He's A Little Bit Country

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be able to visit Nashville for the weekend to visit Matthew and his family. Our parents were fantastic and agreed to drive me halfway (about 2 and a half hours for each of them). I left on Friday morning and met Sister Johnson at a small exit somewhere in Illinois. I said goodbye to my momma and I was off!

You would think that it would be a little awkward to be in a car for 2 hours with your boyfriend's mom...especially if you've only met her once. BUT, we talked the whole time and it went really well! I was surprised at how easy it was to talk to her. Definitely a good thing!

We arrived in Brentwood and ran some errands before Maddy came home from school. When we got to the house the doorbell rang before we even got inside. Apparently the neighbor boy, Chase, likes to do that every day for no reason. I'm pretty sure he came over to tell Sister Johnson that their dog was in his yard. I laughed, Sister Johnson didn't.

Once Maddy came home, we all headed over to Harrison's baseball game at the high school. Matt was still working so he was going to meet us there later. It was pretty agonizing to wait for, I'm not gonna lie! The boys won their game really fast, so all of us went back to the house to meet Matt and then go out to eat. Dinner was delish! We went to a BBQ place a little ways from the Johnson's house. Matt and I took a separate car so that we could go to Opryland after we ate.

It was a pretty short drive to the city - about the same distance as it is from Chesterfield to St. Louis. We listened to music and talked the whole way. We always have fun, even if we're just driving around. When we got to Opryland, we walked all over the hotel and talked more. It was so neat in there! Little did we know it would be underwater the next day...

Me and Matt at Opryland. We matched! But not on purpose.

On Saturday morning, we woke up early and went to The Pancake Pantry. Those pancakes were to die for! It was raining and there was a long line outside but luckily we had an umbrella. After breakfast, we drove around and looked at some country singer's houses. Holy moly, they were HUGE! The rain didn't stop the whole time that we were driving. Matt and Maddy decided to take naps on the ride home, so I listened to NPR with Brother and Sister Johnson.

Matt, Maddy, and I waiting in line at The Pancake Pantry

Because of all of the rain (yes, I was there the weekend that Nashville flooded), Matt said that we should go try skim boarding.

1.) I had no idea what that was

2.) I was terrified that I would make a fool of myself

and

3.) I don't like getting wet unless I'm swimming or showering

BUT

I decided to try it

While I failed miserably, Matthew was very patient with me. And we got this wicked cute picture. We were soaking wet, but we had a blast in the rain!

Matthew skim boarding in a common ground near his house

That night we had fish and chicken for dinner (YUM!) and we watched Avatar upstairs. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep for half of it, but I didn't mind. I was just happy being there!

Sunday was my original departure day but because of the floods, it was too dangerous to leave. I can't say that I had any complaints with staying an extra day! I won't see Matt for two years, so I wanted all the time I could get. P.S. Thank you Mommy for being such a good sport! Church was cancelled, but Brother Johnson prepared a wonderful sunday school lesson about things that we can learn from Noah and floods. It was very appropriate for the circumstances! Matt and I baked a cake to pass time and then I made french toast for dinner. After that I was tricked into going outside and bouncing on the trampoline in the rain with Matthew and Maddy. When we saw the river that was forming in the backyard, the boys had a brilliant idea. They grabbed the boogie boards and we rode down the river on our stomachs. It was super fun!

This is AFTER I showered and got dressed up and cute. Remember this lovely face when you see the no makeup, soaking wet, not as attractive Rachel in the picture below

All of us playing outside in the rain

That night, everyone played games and just relaxed while the rain kept coming down. Uno Flash, Yahtzee, Scum, and Rummikub were the games of choice over the course of the weekend. On Sunday night, Matt, Harrison, and I watched Taken. That movie kinda freaks me out but Liam is a beast in it!

We all woke up early on Monday to make sure that I could meet my Momma at a reasonable time. Matthew had work off because of the floods so he got to drive me! Of course, one last picture was required before we hit the road.

The last picture

This picture is for mom! This is the infamous "tower of power"

While the weekend went by SUPER fast, I'm grateful that I got to go at all. Thank you Mom for letting me go and for being willing to share me for my limited time at home. Thank you Johnson family for letting me invade for the weekend. I loved spending time with you and enjoyed getting to know you all a little better. Thank you Matthew for showing me the town and for being the best. And finally, thank you rain for letting me stay one more day.