7 Years, 8 Months and 15 Minutes of "Fame"

Monday November 15th marked Shay Bug's 8 month birthday and Tuesday the 16th was Jeff's and my 7 year anniversary. To celebrate, I took Monday off of work and we enjoyed a wonderful long weekend together as a family kick started by a great time hanging out with our friends Tony & Greg on Saturday followed by a fun time with my friend Jen (another friend from Belmont...I love reconnecting with my college friends as of late) and her beautiful family!

Monday also marked the first day the Opryland Hotel re-opened its doors over 6 months after the big flood hit Nashville. We love the hotel. It's absolutely beautiful with all of its amazing tropical garden atriums, especially when its all decked out for Christmas. Whenever friends and family from out of state come to visit, the hotel is one of our favorite places to take them. When the flood devastated the area, it was really sad to see the hotel close, needing 200 million+ for repairs.

So we figured, what better way to celebrate our anniversary but to head over to the hotel. I had told my mom that we planned to do that about a week before and she so thoughtfully arranged to have a gift certificate waiting for us in the newly renovated Cascades Lobby (thank you Mom!). We enjoyed a great lunch together at the Cascades Cafe and a leisurely stroll around the gardens with our Shay Bug. What a beautiful day! Here are some pics of us and a happy Buggy:

 Mmmm...applesauce

 Buggy & me

 A happy Jeff with his favorite guy...Sam Adams!

 Peek-a-boo is funny!

 LOVE this little mug!

 My world (well, and a giant teddy bear)

New blown glass art piece in the Cascades Lobby

As we were heading out, we asked a lady if she would take a family snapshot of all of us in front of this beautiful new blown glass art piece showcased in the middle of the Cascades Lobby. While we was taking the picture, we noticed another guy also taking a photo with a really nice camera. At first I thought it was a little creepy that some stranger was taking my family's picture but then he came up and introduced himself as a photographer for the Associated Press who was doing a story on the hotel's re-opening.

The next day, I found the photo on the Associated Press' image site. Then I typed in "Opryland Hotel Jeff and Jamie Burton" into a Google search articles from news sources all across the country popped up with our picture! Everything from ABC and Yahoo News to the LA Times to a rinky dink newspaper in Idaho. So there you have it...our 15 minutes seconds of fame, LOL!

Photo courtesy of the Associated Press

Best. Anniversary. Yet.