Kentucky visit

We weren't planning on going to Kentucky this summer but Justin's amazing and remarkable grandmother passed away. Without thinking twice, we changed our route to go to Colorado for family vacation to head to Kentucky to be with family.

Rosie...what an amazing lady. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I've never met a more positive person in my life than our "rosy" Rosie. She always saw the best in everything....I mean everything. She was pretty remarkable and quite a spunky, lively thing right up until the last 6 months of her 92nd year of life. She was the type to wave at the door until she saw your car gone and even stick her head in the window of the car because she loved that we visited her. It was so precious.

When we knew that Rosie wasn't doing well, we talked to the boys that she would be passing soon and Nolan opened up about how he was scared about dying. I told him that was nothing that he needed to worry about now. Rosie was nearly 100 years old and had a long happy healthy life. Then he said, "Yeah, and I'm only in the ones place." We went from sadness to hysterical laughter in seconds. I love that about my children and I know that Rosie was laughing in heaven about it. 

It really was a celebration of her life and the boys loved seeing their Kentucky family. They love visiting Gram and Pop's house. While we were there we decided to make a real trip of it and spend time with the fam and just hang out.

We took the kids to the Kentucky Horse Park and it was a blast. We packed a picnic on a gorgeous day.

And the boys always pick up right where they left off when it comes to their cousins. 

 

I'm not sure who's crazier about who when it comes to these two. Pretty sure, it's mutual.

 

After our lunch, we caught the horse parade and even had a chance to pet them. 

 

This horse was HUGE, but Landry didn't seem to care. Be careful, Daddy, she might just ask for one.

 

All in all, it was a gorgeous day and just what we all needed days after Rosie's funeral. 

And it's not a Kentucky visit without an ER visit. In case you're wondering why Landry has a boo boo on her head. She had a fight with a solid oak wood chair and the chair won.  Her 4 stitches prove it. Of course my baby girl is the first one of my kids to get stitches. I can't believe how great she was during the stitches. She cried more about the numbing medicine than the stitches.

 We also made some time to go to some new places in Lexington that we've never had time to do. And this next series of pictures were part of a sneaky photo shoot of the kids for my sister-in-law's birthday. They are some of my favorites of them as cousins. 

And this one of my nieces...oh my goodness. I can't handle how precious. 

I just love how the 900 miles between them doesn't keep them from playing with each other like they see each other every day. 

Our Nolan and Neala...

Neala Rose...named after Rosie. And how appropriate is it that she's perfectly rosy too just like her great-grandmother.

We managed to squeeze in celebrating Melissa (my sister-in-law) and Campbell's June birthdays too.

And even in a game of corn hole.

Our little crew is learning to become travelers after all. Well, everyone but Landry. One day she'll watch movies and sleep, right?! Lord, please let that happen one day.

So grateful for this time in Kentucky to celebrate the beautiful long life of Rosie and to see family.

Kentucky visit

Ok, this is just downright embarassing. I know it's February and I'm posting the LAST of my Christmas pictures. But one day, years from now my kids will be glad I did it even if it was a month late.

Throw me a bone here, I'm working two jobs with three kids so it's amazing that I'm even keeping this thing up anymore.

After we finally made it to Kentucky, it was a great trip! Twenty and a half hours in the car with three children 7 and under made for a very exhausting two days.

The lucky thing is right when I get to Kentucky, I’ve got lots and lots of extra hands for  help. My oldest niece adores Landry and she loves her just as much. She’s so great with her and she was exactly what I needed after hearing the word “mama” at least 645,938,297 times in the car.

I’m pretty sure that the boys favorite place on Earth is being at either one of their grandparents’ houses. They love spending the night and LOVE spending the night in bunk beds at Gram and Pop’s house. I was scared that no one would sleep with all three sleeping in the same room together, but they did surprisingly well.

It snowed while we were in Kentucky and that meant another snow day fun day. Since my kids hardly see it, they love playing in it. I like looking at snow next to a warm toasty fire, but not so much being out in it for more than 10-15 minutes.

We jam packed a lot in 3 days but managed to squeeze in an adult movie (thanks to a very patient mother-in-law) who babysat my kids.

