Nashville Campus Outreach Conference

After Christmas every year we have the opportunity to travel somewhere for Southeastern and do some recruiting at conferences for college students. This year it was the Campus Outreach College New Years Conference in Nashville, TN. Actually I didn't expect it to be too much fun because we had been to Nashville many times, but it turned out that our parents volunteered to watch our kids and our brother and sister in-law went with us.  It was a BLAST and Nashville really is a very beautiful city! 

Below is the amazing hotel we got to stay in. Props to Southeastern for such a great choice! The Sheraton Hotel and Resort in downtown Nashville.

It turned out that Tennessee and North Carolina were playing their bowl game while we were there so we saw LOTS of orange. They honored both schools in the lobby of our hotel with light displays.

This is our sweet brother and sister in-law, Brandon and Hannah. It was so much fun to relax and enjoy the holiday with them! And, yes, we took LOTS of pictures. : )

This was just a beautiful spot in the lobby. I loved all the Christmas decorations! And what about this picture looking from the floor up!?!? It was crazy. I literally got sick when we rode the elevator to the 26th floor and I looked down. Luckily we only stayed on the 9th floor. : )

The event was held over at the Renaissance which was just a couple of blocks walk for us. It was so much easier to not have to drive anywhere.

Left: Benjamin doing his thing he is so great at! Talking with students about SEBTS.

This years conference had over 1600 college students in attendance from all over the mid-south region.

Right: We were just plain lazy a lot too!  With these conferences Benjamin is pretty flexible with his days. As long as he is there for the start and close of the sessions we are pretty much able to spend our time how we want. Most days we didn't leave our hotel until after lunch. : )

Below is the best part! Benjamin and Brandon took us to eat at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse! Oh. My. Word. It was the best steak I had EVER put in my mouth. It was really pricey, but I definitely will be saving my money to go back. I have never had so much yumminess. If you have never tried their sweet potatoes with pecan and cinnamon sugar topping it should be on the top of your list of things to try. : )

Left: A little fun fact. The LifeWay Headquarters is located in Nashville and is so big and takes up so many city blocks that it has its own zip code! Crazy Big.

Next stop! Opryland Hotel. You can't go to Nashville at Christmas time and not visit the beautiful hotel to see the lights. Benjamin and I spent our first night as a married couple at the Opryland on December 18th, 2004.

These trees were just crazy. They were not fake, but real trees with each limb lined with a strand of lights!

The last night of our stay in Nashville was on New Year's Eve and where do you think we headed?? Downtown Nashville to watch the famous guitar drop! It was drizzling rain, but loads of fun.

Happy 2011 Everyone! We had such a great time ringing it in, in Nashville, TN!!