Our Trip to Kenucky, Nashville, & Memphis!

For my birthday this year Jed and I went on a little vaca to Kentucky to visit Natalie and Rob. OK, so the trip wasn't for my birthday it just so happened that when they planned the trip we left on my birthday!:) Anyway we flew into Louisville, KY. Our first stop when we got off the plane was to Churchill Down. This is where they hold the Kentucky Derby. WOW, was I surprised at what a huge deal this is. I knew that a lot of people watch and go to the derby and yet I was still stunned at just how big of a deal this horse racing is. It was a very cool place and it was interesting to hear about how it all works and how much money it costs just to stand on the grass and never even see the track on derby day, talk about some faithful fans!

All around Churchill Downs are plaques of the former winners of the derby with the date and year that they won. We found the horse that won the race the same day that Jed was born!

Here we are trying out the horses and seeing if we could hold the riding position for the entire race. It was a lot harder than you would think. 

Our next stop was the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. Also a very neat place. We were able to see how and where they make all of the bats and to also hold some bats that they have made for pro baseball players.

So for dinner Natalie and Rob took us to a pizza place called Puccini's. All I can say is that ever since that night I have craved twice baked pizza. I know it sounds crazy and all but all I have to say is that you would not understand unless you have tried it yourself. Natalie had told us about it before and I didn't get it until I had it. I couldn't have had a better birthday dinner! It was amazing!

After we spent the first night at the Call residence we started our little road trip. On our way to Nashville Tennessee we stopped and checked out the Mammoth Cave. This was a four and a half hour hike through this cave. It was great! I will say that after about two hours or so I felt like I had seen my fair share of cave for a while! We had some great laughs and a good time while in the cave, this made it all worth the trip!

Our next stop was Nashville, TN! I was so excited to visit Nashville. As anyone who knows me, knows that I am a big country music fan. You hear of Nashville all the time and I was going to be able to experience it for myself! It was a fun day. We walked around downtown and went into some boot shops and walked into a few bars to hear the singers sing. This is where these singers are trying to make it big. There are people singing on the streets too. It is a little nuts. We went on a carriage ride around downtown to see some of the sites! We had a great time and also some BBQ! Since that is what they do best down there! We had a little too much fun in some of the shops as you can see! 

After Nashville we were headed down to Memphis for the National BBQ Championship. This was my father-in-laws dream. I have never seen him so excited for this trip. When we got off the plane he screamed with excitement and proceeded to tell us that this was going to be better than Christmas! On our way out of town we stopped for breakfast at the famous Loveless Cafe in Nashville. WOW!!! It was so gooooood. Gotta love that southern cookin! They are famous for their biscuits and I must say...they were fabulous. 

We made our way to Memphis and we were aching for some "real" BBQ. We found this little whole in the wall called Rendezvous. We saw that this place was listed as one of the best places to have ribs... They were right! Once again Fabulous!!! Our waiter has been at this restaurant for over sixty or seventy years. He was great and loved his job!

Well we finally made it to the competition and once again shocked at how much the south loves their BBQ. Here is just a small portion of the competition grounds. It was nuts! It smelt really good and we had some good food as you can imagine!

We made our way back to Kentucky and stopped for some more BBQ at Boyd's Orchard. We wanted to get our fill of "good" BBQ while we could. Then we just drove around to see how beautiful the Kentucky blue grass is. Here are some pictures that I took out of the car window as we were driving. BEAUTIFUL is the only word to describe it. Thanks to Natalie and Rob for letting us crash at their home and to Gordon and Jackie for planning the trip. Thanks for a fun trip and loads of memories!

One of the Best Days of the Year!

Mother's Day has always been a day that I enjoy. I always loved doing nice things for my mother on Mother's Day growing up and now I get the chance to be a mother I look forward to this day. I love being a mother and there is nothing else in that I would rather do. Being a mother is one of the hardest and most stressful jobs out there and it is also the most rewarding as well! I have been so blessed to to have three wonderful and beautiful children. I enjoy the time that I get to spend with them. I love watching them grow and learn new things, although it is hard to watch them grow because I would love it if time would just stand still for a moment and let them stay little. This past school year Halie was in Kindergarten and they had a mom tea party day! This was a fun filled day that the mom's were able to come into the classroom and spend time with their kindergartner. It was really sweet, when the mom's walked into the room our child would come and take us by the hand and escort us to our seat. Then they served us some refreshments and a drink. After our refreshments we were treated to a foot message! This was unexpected and I was surprised at how excited they were to do this! Halie loved slathering lotion all over my legs and feet! Then while our feet dried,(this took a little bit because of all the lotion that was on our legs,) we read stories! It was a lot of fun spending time with Halie and getting the "royal" treatment!

