Christmas & Beyond!

We got to spend this past Christmas in TN!  It was rainy a lot of the time that we were there but we did have enough nice days to get out for a few fun activities.  Kyle and I went to the Nashville Zoo for a day.  It was 1/2 price because it was too cold for a lot of the animals to be on display. The animals that were out were pretty active though and we had a good time!  The zoo was also pretty much empty of other visitors.  While we were visiting the tiger exhibit, the tigers had a face-off and it was sort of scary to watch since we were the only ones around for them to take their anger out on if they decided to bust out of their exhibit and go rogue.  Haha.  We stayed in the warm reptile-house for a while and saw some crazy creatures.  We also had a lot of fun watching the elephants.  This one elephant started digging up dirt and throwing it on his back and a couple of the elephants were eating branches and crunching through them like they were nothing.  They must have been hungry because those branches did not look the least bit yummy. Haha.

My dad packed up his arsenal and we went shooting for a day.  We drove about an hour and a half to some land my Grandpa always called "his farm."  He grew a little bit of stuff but also used the land for hunting.  We had a ton of miscellaneous items to use as targets and we demolished all of them!  Here is my dad and Kyle shooting the shotgun at this drip-pan thingy that I tossed up for them:

I am too scared of the kick to shoot a shotgun.  I did try a hand gun for the first time ever.  The smaller handguns aren't so bad but I didn't care for the bigger ones.  My all time favorite is the 22.  I also tried an AK47 rifle but that was too heavy for my weak arms to support for very long.  :)

Q: How many guns can you find in the above photo?

We are so tough!! Haha. Really though, it is a pretty intimidating photo. On the way home from shooting we stopped for dinner at the Loveless Cafe.  I had never eaten there before which is crazy because it's a pretty 'famous' Nashville attraction.  I'm pretty sure it comes up if you google "things to do in Nashville."  Now I can say I've been there.

The food was yummy and the waitress piled our plates full of homemade biscuits and then sent us home with a to-go box full of more biscuits for breakfast.  Good old Southern Hospitality!

We also went horse back riding one afternoon.  Kyle hadn't ridden a horse in a long, long time but he did really well and enjoyed it.  I'm so proud of him!

Getting ready to head out - it was really muddy thanks to all the rain!  Part of the trail was through a creek bed which was very pretty.  Sarah's in the blue.

At the end of the ride!

We also played some disc golf, did some shopping, had a girls outing to go get facials, and played some bored games.  Kyle and dad dominated at Star Wars Monopoly - with dad finally winning it all. Delsa also had a US History  board game that we played and Kyle and I won!  We are just that good of historians!  Delsa has had the game for years and we nerve would play with her - we are so mean.   It turns out history games are pretty fun!

For New Years we stayed up and shot off fireworks in the rain.  We did a lot of roman candles and some super long lasting sparklers.  TN was a lot of fun!  Happy New Year Everyone!

Since we've been home Kyle's started his 2nd semester of PT school.  This is supposed to be the most difficult semester of the whole program - he is taking 20 credits!  But he also gets to start working with real patients in the on-campus clinic.  Just this past weekend we went Cross Country Skiing at the Nordic Center here in Pocatello.  We went with Tyson and Rachel - Tyson is in the PT program with Kyle.  We all had a blast.  

It was perfect weather and the trails were very scenic and a lot of fun!

More adventures to come!