Piano Guys and Louisville, KY

As a reward for accomplishing some great goals this summer, we took the kids to a Piano Guys concert in Louisville, KY last weekend.  They love the Piano Guys, and so do we http://thepianoguys.com/ so it was super fun to take them with us!  It was a great first concert!

We ate at a pizza place right next door to the theater - 'The Palace'.  We had no idea what a cool place the theater was!  It has been around since 1928 and had all kinds of really cool, ornate art inside.  The ceiling the in main reception area was full of carvings of heads of historical figures - the only ones we recognized were of composers and the ceiling in the theater itself was painted and lit to look like a deep blue night sky.

 

 

The kids were so excited to be in a theater!

 The show was excellent.  The kids loved it and it even inspired some new goals ... Miss Lilly announced she wants to play the Cello - we'll see how long that lasts!

Louisville & Clifty Falls, IN

 As a last summer experience we spent Saturday last weekend checking out the Louisville Sluggers museum and factory ...

A very cool place, especially for some boys that I know who happen to love baseball. 
At one point Miss Lilly was complaining that 'Dad is taking too long to look at all the bats'.
I responded, 'Well, Miss Lilly, he loves baseball more than anything else in the world, so lets give him a few more minutes'
Miss Lilly then went to her dad and asked, 'Do you love baseball more than anything else in the world?!'
J.D. responded 'Almost - I love your mom more than anything else in the world.'
which then prompted Miss Lilly to gag, make a face and pretend to throw up ...
Thank heavens after 16 years, I rank a little higher than baseball!

 There are my three - in front of the largest bat in the world!

 J.D. and the kids showing off their mini-bats that everyone gets at the end of the tour.  There was a fire alarm that went off just as we were shopping in the gift shop --- Miss Lilly was very bummed that we had to leave before we could go back in!  I counted it a small blessing :)

 We drove north east through southern Indiana to Clifty Falls for lunch and a hike before heading home.  We had a little inch-worm friend join us for lunch ..

 Then we set off on the hike.  Clifty Falls is an ancient waterfall that used to plummet into the Ohio River, but over millions of years has worn back several miles to create these beautiful stepped falls.

 It really was a beautiful place.

 Master S even braved some steep stairs.

 There is a lodge there and a pool with camping.  Thinking we might need to head back sometime for a whole weekend.

 This is Cake Rock - the only thing holding it up is a tree on the back, left hand side that you can't see in the picture.

 Miss Lilly found a blue butterfly.

It was a wonderful little 24 hours getaway!  So nice to live in the middle of so many amazing things within driving distance!  Every time we go somewhere new I discover several more places that I want to check out before I leave the Midwest ... I may never leave!

First Day School

The first day of School was July 31st!  Yes it was way too early, which is why I haven't posted these pictures yet ... it hasn't felt like we should be back at school until now!

 Big D in 1st grade!

 Miss Lilly in 4th grade!

 Master S is a BIG 7th grader!

And of course, as tradition dictates - pencil cookies!

Hooiser National Forest Camping Experience

We went camping a few weeks ago with some great friends.  We got there Friday night - it was beautiful, stayed up late, listened to Miss Lilly giggle with her friends and sat around the camp fire until we were too tired to keep our eyes open.

Then we went to bed and got up to rain, rain and more rain!  It rained for 5 hours straight!  I stayed in the tent as long as I could, then we attempted breakfast - a little soggy and ended up packing everything up wet.  Yuck!   I think I'm good to not camp for awhile!