Kentucky!!!

Last week we paid a visit to my sister and her family in Louisville, Kentucky. We spent a few days there seeing the sites, celebrating a couple of birthdays, and just hanging out. We had a great time and only regret that it went by so fast!

Molly loved her new Princess backpack. It was stocked with toys for the flight-I think she had more fun pulling it around and zipping and unzipping it!After our layover in Vegas, we got on a plane to take us to Louisville. Molly wanted the window seat; I thought she would get scared but she loved it! She was never scared, instead she watched out the window during take off and landing.Probably the one thing that we were all looking forward to the most was the look on Ali's face when we all showed up. You see, she thought it was just my mom and dad coming to visit, not the whole family. We had kept this secret for so long and we knew that she had no clue that we were coming. Jeff picked us up at the airport and took my mom and dad to their house. The rest of us piled in the rental vans and drove around for a few minutes before going to the house. We gathered on the doorstep and rang the doorbell. Ali answered the door, and I think she was pretty surprised!

Here we are at the Louisville Slugger Museum. This is where all the bats are made for the Major League players. We were able to look around at the museum and then take a tour and see how the bats are actually made. Justin could have stayed there for hours!Justin with a bat actually used by Lou GehrigBabe Ruth's batWe took lunch to a park along the Ohio River. It was hands down the best park that I have ever been to. We need parks like that in Utah! Molly ran around with Ben the whole time we were there.The Ohio RiverChurchill Downs was a really cool place. For those of you who don't know what Churchill Downs is, it's where the Kentucky Derby is run. For those of you who don't know what the Kentucky Derby is, there's no hope! Thanks to our own special tour guide, Woody from Guest Services, for our tour. He took us to the places where only the trainers and jockeys are allowed. That means we got up close and personal to the last race of the day.

After the race the jockeys walked right past us-we even saw the jockey who had won the Derby the week before!Barbaro's graveWe spent one morning at the Louisville Zoo. I was really impressed with the zoo-it was beautiful and green everywhere. When Molly's grandpa asked her what she saw at the zoo she said rhinos and lemurs.The train ride was a highlight for all the kids, with a pretty cool tunnel. Although, we didn't really see any animals on the ride, only fence...Ali got pretty up close and personal with a bird.Justin did too, but it didn't climb on his head!My personal favorite was the lions. They were pretty impressive.

We were able to celebrate Ali's birthday and Gavin's. Gavin got a slide for his birthday which the older kids immediately took over.He also got some help opening his presents.And he didn't like his birthday cake.Of course, you can't stay in a hotel without swimming in the pool.We took an afternoon off from the touristy stuff and just went bowling, always a hit with the kids and family. The kids were entertained by rolling the bowling ball back and forth.Molly helped me bowl. Maybe I should let her help me more often. We scored a 111 which is pretty good for someone who never reaches 100! Okay, those bumper lanes probably helped a little... Justin, on the other hand, didn't have the best game ever. If you look closely, you can see that Ben beat him by one point. And Ben did it all on his own, no help from his dad or anything. The boys were able to take off one night for a Reds game in Cincinnati. After a few days of going, going, going and fun, fun, fun it was time to fly home. We had a long layover in Phoenix but not to worry, we found plenty of fun things to do...We had 4 flights and Molly slept on 3 of them. On our very last leg of the journey, she slept from take off to landing. I guess the week had finally caught up with her.