On the Saturday over Labor Day weekend we were invited to join our friends, the Stalkers, on a day trip to Tompkinsville, Kentucky.  Crystal is from there and wanted to show us the area.  It happen to be the town's annual watermelon festival, so there was a parade and other festivities going on as well.  We also headed up to their freinds property and had the kids shoot guns.  We really had a lot of fun!

 Magen looks very styleish with her boots and leather purse.

 Mackenzie with her, well, Southern California - valley girl stance?

Ryan looks like he has this down.

 

SH 



 

LP Field ~ Home of the Tennessee Titans with the Nashville skyline in the background at sunset.



 

From WAY up high in the third level.  It's just as fun and the ticket price was just right - FREE. 



Danieal's work raffled off some tickets to their staff for the preseason Titan game against the Atlanta Falcons.  Danieal won a pair!  We hadn't been to the stadium yet, so it was a very fun date night. 

 

SH  

I have determined the following: A Forrest + A Creek + 75 feet to house = SNAKES!   About two months after moving in last year Ryan nearly ran over a snake with the lawn mower.  I killed what we found out from the locals to be a four foot Copperhead.  We'd not seen any more snakes until this past summer.  In these past four months we've experienced seven or eight smaller ( 18" to 30" in length) ones coming into the garage.  We've have the exterminator working with us to solve the slithering issue, but nothing seems to be working as of yet.  We catch them on glue traps placed just inside the garage door, as we believe they enter under the weather stripping.  I hate snakes, especially poisonous ones!

This is one of the many beautiful types of butterfly's that relish in the front yard foliage.  There are brown ones, black ones, spotted ones and others with solid colors.  However, this particular one is my favorite.

With the forest and creek behind the backyard, we are blessed to enjoy the many different types of wildlife that come around.  This year while Arlene and Richie Sims (Danieal's Aunt & Uncle) were visiting, they captured these new born's in at the salt block.  There are about five deer or so that regularly visit our home for early morning or afternoon treats.   We also enjoy a family of bunnies, a very large and active squirrel that spends hours planting nuts across the backyard for the winter, many types of birds - from the  Cardinal's, doves, quail and finches to the large turkey vulture that nests in the forest.  There are three red fox  and we have also seen a BOBCAT in the backyard!!!   For living "in town" I think we see a tremendous amount of wildlife.  

SH

This was our first full summer in our new home in Tennessee.  Many family and friends back in the Northwest ask us about the weather in our part of the country.  We absolutely LOVE it!   Outside of work, we are in shorts and flip flops most of the time, seven months out of the year!  There is humidity, but it's only really bad a few weeks out of the year.     

My mom and dad were able to drive out and visit for about two weeks over the July 4th holiday.  It was certainly toasty warm - low to mid 90's with some humidity.  I know they don't care for that type of heat, but they seemed to get by with the help of air conditioning.  I was able to take a week off from work and enjoyed the time sharing the local area with them.  I've become very familiar with the civil war battles in the area and was able to take them to many of those battle fields, historic homesteads and monuments; such as where Meriwether Lewis died and US President Andrew Jackson home ~ The Hermitage.  We also visited the Country Music Hall of Fame, and took in lunch at one of the honky tonks downtown.

One day we drove to Chattanooga, TN to take in the popular Tennessee Aquarium and to ride the incline railroad train up the mountain (72.7% grade) that overlooks the city.  Originally built in 1895, it is billed as one of the worlds steepest passenger railway.

Another evening we took my folks to the Hollister's favorite local Mexican restaurant, Chuy's, and then to the Grand Ole Opry, where we saw Carrie Underwood in concert! 

Since the wards recent split last April, we had been short handed in Aaronic Priesthood to pass the sacrament.  So, the Deacons Quorum President, Ryan, invited myself and Grandpa to join in passing the sacrament.  It was a great experience for the three of us to participate in this ordinance together.

We all recognize that it's a very long haul from the Pacific NW, to Spring Hill, TN. (2,391 miles actually)  We really appreciate the fact that mom and dad would make the journey this way to visit.  Everyone had a great time and enjoyed the quality family time we had with them! 

SH  

This is Magen in the middle of the front row at the Regional Championships at Belmont University in Nashville, TN.  She did enjoy the expereinces she had over the year but decided the time commitment was so much it didn't allow her to do many other things.  Therefore, this was her final performance.

 

Magen spent much of her Junior year participating in the color guard.  From summer all the way through the fall she spent countless hours practicing then onto performing at home football games and marching at band competitions all across the region.  She then decided to try Winter guard.  This is performed inside gyms with out the band, but requires the same amount of time and commitment to perfect the art of dance, flag and sabre throwing to recorded music.  They traveled from Kentucky to Georgia to compete.