Vacation is officially over

So we're back and I'm officially over being sick! It was a blast to get to come to North Carolina and although we weren't able to see everyone it was a great trip. We started off by driving straight to Boone/Avery county and spending the night with my dad and momma Lee....and Allie. Allie was soo excited to see us that she had stayed up and was waiting (yet counting down the hours and minutes) till we got there. We got to go to the Aldridge clan's get together on Christmas Eve and it's so crazy and amazing to see how or family has grown! I remember when my little cousins weren't over 6 feet tall! We enjoyed a short Christmas morning in Newland and then we had to get off the mountain fairly early because the snow was starting to come down and quick. We traveled down Highway 181 to get to Hickory at a zooming 5mph! Eric was being very careful and kept us all safe in my little 2-wheel drive car. I think next time we travel up to NC for the winter we'll have to invest in a bigger and a 4-wheel drive vehicle.
We made it down to Hickory and drove straight to Grammie's house (anyone who's had her cooking can understand our hurry). We got to catch up all day with family and even saw some hilarious barefoot snowball fights! I'll try and upload those soon. The next day was off to Charlotte which then led to Asheboro for the Galloway group. Uncle Kenny's house is amazing and the land has soo much history with the family it was nice to learn about the stories. It was gorgeous with the snow on the trees and the lake off the back porch!
We stayed in Charlotte that night and I finally got my Japanese food. It may sound silly but people in Pensacola CAN'T serve any good Japanese food! They call it Japanese food but....it's not! I started feeling sick on the way to Asheboro so Eric and Marvin were nice enough to let us lay low that night and load up on Airborne and Zicam. The next day Eric got his first dose of Ikea! Marvin got me a giftcard to Ikea on Eric's recommendation (Eric later regretted that since he had to pack the car 3 different times with all my Ikea gifts). I got new dishes finally! I could never justify buying new dishes because the dishes I've had since college from Walmart was still a complete set. None of the plates or bowls were broken so I couldn't bring myself to spending my own money on a new set. But since it was a giftcard I got to splurge.
Back to Hickory after that. We enjoyed another dinner of Japanese food with Momma Julie and the family.
We woke up early the next day to snowboard with Eric, Dylan, and Flash. It was beautiful. A nice sunny day without much cold! Nice fresh snow was on Beech and we played a nice game of dodge the tourist on the bunny slope! We left when the lines started getting a little long. Here's a picture of Eric and I waiting in line at Oz on the backside of Beech.

 We got to relax a little bit and then off to Nashville! First off lets just say that Nashville is a fun city. It's a lively city and it's a city we'll have to go back to visit more! We got to go to the Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg, TN which was amazing. I love learning how things are made and the artistry that goes into it. I loved visiting the wineries last year and now a distillery! I think one of the best parts of that trip was how "into character" our tour guide. He wasn't acting though. He was a real good 'ol country boy that loved his Jack Daniel's.

We spent several days and all nights walking up and down the main street in Nashville. One of the biggest things that I was so happy about.....Eric bought his first pair of cowboy boots. Now they're not exactly cowboy boots, they're more work type boots (he hated the pointy toe and the small heel on real cowboy boots) but it's progress! Soon he'll be two-stepping and bull-riding in no time. I did make him try on a $600 pair of ostrich cowboy boots, those came off rather quickly. We had some amazing food while there and ohh.....the bread! There was this bread that was so hot and fresh and covered in asiago cheese! I miss that bread! We got to tour Opryland Hotel and by tour I mean it was huge! There are indoor waterfalls and an "island" all within the hotel. I want to go back and stay in the Cascades portion of that hotel for just one night. Now we'll jump to New Years now! We got a great spot in the middle of the road on Broadway and 2nd. We held our ground and had a great time.

The weather held out right until midnight. The sky was reigning confetti on us for New Years because the rain came down! It didn't stop us or Grammie at that. Grammie was out there partying it up all night! I learned one very important thing. In a large crowd of mostly drunk people..you can control their direction. I posted up and made people split around me so none of our group was being pushed though. We went to Kelli's favorite bar (Whiskey Bent Saloon) later that night and really got to see some of Nashville's nightlife. It was amazing getting to walk up and down Broadway to hear all the amazing types of live music coming from inside of each bar.  January 1st was such a laid back day and it was nice to "recovery" prior to driving home. We went for one night at dinner at the place with the amazing bread!

We had a fairly easy drive back (only 6 hours) and got home in time to unpack, relax, and get ready for work and reality the next day.

Now I didn't post all the pictures since it takes a lot of time but they're slowly getting added to facebook as they're being added to the computer.

After that summary, I'm going to lie down and relax. I went back to work today and have a half day of work tomorrow because we're helping our good friends move to Meridian tomorrow afternoon!

It sad and uplifting to see everyone moving on to the next stage of flight school. We hope we'll be moving from here soon if Eric gets fixed wing.

We love you all and can't wait to see you again (hopefully it won't be next Christmas again)