Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Tennessee/ Kentucky

My sister, Leigh-Ann and her family live in Franklin, TN (about 20 miles South of Nashville).  We have enjoyed many visits to her home.  This visit was Thanksgiving, 2010.
We stayed in Nashville to visit ICE at the Opryland Hotel.  ICE is a magical ice sculpture inside a massive freezer on the hotel property.  It's 9 degrees inside.  Each visitor is given a huge blue coat to wear.  No one wants to be photographer because your fingers freeze.  Each year there is a theme...this year was "A Year Without A Santa Claus".


 
The grounds were beautifully decorated for Christmas at Opryland Hotel.


The following morning we drove 2 hours north to Kentucky to visit Mammoth Cave National Park.  This is the world's largest known cave system.  




 
Love to see the wildlife...
 
We made it to Franklin in time for fireworks. Being from California, it's so foreign to have fireworks in the winter.  It is so wet in TN so there's not much risk for fires.  My brother-in-law builds a huge bonfire and the kids enjoy S'mores while watching the fireworks. 


What to do when a bunch of guys are together on all this property?  Have an airsoft gun fight. 
 Every family has Thanksgiving morning memories of getting the food prepared.  This is one I remember from such a young age...getting to help roll out the dough for the bread. 
It's a family recipe from Grandma Helen- I've never tasted a better roll!

Lots of cousins to play with...

 Thanksgiving morning football game

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