Louisiana Tech Graduation

So the weekend after the wedding, Hunter's youngest brother and his fiancee graduated from our Alma Mater, Louisiana Tech!  (He had just proposed a few days before!)  We were so excited when BA decided to go to Tech--his first quarter even overlapped my last one, so we got to spend some time up there together.  That school and our memories there mean so much to us.  It was so neat to get to share in some of that again with BA and Nicole that weekend and welcome them into the Bulldog alumni family.

They both graduated with degrees in Mechanical Engineering (making Hunter even more proud and excited), with Nicole having the highest GPA of all of the ME's in their class!  It was a great time with family and a great time for pictures--so brace yourselves...

All of the ones standing are the graduates from the College of Engineering and Science

880 graduates.  Dr. Reneau's last commencement ceremonies after 47 years of service to Louisiana Tech, 26 of those as President.

Sensational Six.  Three brothers and their ladies; we go together well

How bout them dawns?!  Four Louisiana Tech Bulldog Graduates

We were also able to pack in some favorites that weekend including two trips to the Dawg House and my unmissable trip to the Beehive.  I was also able to take my sister-in-law around town and show her our old stomping grounds--that was fun since she'd never been to Ruston.  Hunter and I both realized on that trip just how much of a home that little town was for us.  Driving around and spending time there felt more like home than Texas ever has...

Our best friend, Clay, came over that afternoon so we even go to squeeze in some special time with him too!

So in three weekends in a row, we were hitting the pavement hard (Hunter to the NRA convention/AJ and I to visit our best friends; Kentucky wedding; Ruston for graduation).  The travel back to back to back weekends just about wore us to the bone...but all three of those weekends packed some incredible memories and experiences that we loved.  We'll be in recovery mode a little while longer, but don't worry, we're still busy around here...and probably always will be :

make your memories count.
love, angie

Nashville drive through

So I mentioned on our trip to Kentucky for the wedding that we drove all the way up there in one day--because we're insane.  The wedding was late Saturday night and there was just no way we were going to be able to get up early enough to make it home the whole way on Sunday after staying up late and a busy weekend.  So during the reception, I had to start making new arrangements for our daughter and figuring out all of the details that went along with that... But it was definitely the only option.

So we decided to sleep in a bit and rest up, drive to Nashville and crash with some friends (free boarding!), and hit the road super early Monday to finish off the trip home.  This worked pretty well--although Monday was another travel day that felt like it would never end; the miles and hours seemed to grow at each pit stop...  Anyway, we got to squeeze in a somewhat quick but great visit with some of our dearest friends!  And we all got to take some time touring Nashville--a new experience for all of us!

Here are some highlights of our little 15 hour visit:

First off we hit the road again to go see the homes of some stars.  First up was the late George Jones' ranch.  It was in the back of a small "neighborhood" (a street with several really large homes on it) and it was gorgeous.  The following pictures are all of his property.  We also saw Martina McBride's and Little Jimmy Dickens' homes but the pictures didn't come out well.

3 in the front, 3 in the back to tour Nash-town.  I got to sit and giggle between two of my favorite boys.

Next up we drove up and down Music Row to see where all the magic happens...

And then we spent the rest of the evening walking around down town...

Country Music Hall of Fame.  Notice that the windows mimic the black keys on a piano.  We didn't get to go in because they were closed, but it's a place I hope I get to tour someday!

This is the new fancy conference center they're finishing up to open this fall.  I don't remember the name of it, but it was snazzy and will probably house the country awards ceremonies in the future.

Sonny making friends with Reba's star

Downtown at sunset from the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Cumberland River

The Titans' football arena just on the other side

I liked this shot because it caught the CMT building all the way to the word Nashville painted on a building...

Photobomber...  but I love him, so it's all good.

There we all are!

We of course had to stop by the Ryman Auditorium.  The Grand Ole Opry was too far off for us to visit.

Such a pretty piece of history...

We ended the night at Puckett's Grocery and Restaurant for dinner--DELICIOUS!  Plus they had a live band playing (actually a collective, not a band--I just learned a little bit about this movement during an SXM interview with the Rend Collective Experiment).  The group playing for us that night was the Cumberland Collective.  The food was fantastic, the music was great, and the company was phenomenal.

Plus Willie joined us for dinner so who could complain?

There were nine people playing up on stage and they were all incredible musicians.  We also got to sit next to a group of old folk traveling together from Pennsylvania.   

The whole gang

 It was a great mix of old friends and new ones.  We relaxed a lot and laughed even more (especially when Fosh barked at the pedestrian walking his dog...late at night...on a curvy, hilly road.  Pretty sure we scared him and the dog silly).  What a great way to end a great weekend!  We'll be back in Nashville one day--hopefully soon!

love, angie

all the way to Maysville...

