Spring in Kentucky

Back in May we bought a 2005 Honda Odyssey (my new LOVE by the way) and took a short road trip to Kentucky to put it to the test. Our first stop was Louisville.  We arrived in the late afternoon and took a walk along the Ohio River.  The kids also had fun playing on a huge riverside playground - the equipment was built to mimic the shapes of the nearby bridges. 

We had dinner at a fun restaurant right on the riverbank.  There was live music, and a beautiful sunset to boot!  The water was really high (remember all the Midwest flooding last spring?) so the beach was just muddy... but the boys had fun throwing sticks and rocks into the water.  

 

The next day we spent the morning at Churchill Downs - home of the Kentucky Derby!  It wasn't a derby day, but there were some exciting races going on.  We all got a kick out of choosing our favorite horse and cheering it on.  We didn't place any bets, but I think we could have won some money just based on the boys choosing horses by the colors the jockeys were wearing =).

Photo op with "Churchill Charlie."  You can't see well in this picture, but I definitely had on my pearls and my wide brim hat for the occasion!  We got a nice rooftop view of the races after our meet and greet with him.  I felt bad for whomever was inside that horse, because it was HOT and HUMID that day!

When we couldn't stand the heat anymore, we packed up and drove to Lexington, KY.  We had a beautiful afternoon walk around the botanical gardens before crashing at our hotel. 

Eli and Owen re-enacting the horse races. 

 
The BEST sight of the day =).

The next morning we saw some of the scenic Lexington countryside and horse farms on our way to the Kentucky Horse Park.

 At the horse park, in addition to suffering heat stroke, we got an up close experience with some retired race horses, as well as a neat horse show with all sorts of different breeds.

Retired champion horse... don't remember his name though!

  The horse show was a lot of fun!

We finished the afternoon with a drive to the Shaker Village.  We didn't have enough time for a tour, but it was a beautiful spot!

Before our late night drive home, we stopped to see our friends the Prescotts.  We met them out here in Columbia our first year here.  They have since moved to Lexington, AND we have the great honor of renting their home here in Columbia =).  They have all girls, and our two boys had a blast jumping on the tramp and cooling down on the slip n' slide.  Here is a pic of Jenny and I.

 Overall, we really enjoyed Kentucky!  It's a beautiful state, in spite of the humidity =).  Everyone we met seemed to really embrace the idea of southern charm.  We hadn't had an interesting road trip in a while, so it was nice to hit the road again.  And I have to say, after all those years of touring the country in our tiny Saturn Ion, it was like HEAVEN to stretch out in the Odyssey! I'm not really a "van person," but I have definitely fallen for ours =).   

Girly

I picked up this little number yesterday .... 

Although I'm still a bit in denial, I think collecting girl stuff is going to be fun!  Eli and Owen are both super excited to have a baby sister, and Mom and Dad are thrilled to get to experience having a daughter!

Beaches

Even though I grew up in the desert, I have had a deep love of the ocean and beach since I was in the 7th grade.   While thinking about this recently, I realized that Brad and I have developed an unofficial "tradition" of visiting the beach while I'm pregnant.  It started with our 4th anniversary trip to San Diego in June 2006 - about a five hour drive from our home in Surprise, AZ.  I was about 16 weeks pregnant.  We'd had it planned for a while, not realizing how SICK I'd still be at four months along, but we still made some good memories on what ended up being our LAST kid free trip for the next FIVE years! 

Our next coastal visit was on the opposite side of the country in Cape Cod, MA.  We moved to Massachusetts in the summer of 2009 for Brad's internship year.  Our first year out of medical school was even more financially challenging than school itself, so we only afforded the trip by CAMPING on the Cape while I was nearly 8 MONTHS pregnant.  Eli was still under two and did not enjoy sleeping in the tent, but overall it was such a fun trip!  I just feel so rejuvenated and alive after listening to the ocean waves and walking barefoot in the sand for a while.  

We've had a few ocean visits in between pregnancies too... after Owen was born, we visited Cape Cod one more time with Brad's family, as well as a brief visit to the New Hampshire coast, the Maine coast, and Cape Ann in Massachusetts. In October of last year (2010) we visited Gulf Shores, Alabama as a family - our first gulf coast experience! 


This time around however, we lucked out and were able to make a quick kid-free getaway to Southern Oregon.  We left the boys with my parents in AZ for a few days and flew out for an interview visit for Brad.  Luckily, the town was only about 2 hours from the coast, so we were able to visit a beautiful beach in Oregon! 

 

Wait a minute Jeanine, what did you mean when you said "this time around?"  Did I miss something?  Why yes, you clever friends, if you have continued reading this far, we did just make our THIRD beach visit while pregnant!  I'm 19 weeks along!  I was about 16 weeks for the Oregon trip - showing quite a bit more than that first beach visit at 16 weeks =).

