My Old Kentucky Home Vacation: Day 3

Downtown Louisville is probably one of my favorite places to visit. There is plenty to do and see and so many yummy places to eat. 

In planning for this day I suggested that we all go to The Louisville Slugger Museum. 

You can take a tour of the factory where all of the bats are made. It's pretty cool. You can't take pictures of the factory but there are plenty of photo ops elsewhere.

Anna's "Sword in the Stone" moment.

We saw a lot of butts on this trip...there is another story for day 4 too!

Because why not have a red gem covered limo and a mirror covered convertible?

 

This picture sums Anna up perfectly.

It's a really big bat!

Bats hanging from the ceiling! I love it.

NBD. Just Mickey Mantle's bat. Like, the real one.

 After the Slugger Museum and Factory we headed over to Flame Run (previously Glass Works...) it was pretty cool to watch these guys blow glass!

The guy with the massive amounts of hair was hilarious to watch.

Proof I was there. HEEEEY!

This is called Lampwork. It's awesome.

 We spent a lot of time watching glass being turned into so many cool things. We all finally decided that we were hungry so we headed over to 4th Street where I knew of a little restaurant. I'd never actually been to the restaurant but I'd had pizza from there before. It was slightly tricky to find but I'm sure glad we did. YUMMO.

So many delicious things to eat.

On our way back to the car we stopped and had a peek in some shops. My favorite find (aside from my Kentucky necklace that I don't have a picture of...) is probably these Hillbilly glasses. Look at those sippy cups! So fun!

It was a long but fun day downtown and we headed home to meet up with my Grandmama Bobbi. We had dinner and watched Secretariat to get us ready for the big day ahead of us.

My Old Kentucky Home Vacation: Day 2

Woke up in Kansas City and headed out!

I have a sister who lives 15 minutes outside of St. Louis, MO so we all thought it would be fun to stop and see her and the St. Louis arch. 

On our way to St. Louis, this gem popped up!

Bahaha! I can't stop laughing about it! 

Anyway, we made it to St. Louis and met up with my sister at the Arch. 

It was a weird sensation being put into a small little "capsule" and lifted to the top of that thing. It was not exactly my favorite. It's weird. I don't have a fear of heights necessarily but I was NOT enjoying that 4.5 minute ride to the top. I wasn't strapped into a seat. And the door was glass. And I was sitting right next to it. And then, by the time we were at the top, I was having a hard time getting past the fact that if the floor just decided to fall out, it was a 630 foot drop to...cement. I still don't understand what the issue was! But I was certainly jelly legged up there. However, once we got back into the capsule thingy I was fine. What?? Yeah, let me know if you have any ideas what I was experiencing...

The infamous capsule thingy.

Teeny, tiny, wobbly seats, no seat belts. The other half of my face was portraying fear. LOTS of fear.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Julie clearly had no problem.

East side.

 West side. (There was a game going on in the stadium.)

Death side.

 There are different ways to capture the Arch. 1. Laying down. 2. Standing up. 3. Crouching.  Take your pic. (Pun intended.)

It's a selfie selfie!

Sisterita! I was really happy that we got to meet up and have a fun day!

 But the Arch isn't all we got to see. We got to see, and more importantly EAT, some mighty hot tasty butts BBQ.

Shooters in O'Fallon. Just do it. 

YUMMO. 

You can't forget about dessert! Cupcakes from Sweet Katie Bee's just around the corner from Shooters.

After filling our bellies with deliciousness and seeing my sister's and her husband's home (it's adorable by the way) we hit the road for our last leg of the trip out! Illinois to Kentucky!!

When we got to my house we were welcomed by my Mom, our dog Sammy and home made Kentucky Hot Browns, Rooibee tea, Derby Pie and Vanilla Ice Cream! So yummy! 

My Old Kentucky Home Vacation: Day 1

Recently I was able to enjoy a week long vacation. 

My sister-in-law has always wanted to go to the Kentucky Derby and I just so happen to be from Kentucky. My parents still live there (although they are moving soon...) and so I thought we should take advantage of my connections!

Back around Christmas time we kept saying how much fun it would be to go and that we should go etc. Now, there are a couple things you should know about me. 1: I don't like talking about doing something without putting it into action. 2: I love vacations. LOVE THEM. 

So I decided to see what ticket prices were like for the big day. 

WHOA BUDDY. YIKES. 

Too much money for my blood even for the super low class seats! (And there was no way I was going to be an "Infielder"! That's not the kind of experience we wanted anyway...)

More digging ensued and finally I was able to find tickets for the Kentucky Oaks for a much better, checking account happier, price. To make it even better, it's all about ladies! The Oaks race has been supporting Breast Cancer research for a few years now and so, though there are plenty of men there, it really is a day all about the ladies! 

What is The Kentucky Oaks?

Well, long story short, it's the "Derby" for fillies. (As in female horses...) It is owned/sponsored/funded by the same company as the Kentucky Derby (Longines) and held at the same track, Churchill Downs. 

On Day 1 of our journey we drove from Manti, UT to Kansas City, Mo where we stayed the night it was a long day but we had a lot of fun and saw and talked about some places we wanted to stop by on our way home. 

Here are some pictures! 

Colorado:

 There was a complete white out and then we drove through a tunnel and BAM! Sunshine.

 Kanorado: It's an experience and a "town".

 After we passed Denver I was going to take a nap. Yeah, that didn't happen. It was SO WINDY! There was a high wind warning out. We Googled what that meant and discovered that it meant there was steady winds from 35-45 mph with gusts 75mph for the area we were driving through. I was grateful that Kristen was driving and not me! She had some stiff arms by the end of her shift!

 I never doubted that we would be okay but there is something unsettling about seeing 13 semis (and probably more that we missed) all pushed over by the wind! Yikes.

A Tea For Me

This past February I celebrated my birthday so this post is somewhat late but I wanted to write a post about it now that I have some time on my hands. 

I decided that I wanted to have a Tea Party. 

And so I did.

I had all sorts of tasty treats and herbal teas to try. I invited some friends and we dressed up, chatted about so many fun things and just enjoyed the afternoon.

It was a great birthday party! Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who helped out. Especially hubby!