Family Fun for the Fourth

We had more visitors the weekend after Daddy and Marie! Matt's family - Paula, Maria and Elisa all came down for the weekend of the 4th. We had lots of fun activities planned.... and some that were not so planned! I'm just gonna go ahead and say - thanks, Maria, for some of these pics. I bootlegged them off of your myspace page! ha!

As everyone always does before company, Matt and I were running around trying to get everything ready for the family to come into town. Matt had been having games, so I had gotten the house ready for the most part and just asked him to vacuum real quick while I ran a couple last minute errands before they got here. Well, Uncle Matt always has something up his sleeve as a little surprise. I walk in the door with groceries and just start dying laughing... Matt took his chore and turned it into a Welcome Sign for his niece Elisa.... this, my friends, is why I love this man. Here's a picture of Elisa "inside" her welcome.We just hung around the apartment a little while everyone relaxed from the long car ride they had - Boston's kinda far from Louisville.... I love this picture. You can definitely see how happy Elisa is to see her Uncle Matt. This visit was definitely due. These two can't go too long without hanging out and having fun together... and of course. Dixie has to be right in the middle of it all!

And in case you're wondering, Dixie and Elisa got along beautifully! They are cousins you know, says Elisa. Dixie was pretty worn out at the end of the visit, but let Elisa carry her around like a doll, change her clothes and even put her in timeout! As a matter of fact, Elisa had so much fun changing Dixie's clothes (since she has so many!) that she even decided they were about the same size so she needed to try on one of her shirts. I mean after all, it is Elisa's favorite color too!

We headed out to the a Fourth of July festival later that night to watch fireworks... but it doesn't get dark til so later here - 9:30 - that we just couldn't quite make it until 10:30 for the fireworks show... so we did our own sparklers when we got home!

The next day, the Bats had a ball game and Matt had to work, so everyone went! As you can tell, Elisa was excited to see Uncle Matt every time he came up for a quick visit between running around the clubhouse and getting everything ready for the team..

Oh - and Elisa loved the blue sno cone.... for some reason she kept dropping her spoon. I don't know why...

Day Three was good times too! We went to Six Flags... they have a Water Park there. And who doesn't love a water park?! Before we made it to the water, Uncle Matt and Elisa stopped and played a few games to try to win some of those awesome stuffed animals that are a MUST have... :-)

This was Elisa's prize from the duck game. She pulled the duck out of the water that had "Large Prize" on the bottom! She really wanted Bam Bam! So Uncle Matt decided that he would play too and maybe he could get her Pebbles... buuuuut he ended up with a small prize. So he got Dixie the pillow that describes her best. And yes, she knew it was hers as soon as we got home....

By far the most exciting event of the day was the wave pool! I think Elisa could have stayed in there all day. She even learned how to jump waves! And was not too happy when the lifeguards kept making everyone get out of the pool while they changed shifts. Seriously?

Fun times were had by all... even when I was totally stressed when Matt and Maria decided to get on a roller coaster. I know, I'm a party pooper, but I'm sorry, people get killed on those things... Needless to say, they made it out alive! Whew! Don't you want to come visit? We do cool things!

I saw the future...

Sitting at the Bats game, I saw this little old lady behind me keeping score and realized... This is me in 50 years. I can't wait!

Horses and Mint Juleps

Ok... so maybe I didn't have a mint julep, but we did see lots of horses!

We've had several visitors since living here in horse country, USA - Louisville, KY. And the one place everyone has to go of course (other than Louisville Slugger Field) is Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. It's crazy... Matt got me into horse racing while we were still dating when my heart was stolen and then broken by my love, Barbaro. I'm sure you've heard of him, if not, we need to talk...

Anyway, so Daddy and Marie came for a little visit back at the end of June - yeah, yeah, I'm behind in my blogging - and we had a blast watching the horses and placing our well educated bets!

Daddy and Matt were all kinds of serious placing their bets. The looked and number of wins, history on dirt tracks, history on turf, jockey wins and losses, etc. Marie and I? Wow... that one sure is pretty! I would like $2 on him, please...


And, let me just sidetrack here a minute and say, doesn't my husband look handsome in his "Churchill Downs" outfit? Matt was very proud of himself for putting this together. And I was proud of him as well... he was coordinated from the white scally (hat) I bought him in Savannah, to the plaid shorts, to the Ralph Lauren shoes! Niiice... :-)


Anyway, I can definitely see how this can become an addition to people! It's so much fun - especially when you win! We went in agreeing to place $2 bets only. But I can tell you, we did see a few people who were pretty darn upset over some loses. I think they probably put more then $2 down on their bets. We heard some pretty interesting words...






Anywho... like I mentioned before, I picked the pretty horses.... and sometimes it actually worked out for me! Here is a picture of my first win ever at Churchill Downs.... and then getting my $4.80 win money! Too bad she didn't have change and I had to pay her 20 cents so she could give me a 5?!


So we definitely had a fun, hot day at the race track. Next step is to actually learn what the odds mean!!


Oh - and here's a fun little pic from our first visit to Churchill Down a couple months ago... just thought you might find it interesting. We took a little tour of Churchill Downs when Matt's family came down. When we were down by the track, I was on the lookout to let Matt know when the tour guide's back was turned... I emptied out an Aleve bottle I had in my purse and Matt took just a small little sample of dirt from the track. So we have Derby Dirt! Kinda cool now that there's talk of changing to synthetic since Eight Belles had to be put down after the Derby this year... but let's not talk about that... too emotional.

So if you're interested in a fun day at the track, give me and Matt a shout... we'll go with you!