Two weeks ago, Hunter's long time best bud, Jacob got married!  He met his wife while we were all at Tech (although while we were all working on our measly Bachelor's degrees, she was in the middle of her Masters as prep for her Doctorate...she showed us up big time).  Anyway.  She's from a little town in the middle of nowhere north Kentucky.  Smack on the Ohio River.  Way far away from here...

So we piled in the car reeeeaaalllly early Thursday morning (with another guy who was in the wedding party and his fiancee--he and Hunter hadn't seen each other in over 10 years, and us girls had never met either of the other couple...crazy, because we were about to spend A LOT of time together.  Thankfully we all got along really well!).  We set up a carpool with his brother, also a groomsmen, and his wife behind us and hit the road for what felt like a neverending journey to Maysville, Kentucky.

We made the whole trip up there on Thursday.  CRAZY.  Hunter and I left our house at 4 to meet up with our ride by 5.  After crossing the time zone, we finally landed at our hotel at 12:30 am.  And of course my lack-of-a-gallbladder decided to give me major fits after dinner (still 5 hours from the hotel...and it lasted until Saturday morning...miserable).

We all crashed pretty hard that night and woke up the next day to go meet Jacob and the rest of the guys at the Country Club for lunch.  We had a great time getting to catch up--there was a lot of laughing that weekend.  Then we all split ways to go home and get ready for the rehearsal and dinner.  While the boys napped, us three girls did a little shopping at the little strip mall by our hotel.  After an 18 hour car ride, we didn't feel like cramping into a hotel for 3 hours of nothing...

The rehearsal went smoothly and quickly (I've been to some doozies that seemed like they'd go on forever...) and dinner was fabulous!  Little secret--George Clooney's parents were eating dinner at the restaurant where we had the rehearsal dinner!  And Barbara (the bride) is related to them through some connection I don't know well enough to explain...  Starstruck.

I digress.  We hung out at the Pub there in town that night, shooting darts and laughing some more. We avoided a major possible catastrophe by steering Hunter back out of the Karaoke bar around the corner (or Scary-oke as the locals called it...).  And headed back for a somewhat early night to get some rest.

The boys all got up and played golf the next morning, and from their stories and videos, they had quite the fun out there.  It had rained the night before so the grass was slick, the course was completely full of hills, and they had no supervision with gas powered golf carts--you do the math.  We three girls grabbed a bite to eat for lunch and tried to figure out what we would do with our day while they played (by the way, they only got through 12 holes and they were out there for about 5 1/2 hours).  Our waitress literally felt sorry for us when we told her we were stuck alone in Maysville looking for something to do...so we hopped in the car and drove to Cincinnati!  It was a little over an hour away, so we just went to the mall and shopped for a couple of hours before having to make the trek back and get ready for the ceremony.  But it was a fun little outing!  And much better than twiddling our thumbs all afternoon while the guys galavanted around doing their wedding duties (apparently that little strip mall we had gone to on Friday was about all Maysville had to offer...miniature JCPenney, Goody's, and a shoe store.  Woot).

The wedding party rode around town in a trolley that afternoon taking pictures all over the place and getting to know each other.  From what I can tell, country met the fancy side of life between the two sides of the bridal party...those Kentucky girls got a big dose of the real south with that big bunch of Louisiana boys :)

we clean up nice

The wedding was beautiful, held in an old Catholic church downtown.  It was gorgeous...old wooden pews, huge stained-glass windows all the way around, a massive organ on the balcony (and acoustics beyond belief).  And the wedding ceremony was sweet.  Not being Catholic, I appreciated the ceremony not being a full mass (they did this as the groom and his family are also not Catholic; I thought that was a nice compromise).  Everything went well, everyone smiled pretty, and everybody looked stunning.

The girls that belong to all of the guys in the wedding.  I am so thankful that they all also came and that we all got along well so we could hang out for the weekend!

They had the reception in a massive (6,000 sq. ft.) outdoor tent in the yard of one of their close family friends (and the view onto his house was gorgeous!).

HUGE tent!

First Dance as Husband and Wife!

There was a lot of good food--including a pasta and potato bar where you got to fix them the way you wanted...Yumm-O.  And there was a lot of fun dancing.  And there was this really big goober hopping and dancing around the tent all night wearing aviator sunglasses and having a great time.  Whoever married him is one lucky chica...

the wedding party

The groom and his men completed the night with their own rendition of Hank Jr.'s "Family Tradition"

The groom and all his fellas

We know Jacob well and are so proud of the way his life is turning out.  We also have gotten to know and love Barbara through their relationship and are so thankful for her and the role she is playing in his life.  They're a special couple to us and we were very honored to be a part of their day!

Here's to their happiness!
love, angie

--we got wise and split the trip up on the way home landing us a visit in Nashville with some of our closest friends...but that'll get its own post soon--