Nashville highlights

Special time in Nashville with a rare full Keig Family together! Probably won’t have many of these, but I really wanted to celebrate Steve’s retirement as properly as possible. We rented a gorgeous 6-fireplace/12-foot ceiling restored Victorian bungalow for the four of us travelers (and two well-traveled Aussies), conveniently located relatively close to Colton and Alisha’s new in-town house.

Of course, the highlight of the trip was getting to see this 18-month old cutie.

Love that furrowed eyebrow semi-scowl - Who are all these loud people disturbing my peaceful existence?

Also I got the opportunity to partake my single favorite activity of life - listening to my kids interact. I used to lurk at the top of the stairs eavesdropping on them playing when they were 3 and 4. Thirty years later it’s continued bonding via roudy late-night board games. Watching them together remains my motherly happiest place.

Sometimes it can get a little intense.

Visits to Nashville typically include a trip to Hattie B’s Hot Chicken.

And a little bit of random shopping and mural-modeling of course.

But we can’t forget the Guest of Honor for this trip, Steve the Retired! We had a little “program” honoring him with a small glass jar containing as many of his old business cards as I could find, tiny replicas of his first and last resumes, and thanks to Montana’s art skills, hand-made Shrinky Dink logos from every client or place he had ever worked! Steve also was subjected to a custom game of Career Jeopardy, answering questions about his 39 year professional life. And then of course - his favorite Tennessee barbecue.

But his retirement celebration peaked a few days later at the Gibson guitar store when, in lieu of a gold watch, he got to pick out his dream guitar.

We also attempted some semi-stressful/fully sweaty Keig family photos, thanks to Alisha’s family photographer - we will post those later if there are any worth sharing!