Birthday weekend

This past weekend I turned 29 for the 3rd year in a row. Gramma Sue and Grampa Jones came to visit us for the "big" event. I took them to an orchid grower here in Nashville: Merkle's Orchids. Ed Merkle was featured in the February issue of Southern Living. He was very hospitable and talked about all the different species we were looking at. He even had several of the orchids that produce vanilla, and one type of orchid that ONLY blooms after a certain type of summer rainstorm. Quite amazing.

The greenhouse was close to Opry Mills, so we went there to walk around, shop and have lunch. Here's Maggie playing in one of the tents they had set up at Outdoor World-bass Pro Shops. One of the clerks there said a woman actually LEFT HER CHILD to sleep in that tent while she finished shopping because the little girl was tired and didn't want to shop any more. Tempting, but NO.
Maggie at Neely's BBQ for my birthday Sunday night. I'm still figuring out my new camera, so the close-ups of the food didn't turn out. Neely's (Pat & Gena Neely of Food TV fame) was amazing! Pat's brother runs the Nashville location, and he was chatting it up with the people at the next table, so we pretty much got the whole history of Neely's while we ate. My GLORIOUS birthday cake. It's the 4-layer monstrosity from Costco. Best darn chocolate cake I've ever had.
We also went to the Opryland Hotel on Monday to walk around and see all their flowers in bloom, but I neglected to get those photos off my mom's camera. We had a great time, even if Maggie was crabby because of her cold. Love you guys!