Winding down....

   After having an awesome, awesome time in Eastern Tennessee we headed north to Nashville for a few day to visit with our nephew Brian. We took in The Country Music Hall of Fame and a bit of downtown Nashville. I have to say, "I love Nashville"! Brian works at a saloon, The Silver Dollar, and we spent some time there taking in some of their nightly entertainment. There is some great talent out there! If you like country or bluegrass this is the place to visit. We heard some awesome sounds!
   After Nashville we headed to Kentucky to visit The Creation Museum. At the urging of Mike's cousin Jan we detoured just to see this. It was absolutely amazing! Have I mentioned that we serve and amazing Creator?! The museum is so well done...the displays, the replicas, the grounds, it was all very, very impressive. They do a wonderful job of bringing to life what we are only able to read on the pages of the Bible. It was simply amazing.
   Neither one of us had ever visited Kentucky to speak of and we both kind of had in our head what we thought it was like. I pictured rolling green pastures with horses and white fences. Mike, on the other hand, was thinking more along the lines of Deliverance. Which, by the way, I have NEVER seen! Where we went, I had a much more accurate vision. It was just beautiful!
  After we left Kentucky we worked our way down to Tennessee to my brother Darrell's place. Can I just say that our time there was incredibly relaxing and reviving. We call what we do there and any other time we park in someone's yard, 'moochdocking'. Paige did tell us that if wanted we could put up a mailbox outside our 5er and just plant ourselves. Tempting! We had a chance to see all the kids and share a wonderful meal together with lots of visiting and laughter! We enjoyed many evenings just sitting and chatting and enjoying Darrell and Paige's company.
   When our time was up with family in Tennessee we took two days to travel back to Colorado to spend a few days with David, Sarah and little Jax. We spent the first couple nights 'moochdocking' and then moved over to a beautiful state park called St. Vrains. We are about ten minutes from David and Sarah's. Next time we are out this way we will definitely stay there again. It's right up my alley with a lot of photo ops!
   Well tonight is our last night here in Colorado and then sadly we have to say our 'see you laters'....it is not going to be easy telling our kids and grandson goodbye. They have been so much a part of our lives these past few months and it will be awhile before we are together again. Having our kids spread out is oh, so painful! I wish we all lived close. Thankfully we are heading back to be with our other grandkids who we have not seen for awhile, so that makes it a little easier.
   I am putting some photos in from the places that were mentioned above. Be sure to check out Family, along with Fauna & Flora. I will try not to share too many! I'll try.

The Creation Museum

 The garden's at the museum were beautiful! So much color and varieties of plants and flowers. I particularly love the water lilies. When we were there it was so, so hot. We went out first thing in the morning but did not spend as much time outside as we would have liked.

 This was a scene showing what it could have been like when God first created man.

 One of my favorite places was the Insectorium. There were hundreds and hundreds of insects displayed and they were so fascinating. You cannot fully appreciate the size of some of these beetles. many were 5-6 inches in length!

   Models  like this of the apostle Paul sitting at a desk made the pages of the Bible come to life. This was one of my absolute favorites. My mom used to always say that when she read the epistles she could hear Paul speaking in such a gentle tone. I think she would have liked this!

 These are pages from the book of Genesis that were among many of the Scriptures that Saddam Hussein tried to have destroyed. It was made on sheepskin. It was beautiful!

 There was a lot more to the area that showed what the building of Noah's Ark might have looked like and the people of his day, but I loved this replica. It was very well done. This was only about four feet long!

One of the things too that was such a blessing was that everywhere you looked there were verses from the Bible, and in the telling of the many stories we got to have our ears filled with Scripture. It was awesome!

The morning that we left the northern end of Kentucky we drove around and snapped a few photos. This was a whirlwind trip and I wanted to at least capture a bit of the beauty.

 This was just a shot of the sun coming up when we left our campground. The mist was everywhere...it is very, very humid  there!

This equipment was just in someone's side yard. I thought it was a nice addition!

 Of course I needed at least one photo with horses in it! Most of the fences interestingly enough were not white, they were black! Be sure to click the photo on so you can actually 'see' the horses!

 I loved this barn...when I hopped out to get this photo I read a sign that said, 'Beware of Dog'. Well the dog soon became aware of me and once that happened I was back in the truck!

We noticed several barns in the area with these quilt patches on them. So as I always do, I wanted to know what this was about so I got online and discovered that this square is part of what is known as the Quilt Trail. It was started by a woman in Ohio that wanted to honor her mother who was a noted quilter. She painted a quilt block and put it on their barn. There are now 43 states and 2 Canadian Provinces that have 'quilt trails'. I so wished that I had taken pictures of the other quilt squares that I saw while up in Kentucky. I was able to take a few more in Tennessee.

 As we headed south through Kentucky, the day that we were to arrive at my brother Darrell's house we stopped and grabbed some lunch at Cracker Barrel. While there I checked in on Facebook and I soon got a text from my niece Lacye saying they only lived ten minutes away. Well Lacye and her husband Kevin came over and chatted on the front porch of Cracker Barrel for about an hour along with Brayden, their little son. Their two girls were gone for the weekend but what a delight this little man is! It took awhile for him to warm up but then we sat down and had a game of checker's. He insisted that I sit in the chair opposite him, which was child-sized. My backside is NOT child size and I thought for a moment I might have to buy it and take it with me!

Lacye, Kevin and Brayden. Kevin by the way,  runs Grillin' All Knight out of his home. His food is some of the very, very best I have ever tasted. Who would have thought you could wrap bologna in bacon and smoke it?! You can, and it is delicious!

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After arriving at Darrell's we got set up...put our feet up and settled in for a few days of relaxation.

 The week we were there Darrell had an appointment in Memphis so Mike and I tagged along. It was a very warm day and the tourists were out in full force.

 We stopped and had lunch at BB Kings...for anyone who has never been there it is a famous Blue's Club. The food was excellent and the music was....well, the music WAS. We could hardly hear ourselves think let alone talk. Probably won't be visiting BB's anytime soon!

 We also visited The Peabody. It is an amazing old hotel. Inside there is a duck pond of sorts. The ducks are paraded in a few times a day and then they swim around the base of this large flower arrangement until it is time to go back up to the roof to their own private quarters.

 Darrell and I on top of the Peabody.

After shooting some photo's and checking out Memphis from a birds eye, or should I say ducks eye view we headed back to Troy.

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Darrell and Paige

 The Saturday before we left, Darrell, Paige, Mike and I drove

up into Kentucky and visited Land Between the Lakes. What a gorgeous area!

 We visited a museum that also had a working farm. The quilt blocks above are part of the Civil War Quilt Trail.

 As usual, Darrell being a big tease! Our hubby's were carrying our camera bags for us!

Paige changing the lens on her camera. Aren't these guys awesome!

 My brother and his sweet wife Paige enjoying a bit of shade on this very warm day.

This was the kitchen in the farm that we got to visit. It was so interesting...We went in to several rooms that were done up in period furniture and furnishings. It would have been very easy to just curl up and stay for awhile!

I love the old glass windows below.

 This is the back of the farm house.

 Inside the wood shop this young man was turning a spindle on the lathe which he operated manually. No electricity in this place!

They still grow a garden that produces quite a bit of food. They raise chickens, hogs, sheep, & oxen.

After a full day and going to dinner at a wonderful restaurant on the harbor we headed home to get ready for all the family that would be coming over on Sunday. Check out my photos in the Family section!