This past weekend we went home to visit my family and celebrate the February birthdays!
and on Saturday night we went to the Groundhog prom!

a what?!?!
well let me tell you =)
about 20 or so years ago this couple was like man there is nothing to do after the holidays we should plan an event and his wife was like, well Ive never been to prom so they decided to invite a few friends over buy prom dresses and tuxes and they had prom.
The next year there were about 30 people and the next year there were 100 so they moved it to a church hall and then some years later there were 1,000 or so people so it moved to Sokol Underground in Omaha (a place where many concerts are held)
Its not just prom dresses its kinda like Halloween and many dress in drag!
It's also very political. This year they recalled the Queen for no good reason at all just to poke fun at the mayor of Omaha getting recalled.
The people who started it are older now, but they get to pick the Queen of groundhog prom!

My aunt and her friends have went for several years, I rememberer being in high school wishing I could go.

And this year we got to go! We got to go to prom together:)
Ean was Lenny Kravits
and my sister and I were this!not sure what you want to call it, Mardi Gras the color purple and red, whatever!

my aunt and her friends were a SNL skit! The one with Lawrence Welk and the sisters and the one sister has little doll hands.
If you haven't see it you should hulu Lawrence Welk SNL skit!
some ladies in red or men or???

a somewhat political costume "I hope they dont find a terrorist in my but"

my favorite costume was the jelly fish, but i bet it sucked to carry that around all night
of course kevin had to try on the outfit

Mmm Mmmm Good!

We ate so much good food in Nashville!
Lots of BBQ, fried pickles, and Fried greet tomatoes which were delicious.
I even tried shrimp on top of garlic cheese grits, but didn't like it very much. The shrimp was good, but I guess I'm not a fan of grits.

We accumulated a bunch of glasses too, and not to our knowledge!
The first restaurant we ate at was the Wild Horse Saloon and we purposely ordered drinks that came in glasses you can keep!
Then at the BB King Club we ordered tall beers because it was a better deal and unbeknownst to us we got to keep the glasses!
Each restaurant had live music which we all really enjoyed!

At some point on Saturday while walking all around downtown we decided to stop in at Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville and listen to the band play while we shared on of theseand again, surprise, we go to keep the glass and didn't even know it!
We also enjoyed the carriage ride and Chasen enjoyed the dog Annie.The horse we rode is the biggest horse "working" in downtown weighing in at 2700lbs!
we rode by the country music hall of famewhich is built in the shape of a music note and the windows look like a key board!
After that we walked to one of the world's largest pedestrian bridges.It goes over the Cumberland river and I think you can walk to the Titans stadium from it>The weather was pretty nice, in the middle 60's which is so much better then a high of 7 degrees!

A Blizzard For Groundhogs Day

First of all I need to say happy birthday to my grandpa,
HAPPY BIRHTDAY GRANDPA!!!

I must say I have seen bigger drifts out here and allot more snow. But it was still allot and there was still now way of getting any where.

before we (I use the term we very lightly here;0)plowed the drive

and after


isn't he so manly on that tractor in cover hauls with my nice cream scarf blowing in the wind:)
we literally had to dig the goats out! lol
I dont know why it drifted like that.
and the pregnant goats and calf are now locked in the heated shed, which it's a good thing ean did it a couple days ago or they would have had snow drifted all up in their little "house"
look really closely at this one. Super cool!a view out the kitchen window
no picnic's for a while
while ean was doing that
I was doing this
and chasen was doing this!
oh and we finished something....


chasen now has his own room!! and the ceiling fan has a remote control and it controls the temperature. It has a heater in it!
And all of this means that we have our own bedroom too!!! after 2 years or so. But whose counting...

one more drift

pics of our room later.