We are pretty excited to be adding one more little person to our family.  We hope to find out the gender in another week - and NO we are not "hoping" for either gender - just for a healthy baby!  I was SOOOOOOO SICK up until about 17 weeks this time around that I just haven't been motivated to blog about it.  I wanted to wait until I felt better, and could make the announcement with a smile on my face! =)  The month I just spent in AZ with the kids was a wonderful relief - my Mom really stepped in and took good care of us while I slowly climbed out of the "Nausea Hell."  Hopefully I'll find some time soon to catch up and share some pictures from our Spring and Summer.  Anyway, there you have it!  Baby Benson #3 coming soon in February 2012!

Cicada Invasion 2011

 After a Winter of record-breaking snowfall and blizzards, and a Spring of  record-breaking tornadoes, comes a Summer of record-breaking Cicadas!   There is a 13 year variety here which means that these crazy insects  hibernate in the larval stage for 13 years underground, then crawl out  and shed their skins,  reproduce like mad for a few weeks and die - leaving their larvae to  crawl back underground for another 13 years.  We were just lucky enough  to be here during the 13th year of the cycle....

 

In their frantic search for a mate, these pesky critters SCREECH all day long... and since there are HOARDS and HOARDS of them, it's almost deafening to go outside in the afternoons.  Your ears will literally be ringing if you get too close to the trees.  Thankfully these things don't bite, or destroy crops, because there are BILLIONS of them.  They mainly like to stick near the trees in hopes of finding that special someone, but there are so many trying to get a spot that they swarm around everywhere - crash landing on anything in their path (ie. your face, hair, clothing etc).  Heaven forbid one zoom right by your ear, as it sounds like a mini high pitched helicopter!  

 

Owen was TERRIFIED of them at first, but he's getting  a little braver.  Today we played "keep away from the cicadas" and "shoot the cicadas with a hose" out in the backyard.  All went well until one landed right on Owen's ear.  That was the end of that!  Although interesting for a few days, their ever increasing numbers and aggressive crash landings on our persons has me looking forward to their disappearance in a few weeks!  I can definitely say it is a good thing they did not appear our first summer here... at least I've had a little while to adjust to having more/bigger bugs out here. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to moving West.  Anywhere.  Just away from humidity/tornadoes/BUGS!  Photos and video just do not do these things true justice, but at least you get the idea (and forgive the jerkiness of the video - I was literally dodging them and swiping them off me while I was shooting).

We are alive...

Just thought I'd let you know, in spite of the blogging evidence to the contrary, we ARE still alive!  It's been a busy few months with Owen's 2nd birthday, a trip to Utah for Thanksgiving, Eli's 4th birthday, Christmas, and a trip to AZ ... the kids and I are actually still in Tucson for another week.  When all is said and done it will have been close to a month long visit... we drove out here with Brad and waited until we got here to decide how long the boys and I would stay after he drove home. My Dad has been going through quite the health crisis, and both parents really needed my help getting some things straightened out, so here we still are.  They both could use your prayers if you have any extra you could send their way! =)

We've enjoyed the warm weather and spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and other relatives, but we MISS Brad and will be glad to get home.  I brought pictures on disk with me thinking I'd have all this time to blog while I was down here, but it hasn't happened... On top of everything going on I've been sick with one thing after another for close to two months... it's been hard to find the energy to be helpful, much less do anything creative... but I'm finally feeling better, so hopefully I'll catch up a little this week!

Bat Boys

 Halloween was a blast this year.  I didn't get the boys' costumes figured out until the last minute, the craft we made a couple of days before gave me the inspiration: bats!  These actually glowed in the dark after the paint dried.

 

The day before Halloween we went to a "trunk or treat" at church, where everyone lines up their cars in the parking lot, and the kids walk from car to car to get treats.  I ran to Kohls that morning for black sweatshirts, and JoAnn's for the faux leather to make batwings... I literally had a half an hour when we got home to make the wings before we had to leave for the trunk or treat!  I was hoping to come up with arm bands or something to fasten them on, but had to resort to good old fashioned safety pins... the boys were thrilled!

 One little bat missed his afternoon nap, and couldn't keep his eyes open on the ride home.

On Halloween night we went out for a little trick or treating in our neighborhood.  The weather was perfect - just the right amount of chill.  It was nice to meet a few of our neighbors, and see some of the other kids (and adults) in costumes.  One funny lady answered her door wearing a white puffy suit, puffy hat, and green face. She said she was an "Oompaloompa."  Eli has no idea what that is, but he was mesmerized... literally frozen in place staring at her!  He couldn't smile, or say trick or treat... he just looked at me and said, "She's an Oompaloompa!"  Otherwise he was speechless... we all had a good laugh about that. 

 The neighbors across the street had quite the scary display, and we got a picture with them.  The kids kept commenting that their house was "so scary" and yet their feet were so planted to the ground we had to tear them away to move to the next one. 

Peach Tree Farms

Now I've got to work my way backwards a little bit to catch up.  We visited Peach Tree Farms out here with the boys at the beginning of the season.  We went on a Monday night, and had the entire place to ourselves!  We enjoyed a hayride, checking out some farm animals (including a 75 pound catfish), and picking out some pumpkins.  I. LOVE. FALL!