Thursday, February 21, 2013

Holy cow...eyes!


This is what Jeff does at school:


That's right folks, he dissects cow eyes. Jealous?

Nashville


We took a trip down to Nashville, Tennessee over Christmas break. We met up with our friends Trent and Erin Stapleton who live in Georgia. Conveniently, Nashville is 4 hours from both of us so it was a great middle meeting place. We love the Stapletons and had such a great time with them. Jeff's mom owns a time share with a location in Nashville so we stayed there for pretty cheap and super nice and not far from all of the Opry everything. We may be making frequent trips to Nashville is all I'm saying.

I loved it there and could probably move there someday, though I doubt we ever will. Downtown is awesome. The streets are lined with cowboy boot shops and cafes playing live music.

The Opryland hotel is amazing and they decorate quite well for Christmas. I'd say comparable to Temple Square, maybe even a little more on the inside of the hotel. There are three large conservatory/garden areas that were decorated and fun to walk around.

We stopped by the Opry House gift shop on our way out of town and bought Bensen a guitar. We were sad to hear that throughout the year they give tours, but because the Rockettes were performing all through November and December there are no tours during that time. Like I said, we'll just have to go back sometime. If anyone is headed that way, let us know, we'll meet you there and hook you up with a sweet time share.


Can't wait for our next Simmons/Stapleton vacation.

#30


Well, Jeff reached a large milestone in his life. He saw his 30th Dave Matthews Band concert in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville is only about 2 hours away from us so he made the drive down after his classes on Tuesday December 4th (the middle of finals week), volunteered with Reverb (for two hours before the show) in order to get a free GA floor ticket, watched the show with a random stranger (who ended up being a Salt Lake native), went to a meet-and-greet with the violin player Boyd Tinsley on the way home, drove the 2 hours home, and went to school the next morning. All for a band he'd seen 29 previous times. But DMB was his first love and I've come to accept that.


Here's to shows 31 and 32 June 21st and 22nd in Noblesville, Indiana. (I'm not totally sure I'll brave these two shows with him just yet so if there's anyone out there looking for a concert buddy, I'm sure Jeff would let you join him.)

Fun with Cousins


We were so happy to have the Buckwalters visit. Apparently, we weren't the only ones excited to see them. The ward members were so excited to have the Buckwatlers in town they decided to throw them a surprise party.


Then on Monday I got to hang out with the kids while Lynnette and Neal went to defend Neal's dissertation. We had a good time watching movies and making posters for their parents.


Though, they are 5-6 hours away, we are so grateful to have cousins close by.