Friday, January 06, 2017

Because you only turn 30 once!!


Brian, that crazy guy, well he goes and surprises me with a trip to Nashville with Averley to see the CMA's!! What a 30th birthday surprise! Flights, hotel and tickets were booked, then Averley and I planned a few things too. I think the best part of this, was how selflessly Brian arranged his work schedule so he could be the one watching the girls. He went to work after taking them to school and was there for after school pickup. The girls loved having him around more! (Especially having Daddy make their lunches- much different than the ones mom makes!! haha)

We left on November 1st (super early Tuesday morning) and got to Nashville around dinner time. We found a cool restaurant to eat at that had live music and we shared fried catfish and a turkey/stuffing/cranberry sauce hash that was really delicious. 
We went to bed early because we were getting up at 4:30 (for the second time in a row) to go see the Good Morning America taping where Dierks Bentley was giving a free concert! Although we did not need to be there that early, it was fun to see him warm up with us and there were only 200-300 people I would guess (but less at the beginning) so it was pretty intimate and fun. It was warm and lovely to be out!


Then we walked downtown and saw a few fun things before heading for breakfast.

Then we checked out the Country Music Hall of Fame


the CMA's were that night, so we headed back to our hotel to have a quick nap and get all dolled up for the show! It was a black tie event which was actually really fun (but we only found out a couple days before we left home, so not much time to shop for something fancy)

steak dinner on the patio

ready for the show at the Bridgestone Arena!





 The show was AMAZING!!!!!! It was the 50th annual CMA's so it was a big deal! Everyone was there. Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Dolly Parton, Alabama, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, Tim McGraw, Reba and so much more!! It was so fun watching the show. It was really more of a show than a concert. So we just sat and enjoyed all the live music. We both really loved seeing it live! I would totally go again in a heartbeat!

The next day, Thursday, we did a hop on/off bus tour of Nashville. Its such a neat city. Downtown is busy and fun and has lots going on, theres some gorgeous parks and neat stories about Nashville and it even has a Greek parthenon building (felt just like we were in Greece! ;)
We checked out the bluebird cafe, but the line up had been out the door for hours, so we didn't make it in. We stepped in to take pictures though.



We had lunch at a delicious Mexican place. That night we walked Broadway street downtown and found a restaurant with live music. We ate dinner and sat there a while chatting and holding our table because everywhere was getting packed! Little did we know that the one place we picked wasn't even playing Country music! so that was a bummer. By then, everywhere was full and our parking ran out. We were tired anyway and happy to head home to bed!

The next day we were heading home. We did a backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry, which was super neat. and then shopped at the mall next door for a couple hours before heading to the airport.


their mailboxes and "address"

dressing rooms.

We made it home LATE that night, and we were tired, but happy girls! It was a great trip. We saw so many neat things. It was fun touring a city I really like with my friend! Thanks for going with me, Averley!

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