Spring Has Sprung!

I think Spring is officially my favorite season. I love Summer, because it means pool time. Fall is gorgeous and always a welcomed relief from the heat, but Spring is wonderful in so many ways. After this long, cold, dark winter I couldn't wait for the warmer months. One of the only downfalls of our new home is living in the central time zone when longitudinally we are about the same as Louisville. All of this means it starts getting dark at about the absolute time in both cities. In the winter that is about 5:45 in Louisville and 4:45 in Nashville. Seriously!!!! It SUCKS!!!! I never got accustomed to it. I hate it. I guess I hate it so much because I grew up with EST and that hour of difference really makes a huge difference. Sitting at work at 4:30, watching the sunset, knowing I would need my headlights to pick up Landon was a real bummer on my mood. Thank God it's over for now and Spring brought me out of my first real winter depression.

Matt and Marty visited the weekend after Adam's Mom and the weather in the middle of April was vastly improving. It was a short visit as they arrived Saturday afternoon and left Sunday evening. We made the mistake of going downtown to the Cherry Blossom festival when they arrived. It was peak weekend for the Cherry Blossoms in D.C. and I thought it would be a great way to enjoy some sunshine and see Spring at it's best. I wrong. The first problem was that there were no cherry blossoms. The second, was that is was full of teenagers and adults trying to live out their Japanese Anime fascinations. I don't even know how to explain it. With drive time, parking, and walking it probably took us 1.5 hour to get to the festival. We might have spent 30 minutes there before deciding to cut our losses and do something else. We headed to a few stores Matt and Marty wanted to check out and then out to eat. It was a fine day, but not the fun we were hoping for.

Sunday, we more than made up for the failure of the previous day. Adam and Matt got up and headed to a local indoor gun range while Marty, Landon, and I decided to see what all the hype was about the famous Loveless Cafe.

When we got there around 11:30 on a Sunday there was an hour and a half wait. Luckily, there are plenty of little shops and things to do while you wait. They have corn hole, picnic tables, and other games to play while you wait. We looked around the shops then waited at a picnic table. It was a gorgeous day outside and so nice to just be basking in the sun. While we waited Landon tackled a nearby tree.

Which eventually led to this...

And then this...

He didn't mind too much when his foot got caught and thought it was funny enough that Aunt Marty captured a few pictures. He did however decide the fun was over when he realized he had dirt all over his face and his finger tips were raw from climbing over and over. We went to bathroom to wash it off and just about that time our table was ready. While we didn't mind waiting, I will say that if the weather wasn't so nice it would have been brutal. Especially with a young child. The food however was really good. They serve fresh biscuits with homemade peach, blackberry, and strawberry jelly. I would love to go back just for the biscuits and peach jelly. Yummy! I got the meatloaf which was really good. Basically just good down home country cooking that EVERYONE in Nashville knows about. 

Since it was such a beautiful day we decided to check out Cheekwood Botanical Gardens. The guys met us there and lucky for us we just happened upon their Bloom festival. Little did we know all the tulips were at their peak and there were thousands of them to delight our eyes. (Be prepared for a bombardment of pictures).

Tulips were in every color imaginable and it was so pretty to stroll through the beautiful grounds enjoying the colors. On top of the beds and beds of tulips there was also a bamboo forest, lake, and a beautiful old house.

I'm not sure the place is as pretty any other time of year, but it's somewhere we will be visiting again. The large lawn and lake is the perfect place for a picnic and the restaurant on site makes picnic lunches. The beautiful house is a museum (which we didn't go into) and often has musical events. They also have a huge Easter egg hunt for children, and a festival of lights in the fall.

At the very least, we will be back again this time next year to enjoy the tulips again. All of us enjoyed strolling the ground and enjoying the beauty of Spring. It was a perfect place for Landon to run around and get out his energy while exploring and enjoying nature.

It's so nice to finally be able to be outside! Cheekwood's Bloom festival was the perfect way to celebrate Spring. It's always fun when Matt and Marty visit and Cheekwood was the perfect place to enjoy the day with them.