July 7-14 We got to go to Tennessee with 3 of my students and 14 of Provo High's kids. What an experience it was - to say the least! We got in late Friday night to this amazing hotel! Joseph looked it up and it cost around $200 per night (which is $180 more then the crappy motel we stayed in just one week prior in Amarillo). There were 4 sit down restaurants, a full service spa, 4 swimming pools with big screen movies playing every night, shopping for all your needs, with over 10,000 rooms! This place was like it's own city! I felt like we were in Costa Rica again with all of the gardens and waterfalls. They had shows every night of the week with amazing acrobats that performed unbelievable moves-honestly I would never have believed they actually did the moves if I hadn't seen them with my own eyes!
Saturday was our anniversary (which we spent with 18 other people) and we got to ride in a Limo to the Hermitage where President Andrew Jackson lived. It was really cool to see all of the old artifacts and the history. We went to an "under water" restaurant to eat lunch and had amazing stuffed shrimp and pecan pie! We finished off the day with a trip to the mall, a massage for me, books for Joseph, and The Grand Ole Opry!
Sunday we pulled up to church in a Limo.....it was the cheapest way to get places but totally embarrassing to go to church in. It was a small branch with around 20 people. We brought over 100 people so they were really happy to have us (except for the speakers!)
The rest of the week was just spent in meetings and keeping track of kids. But the last day was spent downtown in Music City USA! We even went to the Coyote Ugly Saloon and danced on the bar....just kidding I really wanted to but then I remembered that I had 13 year old girls with me who had parents who would see pictures:) We had amazing steak for dinner and spent more money on that dinner then we do on rent (which in not saying much if you have seen our "house") but it was worth it! We got filet mignon and creme brulee and pretended that we were rich and famous! It was the best steak I have ever tasted and I don't ever want to cook steak again because it will never be as good as a Ruth's Chris steak.
Diane had a friend that showed us around the Music Lane. We even got to go into her husbands office where he films music videos and does cover art for upcoming country stars! We saw pictures of Faith Hill, Jo De Massina, Travis Tritt, Dolly Parton, well you got the picture! It was really cool to see all the work that goes into movies is the same amount of work that goes into music. I loved it. And the best part is is she gave us 6 free CD's! We loved our trip and loved the friendly country folk in Nashville!
Just to keep everyone up to speed, Joseph did not get into BYU for this fall because of his little work experience. But the BYU MBA director called and highly encouraged him to reactivate his application in October for Fall 2007 and we are confident that he will get a scholarship. We really are happy about this decision because it opens more doors for this next year and opens more doors to other schools if that feels right. We will see.