The Secret's In the Sauce

So, on the way home from Savannah, Mama, Brooke and I decided we should just take a little detour and go all out making this a tour of the South. Brooke did a little reasearch and found out the place where they filmed the movie Fried Green Tomatoes was just a few hours away from Savannah in Juliette, Ga. It was really cute.... not to mention some really good Fried Green Tomatoes!

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Savannah Y'all!

Who wants to move to Savannah with me?!

As you may know, I do alot of traveling with my job. It has it's ups and downs... but every once in a while, I do get to have an awesome "work" trip. And Savannah was one of them back in mid June. Sadly Matt had to work so he couldn't enjoy this beautiful town with me, but considering my sister's obsession with Paula Deen (or actually her son Bobby) I invited her and Mama to come join me. Below are some pictures from our adventure...

On the road! This is the infamous "car shot" that must be taken on all trip. What's really funny about it is that I'm not looking at the camera at all... my eyes are on the road!

I had to do a little side trip to Valdosta to train a new account, but Mama and Brooke hung in there and sat in the car in the parking lot!

Since we were going to Paula's Lady and Sons on our second night, we started out our trip at Uncle Bubba's. You know, Paula's brother... It was pretty good... Brooke took a glamour shot out front while we were waiting for dinner.

Umm.. no real reason to put this in the blog other than Brooke looks ridiculous. We were trying to teach Mama how to open her eyes for pictures, but I think Brooke went a little overboard.

Down on the river is an awesome candy shop. It smells of Heaven! You walk on that cobblestone road and stop dead in your tracks when you smell those awesome pralines, turtles and all sorts of yummy candies! Oh, so good!

On Day 2, we took a tour of Savannah. I wasn't real pumped about it at first, but by the end of it, I was ready to pack my bags. Well, almost ready... the fact that they only have a Single A baseball team doesn't do much for us... but anyway....

Here are a few of the other gorgeous, Southern sights we saw! (L) One of the many beautiful parks in the middle of the different "squares". The layout of the area was just awesome (Center) Being from Alabama, we have a special place in our hearts for.... Forrest Gump. This is the church steeple where the feather was falling down from at the beginning of the movie. (R) One of the many boats coming down the river you will see while standing on the cobblestone down on River Road.

Did I mention that Brooke is in love with Bobby Deen, Paula's son? Well, she is.... We were so pumped to get to eat dinner at Paula's famous "Lady and Son's" Restaurant. We shopped the little gift shop (where Brooke has decided is her dream job...) beforehand, bought the cookbooks and aprons and hoecake mixes (yeah, that's what they're called, and yeah, we bought it for Grandmama - ha!) Here's a pic of us right before having eaten 10 pounds of some of the best home cookin' you'll come across. Thanks, HospiScript for pickin' up the tab! Oh wait, can I say that?

Oh yeah, and while we were there, Brooke became friends with some of the staff to try to get the scoop on Bobby. She found out that he sometimes will come and hang out with people waiting to eat, so the next day she went back about 27 more times to see if he was around. Below are some more pics Brooke took in her trips back to Paula's.

Well, there's some of our highlights from our fun times in Savannah.... I'm ready to go back! So from our kitchen to yours, we wish you Best Dishes, y'all!

By the way, if you need a good recipe for Peach Cobbler, let me know! It's to die for, honey! Even my Yankee husband can't deny it.

Red Saaahx!

That's "Red Sox" for my fellow Southerners....

The weekend of Friday the 13th, the Red Sox came to town. Well, Cincinnati anyway, close enough. Matt has been planning this trip from the day the schedules were released since Cinci is only about an hour and a half away... it was just made even better for him when he was reunited with this long lost college buddy, Matt.

Side note - how cool is that Boston accent? People know it everywhere. Random guy walked into the batting cages, talks to Matt for a minute, asks if he's from Boston, find out that he's from a small town nearby, and is the Uncle of one of his best friends from college. Random! So a long lost friendship was found again and picked up right where it left off! And what's this? They call each other Bubba?

So, Matt and Matt decide to meet up in Cincinnati...

Game one, Bubba was able to get us tickets to one of the corporate suites from his company. You know, it's nice to get all fancy every once in a while, but Matt and I agreed, you just can't beat sitting in the "regular" seats and eating just a plain ol hot dog. Even though a visit from the desert cart is pretty hard to beat. Oh yeah, and Johnny Bench threw out the first pitch. That was kinda cool.

Game two, we traveled back to Cinci and hung out with Bubba and his other friends pre-game. Sat in our "regular seats" where we could eat our regular hot dog and drink our regular beer................ thaaat was brought to us by the sever after the waitress took our order. Shut up! Now really THAT was what I could get used to!

Game three, all the boys were gone so Matt and I went on by ourselves and had a good ol time... especially watching the Red Sox annihilate Homer Bailey. We ended up leaving a little early because it was to the point of ridiculousness.

Another ridiculousness.... Griffey Jr. had just hit number 600 a few days before we got there... would have been nice to see....

Where the wild horses run....

So I have a little catching up to do on my blogs here. A few weeks ago - first weekend in June - I was able to take a work trip that helped me end up in Virginia Beach, Va for a visit with my ol college roommate, Ashley (Forbes) Knox. The highlight of the trip (once I finally got done with work mess) had to be the visit to her husband's parent's beach house on this wonderful little island called Carova - which I found out was called this because of it's location on the Carolina, Virgina line.

Anyway, it was perfect! Dennis' entire family was so wonderful and welcoming... and did I mention amazing cooks. Yes, I was off of the Weight Watchers for the weekend, but it was worth it! But hey, how many times am I going to get to hang out with Ashley and relax with the horses? The only thing that could have made it better was for Matt to not have to work and be there to enjoy it all with me!

I did learn one very important piece of information, however... don't stand too close to Ashley when the waves are crashing. She gets scared and the claws come out.....