Grace

At Jim's family reunion, there was discussion about Jim's great grandfather and how he was not religious.   So when it came time to say grace at meal time, he was not very eloquent.  Here was his prayer:

God bless the meat

Damn the skin

Pin back your ears

And dig in!

That got me thinking about my Dad's prayer at meal time when I was little:

Rub a dub dub

Thanks for the grub

Yay God! 

I also learned this one when I was little, which is much more traditional:

Blessed Oh Lord

For these thy gifts

Which we are about the receive

From tho bounty 

Thru Christ the Lord

Amen

It would be interesting to hear what others said for grace at meal times when they were growing up.

The Pups

Maisy - 11 weeks

Cash - 11 weeks

Cureton Family Reunion 2016

We spent the weekend with the Cureton clan at Seacliff in Aptos for the family reunion.  We had a wonderful time re-connecting with folks we don't get to see very often.

We celebrated Roy's 80th birthday on the first nite.  He is the oldest member of our clan!

We spent Saturday at the beach playing games, swimming and visiting.

Cousin Gary and Jim holding a parking spot for Karen who was bringing lunch!  It allowed them to talk about fishing.

Me and Cass - the shorties of the family!

Bronwyn, Jon, Cathy and Bean

Aunt Nancy

The shortest person in this pic is Bean and she is 5 foot 10 inches!

Kan Jam!

Hilary and Uncle Glen

Lunch!

Above were playing a giant game of rock paper scissors.  You found someone to play with, played one round, and if you won moved on to the next person who also won.  It was fun as everyone was running around looking for another winner to play against.  Grace ended up losing in the last round!  We followed this up with a talent show which included Aunt Nancy and Grace doing the broom stick trick. 

Jim's grandparents

Carl, Aunt Nancy, Bronwyn, Jim, Bean, Lisa and Cousin Karen

At the end of the reunion Aunt Nancy and Cousin Karen "passed the batons" (they literally had batons) to the next generation.  The reunion committee consists of Bronwyn, Jim, Bean and Lisa.  Unfortunately we have our concerns with Bronwyn as she lost her baton the first nite!  LOL!  Cousin Carl will be the official genealogy master to keep the family tree up to date.

Nashville College Tours

Lipscomb

While in Nashville, we did two college tours:  Lipscomb University and Belmont University.  Both are small to medium size Christian colleges.  G did not think she would like them but actually liked them both a lot.  They were cool to see because they were so different than colleges on the west coast because they were all brick and lush grounds.

Lipscomb

Lipscomb

Belmont

Belmont Mansion

Belmont

More Nashville

Our hotel was right across the street from the arena where the Predators ice hockey team plays.

We squeezed in so much in 3 days in Nashville.  Here are some other highlights.

Bridge over the Cumberland River.

Country Music Hall of Fame

LOVED the Johnny Cash museum!

We attended a song writer session at the Hall of Fame.  We listened to Matt Jenkins talk about the songs he has written, including Fell in Love in the Back of a Cop Car and Setting the World on Fire.

Also at the Hall of Fame, we attended a bango seminar!

Grand Ole Opry

The first day in Nashville included a trip to the Grand Ole Opry.  The Opry is the longest running live radio show in the US - it started in 1925.  We started with a backstage pass and then went to the evening show.  The Opry started in the Ryman Theater which is called the mother church of country music but needed a larger venue so it moved to the Grand Ole Opry in the 70's.

Singed for a charity auction

There was a display backstage highlighting the tv show, Nashville, which does filming in the big backstage auditorium.  We also saw the 12 dressing rooms and family room which the artists use while waiting to go on stage.

We got to stand on the circle which is a round of wood from the original stage at the Ryman Theater.  This is a spot that is very important in the country music world because it has so much history..

These were the performers we saw.

G's 17th Birthday in Nashville

We went to Nashville for a long weekend for G's 17th birthday.  We didn't think we could out do her last birthday trip to the Enchantments but this one was as good!

We got in late on Thursday nite and stayed in a beautiful 2 room suite at the Hilton Downtown.  The location was perfect - we overlooked Honky Tonk Row!

 We spent Friday:

• Doing a College Tour (Lipscomb)
• Doing a backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry
• Attending a show at the Grand Ole Opry

We spent Saturday:

• Going to the Country Music Hall of Fame
• Going to the Johnny Cash Museum
• Having lunch at the Frothy Monkey

This was Sam - an Uber drivers dog

An urban park in parking spaces

 We spent Sunday:

• Doing another college tour (Belmont)
• Wandering around the downtown Nashville
• Having a lunch of desserts on a roof top bar overlooking the Cumberland River

Other highlights included:

• The Uber drivers of Nashville
• Learning that Nashville is the Bachelorette Party Headquarters of the US (We saw over 20 groups of women!)
• The Pure Romance conference
• A gas line break leading to gas shortages - we worried about our Uber drivers having enough gas

Bachelorettes in a wagon pulled by a tractor

I walked across the river and took this pic of the city

Cumberland River

I learned so much on this trip about music, musicians and the South.  And I became particularly fond of pimento cheese!

I found Elvis on an early morning walk

Wildhorse Saloon

Dessert for lunch