Music City Bowl Trip Recap

Hey! Hey!

It’s TRIP RECAP time!

If you’ve read here for a while, then you know my husband, Tab, is a college football official on the side {of his regular job}. The way the bowl game scene for officials works is after bowl games are all assigned then different conferences are given bowl games to officiate. And there are lots of stipulations. For example, Tab works for the Big 12 during the regular season so he’s not allowed to work a bowl game for a Big 12 school. There’s no way to know prior to all the schools being assigned games where he’ll possibly be. All that to say, I’m a PLANNER when it comes to our trips and vacations but there is no way for us to plan anything until after we know if he has a bowl assignment. And that news typically hits us a few days after the regular season has wrapped up.

We’ve started a tradition of taking our kiddos to the bowl game with us. Not only do I sacrifice in the fall, solo parenting it but our kiddos sacrifice too. Tab has to miss things throughout football season and a family trip to a bowl game has become a fun way to celebrate the end of the season.

This year we kind of threw all our previous plans out the window because Tab received the…

Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee, as his game.

I’ve gotta tell you I LOVE Nashville! But he had this game just three years ago and we made it a family affair then so the entire crew just did this trip.

We went back and forth about different scenarios, taking kids/not taking kids and finally decided on a plan. We drove to Nashville on December 26th, met my parents in Memphis so the kiddos could have fun at “Grandparent Camp” in Missouri, and then Tab and I did the Nashville portion SOLO!

#itwastheperfectplan

This was my comfy, cozy travel outfit for the day {CHRISTMAS PRESENT!}…sweatshirt {ON SALE} and leggings {ON SALE}.

We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel-downtown and it was just a block or two from Broadway. This is exactly where we stayed three years ago.

We had a corner room with a beautiful view.

Do we look tired after the nine hour drive?

Not too tired for a night out though. 😉 I threw on a faux fur coat and was READY!

I have a HAIR QUESTION-I recently got a T3 curling iron, which I’ve heard such great things about. I agree! It works great! But my hair is starting to look really damaged. HELP! I’m thinking it’s from the crazy high heat? If you have a T3, have you experienced this? And do you have any recommendations for helping with this? If so, please send them my way!

This is the only picture I took that night.

#bloggerfail

Here in Texas we have table side guacamole, but in Nashville the waiter prepared table side caesar salad. It was DELICIOUS! We met up with another couple and had dinner at Merchants. Three years ago someone recommended it and we ate downstairs in the more casual portion. This time we opted for the steakhouse on the second floor. My food was SO GOOD!

I don’t know that I’ve ever done this before on a vacation, but I suited up and joined Tab in the gym for a little workout the next morning. Leggings {ON SALE!}, long sleeve top {I sized up to a medium. I’m really not a fan of anything being super tight but especially work out clothes.}, and vest{old}.

I was prepared to watch Netflix on my phone, but this fancy treadmill allowed me to sign in to my account and watch the big screen.

We grabbed a quick breakfast and walked to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

I grabbed a couple pictures for Ebby Lee. 🙂

We walked around taking it all in for an hour and a half and then decided it was lunch time!

At this point, it was raining off and on-super blah outside. We got in line to eat at the Nashville famous, Hattie B’s Hot Chicken. And it started raining on us. We decided to pass and headed for Tavern Midtown {we could see it from the line}. We got lucky! It was so good. I had one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. A great lunch stop!

Tab had meetings the rest of the afternoon so I showered, got ready, and relaxed for a couple hours. This book was part of my alone time…IT WAS SO GOOD!

Crew Dinner…all the officials and family were invited to 5th and Taylor for dinner.

Sheaffer told me to wear this top. 😉

A few of my favorites from the evening…the sausage cheddar biscuits were definitely a hit! I also thought every single side was amazing…mashed potatoes? YES! Macaroni and cheese? YES! Brussel sprouts? YES! Corn bread? Absolutely!

I went to bed that night with a big ole smile on my face.

And woke up GAME DAY ready!

A few other wives and I Ubered to the game and popped down on the field to take a few pictures.

I feel like the weather spanned the seasons as I was standing on the sidelines…the day began rainy and super yucky, it was windy, and then the sun came out and I was sweating. And I was only down there for about 45 minutes! Oh, check out another Christmas gift-those booties. They came with the red shoelaces, which I love! But since it was after Christmas, I thought I should change them out.

This group was a fun group of guys and wives!

Official selfie…get it??

A few of the lovely ladies I got to know during our trip. We had fun!

A view from my seat…I’ve gotta be honest, the game wasn’t super exciting. We did have club level seats, which gave us access to indoor areas where we could sit at tables and watch the game on the big screen. So at half-time we did just that! We got cozy INSIDE and watched from there.

When the game was over, we took the pedestrian bridge {along with the rest of the stadium} back to our hotel. See those ladies made it fun?!

One of the wives set up this get together at our hotel for everyone by reserving part of the restaurant for the group. We had appetizers and just visited with everyone. We ended up having so much fun we stayed to have dinner, the two above began singing, and then this happened…