Speaking of others that babysat Landry. My sweet niece babysat Landry. I mean she literally took care of her and watched and entertained her more than anyone that I would pay for babysitting. I love seeing their relationship grow and I love that Landry has a break from her brothers and gets to see her girl cousins.

The boys love playing with their cousins and all their new toys. Before we ever pull out of the driveway, they start talking about how much they’re going to miss Gram and Pop and how they want to come back.

 The drive back was smooth and uneventful! Hallelujah! We actually made it back in record time.

Landry meets Kentucky

We were brave enough to take our first trip as a family of five and smart enough to know that a car ride was not the way to do it! Landry took her first flight to meet the rest of her family (besides Gram and Pop).

Kentucky (horse capital of the world) + Campbell = Heaven

And that was just minutes off the plane.

 

Landry didn't hold back her cuteness for a second. She was full force meeting her Kentucky family for the first time. 

And I think her cousins might have been the most excited of them all that they FINALLY have a GIRL cousin.

 

I gotta say that Landry was pretty darn excited herself to see that there were other girls in the family than just her mama! 

 

Although her bitter beer face doesn't quite express that...

 

I gotta tell you this little girl was S.P.O.I.L.E.D with lots of holding and loving and she loved every.single.minute of it.

Meeting Uncle Casey for the first time was so heartwarming too. He's got a special knack for little girls and she seemed to really dig the fact that he looks so much like her daddy.

Our niece, Dory, was seriously born to babysit. I gotta fly this girl down for the summers asap. She's more mature than majority of my 5th graders and just completely enamored with Landry.

And this is what Dory will look like exactly in another 30 years or so. Meet Melissa, her mother, my makes-me-feel-like-a-little-person sister-in-law.

The rest of the week was filled with more love and hugs and meeting great Aunt Sug (And yes, it's short for 'Sugar').

I'm so in love with Justin's 91-year-old grandmother, Rosie. She's the real genuine deal that grandmothers are made out of. You can't help but love every bit of her.

 

She was the most gracious hostess letting us crash at her place and waking her up at 4:00 a.m to catch a plane home. It was fun having a slumber party at her house, although next time I could have used more of the "slumber" part. 

 

Seeing these two girls together that are 90 years apart was so special. I think Landry might outweigh Rosie too soon if we're not too careful. We haven't even started this girl on cereal yet. Guess I've got some buttermilk flowing through my body! 

All the time spent playing and lovin' was exactly what we needed to jump start 2012.

The kids were an absolute dream when it came to the airplanes. Thank goodness, we don't exactly have great luck when it comes to traveling so I'll take it without complaint!

Kentucky summer

I'm so out of order with my posts from this summer. But it reminds me how ADD I can be. 

After our pit stop in St. Louis, we packed up and keep on truckin'…a total of 8 hours that day. With kids, stops are inevitable. I'm thankful that we haven't attempted to potty train Campbell yet because that diaper saved us a lot more stops.

Our next pit stop was to see Justin's grandmother, Rosie, in Louisville. The exit to her house was literally on the road we were already on so it's would have been just plain rude of us not to stop if we were that close. It was good timing because once again, the boys needed a car break. And just like every time, she had treats and snacks ready for those boys. Their love for her grew even more.

Rosie is amazing. She's about to celebrate her 90th birthday in November and has more energy than I do. We video conference with her and she's up on the blog. She and my grandmother are some the hippest techie grandmothers I know!

Campbell played us a little diddy on the piano and then we headed out to our final stop…Lexington.


Justin and I had our anniversary night. We went and saw a movie and checked in to a historic hotel in downtown Lexington. We walked around downtown and had a delicious dinner. I mean a lick-my-plate-like-a-dog dinner but it was upscale so I refrained, but it took everything in me to do that.


Later when I was trying to fall sleep, I kept hearing a door slam over and over again. Then Justin casually mentions how the place is haunted. Awww, the romance.

Next, we had some catching up to do with the family. After what felt like 40 days and 40 nights of rain, we knew our boys had enough of being inside. So we parked our ark right by a park and let them run like crazy.


There was frisbee throwing, swinging, climbing, sliding, and see-sawin' to catch up on.

We even had time for adult conversation!

We weren't there but an hour, but I loved that time. Letting the boys be boys and be loud and rowdy, being with family and being outside without too much sweat. It really is the small things that we remember most.