A Night at the Grand Ole Opry!

Part II of the highlights of our weekend was going to the Grand Ole Opry! This was sort of a spur of the moment trip, so we had seats way in the back of the balcony, but all in all, it was probably better for the girls that way. We could still see everything, and it wasn't blaring loud. Plus, when the girls got a little restless, they could play around on the floor and not bug people on all sides of us. This was a much better trip to the Opry than last time. For those who remember, our first trip there, Caitlyn was only 6 months old (still being nursed), and we had seats down on the floor where it is very loud and hot. I ended up walking out of the show within the first hour (it's a 2 1/2 hour show) because she was hot and crabby and it was just too loud. Bear got our things gathered up and we just went back to the hotel...not a good time for our first trip! Anywho, we all had such a great time. And I apologize ahead of time for the terrible pictures. The downside to making a spur of the moment trip is that I didn't have time to charge my camera battery, and was trying to not take too many pics and run down the battery completely. And our camera doesn't have the best zoom, so the singers somewhat resemble ants.

After 3 tries, this is the best one that we could accomplish. Yeah, I know that most of me is missing, but at least everyone is looking at the camera, mostly smiling. Here we are in our seats waiting for the show to start!
The first performance in the line-up of stars were the Irish Clog Dancers. They are all little kids and it was so fun to watch. Later on Caitlyn said she would like to try to do that, but that she would probably fall and bust her butt...but she would still like to try!
The first big name that performed was Carrie Underwood (one of my favorite artists!). Yes, the one standing in the spotlight is her! Caitlyn has seen her on CMT and was convinced she would get to talk to Carrie. Caitlyn wanted to tell her that she saw her on tv, and that her dress is ugly (gotta love the honesty and innocence of a child!).
One of the songs she sang was one by Randy Travis, "I told you so". When she finished singing, Randy came out on stage to announce that Carrie would be the next artist to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry! It was just too cool to see and it seemed that there were lots of weeping eyes around the auditorium as she accepted that great honor in tears herself!

Other artists that performed were Randy Travis of course, Little Big Town, Vince Gil, Rhett Akins, the Whites, and of course Little Jimmy Dickens! There were several more, but I can't remember all their names. Caitlyn said that she would like to get up on stage and sing the most beautiful song ever...the A, B, C song! Through the whole show, Allison mostly paid attention, but was enjoying her Smarties candy and Nemo fruit snacks just as much when she got tired of sitting still. When we got back to the hotel, both girls had crashed out, completely exhausted from the super busy day. Bear carried both girls in at the same time, which was very entertaining to watch! Allison was out so hard she kept flopping all over, making the process rather difficult for her dad. I didn't have the heart to get the camera out since Bear was working so hard carrying nearly 70 pounds of kids! It was a great weekend!