Visit to Tennessee

We spent this past weekend visiting our friends the Doleshels in Franklin, Tennessee which is right outside of Nashville. We had a great time seeing the sights, but we mostly just enjoyed spending time with Bryan and Heather.

Their daughter Luisa was born 2 weeks after Nicholas and they've been betrothed since birth. Nicholas and Luisa were so happy to see each other (the initial greeting at the airport brought tears to my eyes!) They slept in the same room and kept each other up late chatting away. They are also expecting a boy in August (maybe he'll like older women . . . Samantha?)

Our first morning there we had breakfast at Pancake Pantry, a "Nashville tradition". No matter what day of the week it is, there is a line out the door. We tried the sweet potato pancakes and the sweet cream syrup. It was worth the wait, and it started of our southern eating experience for the weekend.

Heather's parents also moved to Franklin and bought a house 2 streets away. On Friday night Heather's mom offered to babysit the kids so we could go out. Thanks Aleta!!! We went to downtown Nashville to "honky-tonk". After a few stops and a few drinks, we stopped in a boot shop and after a little convincing, Chris got back to his roots and tried on some cowboy boots and and belt buckle. All he was missing was the horse. We also stopped for some homemade ice cream at Mike's Ice Cream Shop. They had all sorts of unusual flavors like Nutter Butter and caramel cone. Mmmm!

On Saturday the weather was beautiful. We packed a picnic lunch and went to Tinkerbell Park which is the most amazing kids park I've seen. Nicholas and Samantha loved it. Heather struck up a conversation with a couple who were visiting from Dallas to see if they should take up a job offer and move to Franklin. By the end of the conversation they were pretty convinced that Franklin was the place for them.

That afternoon, Chris and I walked through downtown Franklin which has a wonderful small town feel. Heather says that Nicole Kidman frequents the Starbucks there (no star sightings that day unfortunately). There was an adorable cupcake shop which of course we had to try - Naticakes. The best one, by far, was a chocolate with salted caramel. It was to die for!



We packed another picnic for dinner and headed to Arrington Vineyard. They had live music, wine tasting, and everyone was just spread out on a hill side with good food and wine watching the kids run around.

It was a great weekend! It was so good to hang out and laugh with old friends. It was great to see where Bryan and Heather are, see their new house, visit their church, meet some of their new friends, and play a game of Settlers (which I won despite some very competitive playing). We are sad that they don't live in California anymore, but are so happy that they have found such a great spot for their family. We'll definitely be back to visit!

First Wedding of the Season

One of the first weddings I did flowers for was Nicki's friend Erica. When her friend Wanda got engaged she was nice enough to tell her about me. I delivered the flowers this morning to The Miyako Hotel in downtown L.A. where they held a traditional Chinese tea ceremony before the wedding ceremony. For her bouquet I used Sahara and white roses, porcelina and white spray roses, and white ranunculus. All the bouquets and boutonniers were wrapped with gold ribbon and wire. They had a classic elegance with a modern detail.

The next Beckham?

So after talking about being on an imaginary soccer team most of last year, we finally took the cue that Nicholas wanted to play soccer. So for Christmas Grammy and Pops payed for Nicholas to play in the Soccer For Tots program. He finally had his first session on Friday. We went early, picked up his uniform, and got him dressed in his new shin guards and socks. For about 2 minutes Nicholas starting getting cold feet and didn't want to play, but after watching all the other kids run out on the field he decided he didn't want to miss out and joined in. Coach Clive was great with them. Nicholas had a blast and asked at least 10 times on the way home when he was going back.

Better Late Than Never...

So our family website went through some changes with Google and was getting a little complicated to maintain, so I thought I would take the opportunity to finally get on the Blogger bandwagon. If you missed it before, the website is still up, so you can get all caught up to where we are now. rebeccakchapman.googlepages.com

Happy Daylight Savings! Even though I didn't love losing an hour of sleep last night, I do love that Chris and the kids were playing in the backyard until dinner and it was still light while we ate. I feel like summer is coming!

Our Christmas present from Chris' mom and Bill (CC and Grandpa) was a new camera, even though we didn't actually pick it out and buy it until last month. Thanks for the camera Cindy and Bill! I finally downloaded pictures for the first time, so I'm finally putting up some pictures that are officially from 2010! While looking through the pictures I realized how the weather over the last 2 months has really covered the spectrum.

Over MLK weekend the weather was amazing. It felt like summer and everyone was flocking to the beach. We took dinner and Nicholas' buddy Parker with us and enjoyed the sand, waves, and sunset.

At the beginning of this month we went up to Arrowhead to spend the weekend with Chris' dad and Patti (Grammy and Pops). We weren't prepared at all, but it snowed and we got to have a little bit of fun in the powder.

We had a great weekend. Chris took Friday off and we went to Disneyland.

Nicholas loves maps and Samantha does everything he does, so they directed us around the park from the stroller.

One ride we never miss is Toy Story Midway Mania. Samantha got her own seat and gun for the first time. She wouldn't wear the 3-D glasses, but she thoroughly enjoyed pulling the string on the gun through the whole ride.

We also love to stay for the Pixar Parade. It was a great way to end a fun day.