Gavin made some fun things in his preschool for me for Mother's Day. They are so cute and made my day. I love this poem that is with his little hand print. It is so true and just melted my heart!

Gavin also made a little card for me and filled in the blanks. I laughed so hard and thought it is so fun to read about how they really see us. I am still a little confused at how I am a "giant" and yet I only weigh 4 lbs! Really cute card and again I just loved it!!

Halie's kindergarten class made us (the mothers) a cookbook! So darling. So they had each child write up their favorite recipes, yes the kids wrote them, and compiled them into a cookbook!

Halie loves to make chocolate chip cookies with her dad and so she wrote down the recipe for her entry into the cookbook! Priceless!!!

Finally here is my card that Halie printed off the computer and colored pictures for me. Halie knows that I love flowers and so she drew as many as she could on the front of this card with her and I holding hands! It just doesn't get much better than this as a mother!

Jed turns 30!!!

My sweetheart turned the big 30 this past month! Jed was not too thrilled about the whole idea of being THIRTY YEARS OLD. We started out the day with gifts and Jed's favorite breakfast food, baking powder biscuits. This is one of those recipes that his mother is so great at and it has taken me a few years to get them to taste as good as hers, I like to think that I am there but you will have to ask the person that is the real judge of that. Well for a while now I have been wanting to throw Jed a surprise party for his 30th. I had no idea what this would all intel.  I planed this party without him knowing the day before so that he would not find out. For those of you that know Jed he is very, very, very good at figuring out anything that I am trying to do for him, so this was a major accomplishment for me. I rented a room at Noah's and made a fake invitation for a friend's graduation party as a decoy to get Jed to go and not get suspicious. We had some good friends there and had a great time playing pool,watching American Idol, and having a good laugh! It worked and I think that everyone had a great time.  It was a huge surprise! Mission accomplished and thanks to Elise who helped me with everything, down to hiding the ice so that Jed wouldn't wonder why I was taking ice with us to go out to dinner! It was a great time and I think that 30 for Jed is not going to be that bad after all! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVE!

Blessing Day!

On Sunday May 3rd, 2009 my little brother Matt and his wife Brooke blessed their little boy Kaysen. He is so dang cute and looked so adorable in his little white tux. I have to share these pictures because they are so priceless. We had a fun day with family and enjoyed a luncheon with both Matt's family and Brooke's side. After the luncheon we went over to my aunt and uncle's home and let the kids play and run around. It was such a nice day and so we all hung out outside as well. I love these days were we all just sit around and talk and the kids get to play with all of their cousins. Good times!  

Here is the cute little family!

Grandma and Grandpa with Kaysen!

Look at that cute little face!!! I just love to kiss and squeeze those cheeks!

Kaysen with his Great-Grandma and Grandpa Chipman!

Gavin enjoyed the sandbox while Halie and Grady had fun on the swings. This was Grady's first time on the swing all by himself and I think that he enjoyed it! He did sit in that swing for a while and loved watching all the other kids run around him and push him. He was very entertained!

Pet Day!

Pet day is a day at school that Halie has been looking forward to all year long! Seriously at the begining of the year when they mentioned the day would come she has been asking if it was here yet. Well it came and most of you know that we don't have any pets... this makes it interesting for pet day! So Halie called her great-grandma and grandpa and asked if she could take their little dog "Molly" Grandpa was nice enough to let Halie bring her to class and show her off. Halie thought it was as good as Christmas! She was all smiles. This is a day that Halie will remember for a long time.

When life gives you lemons...

So we were at the Olive Garden for dinner one night and waiting for our food and Grady was so hungry that he wanted my drink and then spotted the lemon in my glass. So... I let him have it and this is what the result was...

I couldn't resist! It was so funny and his face says it all. Then since he loves the attention he thought it was funny too and then took another bite.

I just can't help but laugh out loud at this picture!!! Especially when he knew what was coming and tried it again to get the reaction out of all of us!