Our Vacation: Chasen's View

he did really well on the drive down, we split it up stopping in st.Louis wed. night and then took our time and were in Nashville by 6pm. Chasen made it through our vacation with lots of bribing and white lies.
Friday morning at the Hermitage he did really well on the tour strapped to me, a couple of times he said he wanted out but I bribed him with chocolate and told him we would see ponies.
After the tour we took a self-guided tour of the grounds and chasen ran and ran and ran and daddy had to catch him. He seriously ran a mile or more. We went on a trail loop that was ½ mile long and he ran the whole thing, stopping every once in a while to say “there’s mud we don’t step in that” then “on your marks get set go” and he’d clap his hands and off he’d go again.
Then we went to lunch at Nashville palace where chasen enjoyed mac n cheese and actually ate something besides chocolate. I don’t think he had a single vegetable on this trip.
Chasen threw a major fit in the Willie nelson museum and we had to leave.
After that we went to the Opryland hotel with the waterfalls and gardens in it.
He was so exhausted from all the running that he finally fell asleep in my armsso ean and I sat down for some wine and to relax and listen to the waterfalls!
Then it was out to eat at the BB King restaurant where he enjoyed the music, sorta, he kept wanting to run away and dance around everyone’s tables, which people thought was cute but how cute is it really and at what point do you make him stop and then he screams because you pick him up so you take him to the bathroom to beat him—I mean talk sternly to him (I just wanted to beat him, I didn’t beat him, just in case CPS is reading this;) and you get in there and there is one of those ladies in the bathroom that puts soap in your hands and lotion and other crap and you’re supposed to tip her and all we came in there for was a time out!
At the BB King restaurant there were lots of paintings of famous blues singers and we told him that they were watching him and if he wasn’t good they would come down and have a talk with him.
We all survived the dining experience. And then the band came around and played through the crowdand chasen got to strum Mr. Stacey’s guitar!

After that we headed home to swim! Probably one of chasens favorite parts of the trip!
And he enjoyed jumping on the bed!Sat. we woke up and went to the Belle Mead plantationand this time he did not want to be strapped to me and started to chew on my necklace and scratched the crap out of my pearl. When I took it out of his mouth the screamed bloody murder and we had to untie and let daddy hold him.
After the tour he enjoyed picking up sticks on the groundand putting them in the loader, then threw a fit because he couldn’t ride the loader. During wine tasting we pretended like we didn’t know him and he sat in front of the fancy chocolate case and pointed at every single one saying “I want that, and that and that one” then the lady gave him some small plastic ponies.(remember the ponies, there is a story about them here in a little bit)(longest post ever, sorry!)
After that it was off to the hard rock café.This dining experience was the same as the rest! Lots of bribing and chocolate!
Then we took a carriage ride/tour through downtown. Chasen was good through out the carriage ride so we bought him a cow boy hat!Which he enjoyed playing dress up with daddyat Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville.
After that we walked to the pedestrian bridge on the way we walked along the banks of the cumberland river and chasen had brought with him one of his ponnies and guess where that pony ended up?
IN THE RIVER!! that tiny pink dot is his pony. We learned a great lesson about throwing things. He was not happy that he couldn't get his pony back. Once we were up on the bridge chasen ran and ran and then when we sat down he walked away from us(still in eye sight)and went and sat down by himself.I think he was sick of us!Some random girl with a really nice camera started taking pics of him. (kinda weird)After that it was nap time before the rodeo!! We went out to eat at craw daddys and chasen enjoyed some pasta and low and behold whad-da-ya know a cowboy sat down at the table next to us and chasen points and says “theres that towboy guy” the “guy” was a 10 year old kid who just ate up all the attention lol.
When we were in line to get our tickets to the rodeo he said these two phrases several times
“Cowboys everywhere”
“we’re in cowboy town”
The rodeo will be a post all on its own, it was so much fun and I have lots of video to show you!
He did amazing on Sunday for the 10hr ride home! I would totally go on a 10 hour trip with him again, maybe CO will be next or OK

Opryland Hotel

On sat after the belle mead plantation tour we went to the opryland hotel.
Why did we go visit a hotel??
Becaue it has tropical gardens and water falls and a river running through it and you can take boat tours, but we didnt cause I didn't think it would be worth the price, but it was fun!