Category Archives: Family Adventures

Family Adventures, Photo-A-Day, Travel

Trip to Nashville?

Forest Giants in Bernheim Forest
Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00170

Today was our trip to Nashville. Now, we knew where we were actually going to end up and the kids did not. You see, my sister and her husband invited us to stay with them for a week in Kentucky and Nashville was the closest airport that had a direct flight for us. We told the kids a couple of weeks ago that I had gotten a blogger trip to Nashville. However, when we landed we were met by my sister right outside the gates. At first they were wondering what she was doing there since I said that we would not be seeing her this trip. It took Eva a couple of moments to realize what was happening and she was so excited. Andrew, though, wasn’t as excited. He was upset. He began to cry because he had told his friends that he was going to Nashville and now, I think, he may have felt like he was lying to them. He got over things quickly enough when we told him that we would spend at least one day in Nashville.

We piled into the van that we would affectionately refer to as “The Corn-mobile” for our entire trip. This was a minivan that ran on E85. That is not easy to come by and so we were always on the lookout for more E85.

Along our trip to Tara’s house which was 2 hours away, we stopped at the Bernheim Forest to go searching for Forest Giants. These were giant wooden giants created by artist Thomas Dambo. I had recently heard about him and his project of giant wooden trolls. I guess the installation of these giants was something quite new and was a big draw for people visiting the Bernheim Forest. There are four giants and the round trip to see them all is 2 miles. The kids were troopers to walk through the heat to see them all, but they were worth it. You can see more on our video below.

For dinner we went to a BBQ joint called Feast. We had an excellent meal and went to bed with very full bellies and food left over to bring home. This would become breakfast for the next few days for me and Eva. We’re the only ones up for breakfast BBQ.

Family, Family Adventures

Parents As Coaches Day at America’s Best Defense

Karate Coaching

Yesterday at Andrew’s Karate school, America’s Best Defense, they had a Parents As Coaches day. This meant that parents came in with the kids and trained alongside the kids. I had been hearing about it during Andrew’s regular classes and even though it was a Saturday during the day I had to take him to it. I knew that this would be an event that he would really enjoy. He always asks to attend the special events and it is tough always saying no because of my work schedule. This time I said yes and took Andrew to the event. I also had a Krav Maga Event later in the afternoon.

The Parents as Coaches class was good. We ran drills with the kids for a while and then the parents went off with Sensei Wilson to go over how they could continue to be good coaches to the kids outside of class. We went over a pamphlet that they created with tips on how to best help be coaches to the kids. Lots of good information in that.

After Parents as Coaches I took Andrew home and came back to ABD to a special Punch and Lunch. This was a class on special self defense tactics that included disarming of guns. We did all sorts of drills and then had a nice lunch. I ended up training with someone who also works for my company. It was a good day.