Nashville, TN 8/17-20/2010

One of the main purposes of our trip was to take Oma to visit with her nieces who are Doug's cousins, Stormie and Sue, and their families. Oma had not seen them for 13 years and Doug and I had not seen them for 4 years (We had stopped for a short visit on our way to south Texas for a month during the winter of 2006). Here is a photo of all of us at Sue and Louie's house. Derek (in the front) is a photographer and he took this great photo of all of us.


The first night we were in Nashville, we joined Sue and Louie and their kids who were in town for their traditional "Taco Tuesday" dinner. Stephanie and Derek were there along with Stephanie's daughter, Lolo. She is a special little girl! Her daddy, Jeremy, is on his second tour of duty in Iraq and Stephanie is expecting another baby while he is over there. Matt, Sue and Louie's other son was already at college at the Univ. of Tennessee. Doug had fun telling them his "make fun of U T jokes."

The second night, Louie cooked a feast for the whole family. That is when the family photo was taken. He grilled salmon, steelhead, shrimp, scallops, and steak on the grill. It was delicious beyond words!


Of course, the dogs were ostracized to the basement. In this photo, Stanford is peaking under the gate at the top of the steps.


Above is a photo of Stephanie and Oma and below is Sue and Oma.



Above is Stormie, Oma, and me. Below is Stormie and Oma.



Above is a Stormie and Oma. Below is Stormie and Sue, sisters, with their Aunt Aurie who we call Oma.



Above is Amanda and her mother Stornie with Sue. Below is Michael, Stormie's husband.



Above is Michael and Stormie's son, Chris and his girlfriend, Paige. It turns out it is a small world.... Paige went to high school in Doylestown, PA with Doug's and my nephew, Jesse. We were all astounded that we ended up meeting.


Above is a photo of Amanda (Stormie and Michael's daughter), Dallas (Amanda's boyfriend), Louie and Sue. Below is a terrible photo of Stormie and Michael's house. Stormie does her writing here and Michael has his recording studio here. It was really interesting to see a working recording studio.


The folowing photos show some of Michael's detail work on his train layout. It fills a 16' x 20' room. He has built all the structures and vehicles in the layout. It is magnificient! His attention to detail is amazing.