Between the Sun and the Stars

Winding Down

"Thank you for flying West Jet, the current weather in Montego Bay, Jamaica is sunny and seventy eight." the stewardess announced. Hunter's parents drove to Nashville and flew out with us. We were spending five days in Sandy Bay at a house Hunter rented. We disembarked the plane and gathered our belongings before heading to pick up our rental car. 

Within the hour, we arrived at our house overlooking the ocean. "This is gorgeous." I said, unlocking the front door. The house had three bedrooms, a large kitchen and a private pool.

"There's a golf course not far from here," Hunter nudged his dad, "maybe we'll go hit that."

"Of course," I laughed, "may as well. You know I don't play." We got settled and comfortable before going out for lunch at a place called Peachy's. We had the best time that week, enjoying the warmth, the family time and pretty views. Lynette and Leo took care of Sutton for a day while we explored the Dolphin Cove and some waterfalls for the day. Leo and Hunter hit the golf course as planned while Lynette and I had a girls day with Sutton. "Ya'll have been busy since the last time we saw you." Lynette said, sipping on her ice tea. I nodded, thinking about everything between the TCA in June to the tour, Stephanie's wedding and now the Christmas album.

"It's nice to be busy while she's young - she still has us one hundred percent, and we aren't pulling her from school or anything." Lynette nodded. Hunter's weekends as a child were filled with travelling from festival to festival, but school came first. "Things aren't slowing down any time soon." I told Lynette about the magazines, "I would've never imaged in a million years a magazine would take pictures of me in my house with a glam squad at ten am." 

"I can imagine how that would be a bit much," Lynette said, "but the only thing that matters is you do what makes you happy. If it becomes too much, or you feel any part of your life is being compromised, you can stop, or at least slow down." I nodded. I feel like she had given Hunter the same piece of advice a time or two.

After five days in paradise, we flew home to Nashville, Leo and Lynette headed back to Louisiana. I loaded pictures from our trip onto my laptop, made dinner and looked at the plans for the week ahead. Hunter and I had our Christmas album release date coming up next week, as well as the People magazine interview on top of the Christmas specials for the Opry and CMT on December tenth and fifteenth. "I cannot believe it's going to be December." I said to myself.

"What's that sweetie?" Hunter said, strolling into the kitchen.

"No, nothing. Just looking at the calendar." 

"I know - another year passed before our eyes." He got some food out for Sutton's dinner and we sat around the table together. We made small talk, mostly about new music or projects, what we wanted to accomplish in the up coming year.

"I have material I can record, I just don't know if now is the time to put out a record," Hunter said, giving Sutton some of his chicken, "Like would I tour on my own? Should I look at going overseas while she's little? There are so many things to think about."

"Trust me, that's my brain every day." I smiled, "I think it would be great if you wanted to do another album, it will be two years in July since you've put out new music. I am a little fearful if you go over seas or whatever and I get offered a tour...would I just say no? Should I stick to parenting while you're gone and just work when you're here?"

Hunter sighed, "We both agreed we didn't want anyone else to take care of her but us." I nodded, and still believed that parenting was our #1 job. "Let's say, you ride out the first half of the year, if tours come up - it's all good, take it. I will work on an album. Release it end of next year, the following year will be my time to tour, maybe we would tour together. And if I'm touring, you can be writing. We will skew our work to compliment each other, not clash."

"I get what you're saying." I lifted up my glass of water, "Cheers, to navigating celebrity parenting." He clinked my glass with his, laughing. We made sure Sutton had enough to eat, we bundled her up and went for a walk around the neighbourhood. The air was a little chillier than usual, but it was nice to get out together. We talked about the Christmas album, performances and our plans with our families.

"What if we had a New Years party at our house?" Hunter suggested as we rounded the corner back toward home. 

"Yeah, we could do that. If we went to my parents say, the twenty second to twenty sixth, then your parents til the thirtieth and came home..." Hunter nodded in agreement.

The last month of the year flew by. Sutton was walking almost entirely on her own, and was saying more words like hi, bye, thank you, mama, dada, papa, more and no. She would wave to people she knew and she was very smiley. We dropped our Christmas album, Hayes Family Christmas, did our televised performances and spent quality time with out families in Toronto and Louisiana. Once back home, Alexis helped us get ready for our New Years party where we had our closest friends come over to watch the ball drop, and ring in a prosperous new year.