoiling him so he is doing fine.

Yesterday I ran 3 miles on the treadmill for my 10K training so today I just road a bike for an hour and read one of Annette's books. It was lovely. Then more family history for me! Again, Silas was in a couple of times to say hi between sessions. For lunch I just ate some leftovers from other meals, mostly because I wanted to stay in the room and do as much as I could. I am reserving a lot of temple work, so I'm happy about that.

When Silas was done we headed for downtown again. Today we visited a chocolate shop called Goo Goos. It is amazing chocolate and they had a cute store. We also went into the Johnny Cash Museum for a few minutes.

We were planning on headed out for some dinner and then to the temple but on the way back to the car Amber called me to tell me that Ryan Shakespear, a friend from the Valley View Ward, had passed away in a hiking accident. We were in shock. We love the Shakespears! In fact, Erin and I were recently talking about how we wish we could buy the house between them and the Aitken's that is for sale.

So instead of going out to eat, we went straight to the temple. It is outside Nashville so we had a very long and quiet drive. The temple is small and beautiful. We just missed the 6pm session so we were able to do initiatory for a while before the 7:30pm session. Besides us there were 5 other patrons, 3 of which were workers. It was small and different but as powerful and true as ever. The workers were kind. The message was the same but meant a little more. We are so grateful tonight for the Plan of Happiness!


Since it was late when we got out we had to stop at a sports bar that was still open. It was nice though and although it was loud because they were playing the first World Series baseball game, we had a good meal, enjoying one another and trying to be more grateful for each other.

Wednesday, October 26th-

Last day in the beautiful Gaylord Opryland Hotel. In fact, we had to checkout by noon even though Silas was going to be in meetings until after 3pm. I ran my 2 miles as fast as I could and got some family history done before getting the luggage out to the car. Silas had a break and came to help me load the car.

While out we could see that there was smoke coming from somewhere on the roof but once we were inside no one seemed to know anything. Silas went to his next meeting and I hurried and got another delicious chicken salad sandwich and found a place to sit when someone told me that they were evacuating one of the sections. By the time we left we could see the fire engines outside but I don't think it took long to take care of it. It was interesting though because most people in the lobby area (where I was finally able to eat my lunch) and that section didn't know anything about it. There was no panicking either.

The fire did cut the conference short though, so Silas and I headed out for more sight-seeing. We first stopped at the Parthenon, a full-scale replica of the Parthenon in Greece. It was an amazing place and I sort of felt badly that we didn't have the kids with us. There was a small art gallery which we walked though as well as a lot of history on the Nashville Parthenon and the original Parthenon.

The next stop was Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream. Oh my, was it splendid! It was probably the best ice cream and the most unique flavors! I got a peanut butter ice cream that was amazing. Silas had several but his favorite was Fennel something, which tasted like black licorice. He was in Heaven!

The store was super cute and the two young employees were really nice and knew their ice cream! They were like little salesmen, but that you actually like!



Before heading out for dinner we checked in to our hotel, The Club Hotel. It was a nice hotel but nothing could compare to the Opryland. After settling there were went over to a Mexican restaurant, Chuy's, located in the Opry Mills Mall. They had some hilarious shirts and we decided to get one for each of the boys. The food was yummy too and the service was quick! This was a major plus because we didn't want to be late for the GRAND OLE OPRY!

Tonight was Silas's first live music concert and it was really special to have that at the Grand Ole Opry. Plus tonight they were doing a special show for the Battle Against Cancer so there were some emotional stories and songs. Martina McBride was the final performer which was a treat because we knew most of the songs she sang.

We are sure loving every moment of this trip! (Well, maybe not EVERY moment because let's face it, life isn't always rosy. But we have really had a wonderful time.)