Vacation, Part Two: Who Needs Disney World?

Who needs Disneyworld when you can dress-up like a princess in Kentucky?

Quincy chose to bring her ballet recital outfit as her dress-up outfit.  I'm thinking we should have brought her tights for it... 

They honestly wore there outfits for the better part of the day.

So did Julie (just kidding!).

When it came time to go out for a snack, Ellie (our level-headed child) decided she was going out in normal clothes. 

Quincy and Kali?  They decided they were not taking off their outfits until bedtime.

Kali and Q stumbled upon some remaining rose petals left over from a wedding that had just occurred in a courtyard.  I think it fit right in with their princess-reality at the moment.

After dinner Julie and I took the girls on a carriage ride of downtown.  Of course both the carriage and the horse were white (think Cinderella).  The girls were beyond thrilled!  It was just too much fun for all of us and looking at these photos is cracking me up again!

Vacation, Part Two: Churchill Downs

The first full day we spent in Louisville was at Churchill Downs.

We went to the museum first (which had a lot of pretty neat activities the kid's enjoyed).

Kali is used to petting and riding the real thing, not the fiberglass replica...

 
...whereas Q and E are used to petting horse-size dogs.

An actual retired race-horse....

Kali could almost fit in the jockey's uniform.

After the museum the real fun began:  It was the last weekend of horse-racing and we joined in the festivities.

The jockeys...going to their horses???  Just guessing here.

We had box-seats and the adults had Mint Juleps....the kids had water.

Quincy gave Eric a good luck kiss on his first bet....

 

 ...but it didn't help!

It turned out the horse we bet on won!!!

Vacation, Part Two: Reunion!

While we were in Kentucky we were able to meet up with our close friends, the Schroeders, who we met in China over four years ago.  We spent three wonderful (and ridiculously fun-filled) days in downtown Louisville.

It was like we had just seen each other yesterday....