Saturday, October 8, 2016

Nashville

I escaped last weekend. For 4 whole glorious days. And why do I need to escape you ask? Because my kids do things like this:
And say "yay!" as if this is a good thing.

Last weekend was our 2014 triplet mom trip. This year we went to Nashville. 58 triplet and quad moms converged on Nashville. 58 triplet and quad moms with 2 year olds (or almost 2 year olds). I had the best time. I got to meet lots of new people in real life and spent time with friends I met in Chicago last year. Here's a picture of most of us. In matching shirts of course.
Do you know what it's like to tell strangers we all have triplets? Probably not. But everyone in Nashville wanted to know what we were doing there? Girls trip. And how we knew each other? We all have triplets. We met on Facebook. Ha! The responses were mostly like this guy.
He was awesome. Melinda actually took a video of me telling him but I just have the screenshots. Ha! Still amazing. Then there was Donna, the Wanda Sykes look-alike Uber driver. She almost killed us. For real. When we said we all have triplets, she slammed on the brakes. Then when we told her they're all 2, slammed on the brakes again. After that we decided we probably shouldn't share any more info with Donna/Wanda.

The official trip started Friday, but my friends and I went on Thursday and stayed through Monday. So. Much. Fun. Thursday morning I left town in time to stop in Memphis. And I took a picture of course. Also to let my friends know I was in the right state! 
Then I got to Nashville just in time to meet up with Lindsay and Ali to go get Shondra from the airport. We screamed her name as loud as we could. The lady behind her was NOT impressed. Then we did a running hug. There's a video but it's just of Lindsay's back because Ali is the worst videographer in the history of ever. Oh well. 
These ladies are my "due date buddies" and yes that's totally a real thing. Especially if you have triplets. It seems like everyone has or had a due date buddies. So we had to be due date buddies too. Actually we found each other around December, well after our kids were born. But we talk every single day. They make me feel normal. And totally call me out when I'm not. Just like we called Lindsay out when she struggled to get out of the parking deck at the airport because "the machine won't take all my dollars." And that's how Lindsay learned that you put the dollars in one at a time instead of all at once stacked together.

About 1/3 of the group actually got to Nashville a day early so we met up with them. And Sumer. I heart Sumer (even though her mom can't spell). Sumer may have attacked me.
Thursday night was soooo fun! Most of my favorite triplet mom friends are in this picture. See they ARE real! Also, FTR, this picture took at least 20 attempts. And most of it was Shondra's fault.
We might have had some shots. And maybe lost Shondra.
And later that night we learned that Melinda LOVES teddy bear grilled cheese, but not pringles. Pringles taste like hot dogs.

Friday was the beginning of the real trip. And Sumer's birthday. So we went for pedis. In the longest Uber ever. But it was so fun!
And of course we continued to talk to each other on FB chat during the pedicures. I mean we had to though. We couldn't talk about Hope out loud. She already hated Ali. Janice loved me. But we had to stay quiet. Plus we were kinda far away.
Oh and of course we took an elevator selfie on the way.
Friday night we had a big group dinner. And we wore our matching shirts. Here's a closer picture. Courtesy of my selfie stick. Thanks again Rachel!
 Lindsay actually made the shirts. Aren't they perfect?! Oh and someone, I'm not sure who, decided we should wear red heels with these shirts. So I ordered some on Poshmark because I didn't want to pay much. The girl said they had 3 inch heels. She lied. They're straight up stripper shoes. And I straight up LOVE them.
Shondra got stripper shoes too.
And a red shoe pic. Some people cheated as you can see.
We went out again that night. Our method of transportation? Golf cart. Here's the view from the back. Fun. And also a bit terrifying. And just for Sumer, I made sure to include feet.
We also may have taken some pictures with a statue of naked people in the middle of a roundabout. But I was dared. So I had no choice really. And other people came with me. So it must have been a good idea.
Yeah so I wasn't kidding when I said naked. I mean, they're anatomically correct naked statues.
 And I'm not sure who took this picture but it was posted in the trip group and it's my favorite.
Then Sumer rode the bull.
And we drank moonshine. Well Rebecca, Shondra and I drank moonshine. Jenna drank a sip of moonshine and realllocated hers to the rest of us.
 We found another statue. Oh and that's a selfie. Impressive right?
Here's another horse selfie. Our hotel had these creepy horses at the elevators. So I had to take a selfie with one. 
On Saturday we toured the Ryman auditorium. Pretty cool place. I wish I could have seen a show there! 
Here's the group of triplet moms on the tour.
And the view from up top.
And I took a selfie in front of the stage. But this picture is much better. See, I wasn't the only one! Thanks Jen and Joanne for making me look normal!
Then we found another statue. Are you sensing a theme? I kinda like - actually LOVE - statues.
 I'm an amazing guitar teacher.
And then we found this dog on a building and took a picture with him. He looked lonely up there.
Saturday night we had our fancy dinner. We went to Virago and OMG it was amazing. One of the best meals I've ever had. And I even ate brussels sprouts. I haven't eaten those since my cousin made himself throw up brussels sprouts when we were younger. I don't think my mom ever made them again after that either. BUT look how good these look! They tasted even better.
Our table. This was actually our room Friday-Sunday (Melinda stayed with us Thursday so we had 5 each night). We just added a blow up mattress so we had room for 5! So fun! These are my people! No way we could separate.
 And my favorite picture from the entire trip:
 Of course that's in the golf cart. Because why not. Oh and Sally was in charge of golf cart rides. I think the driver liked her. Ha!
And Saturday night we went out on Broadway again. And we went to Tootsies. Because we had to.
We didn't stay there long though. We went to George Jones's rooftop bar and it was soooo nice up there! But the stairs almost killed us. Of course we learned about the elevator once we reached the top.
Then Sunday almost everyone left. And I was sad. But we had one more day. And Sunday of last week I ate the best meal of my life. I'm not even kidding. Biscuit Love y'all. You MUST go there. They have these things:
Those things are called Bonuts, aka biscuit donuts. And they're so amazing. We waited in line to get in for an hour. 60 minutes. But it was so worth it. The food came out in 5 minutes once we got inside. And all of it was delicious. The bonuts, the hash, the french toast that melted in my mouth, the bacon that was like bacon but 1 million times better.
So go to Biscuit Love. They also have shirts and coffee mugs that say "Resting Brunch Face" so you'll need one of those too. I got the coffee mug.

And here's another statue just for fun.
Shondra really liked Elvis.
Sunday night we did the most Nashville thing we could think of. We went to the Bluebird Cafe. 
 Sunday night they don't take reservations so we had to wait in line to get in. We got there at 6 for an 8:00 show. But again it was worth it. This was the perfect ending to our trip. We were the last 6 left in Nashville too!
Meanwhile, in Little Rock, this was happening:
Yep. Best picture ever. But seriously Brian did a great job. Like always. I can't wait til next year!