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| Batter Up in Louisville! |
Hotel sleeping is good sleeping especially when everyone stirs at 8 and makes it all the way through the night without waking up. How wonderful. When we woke up, the first thing we did was look out the window and the ground was lightly dusted with snow. It wasn’t on the roads or anything but it was pretty driving through the rolling hills of Kentucky from Lexington to Louisville.
McDonalds was right next to our hotel and the kids were so excited. Anderson said that we could “eat every meal there” and Reagan said that “we won’t even have to drive.” We only had breakfast there and we did drive through because we needed to get on the road. Yesterday, Campbell didn’t eat her pancakes so I gave her quite a bit less today thinking that maybe she was full from her milk, and today she ate every bit and signed more at me until I found her something else to eat.
In the middle of the first part of our drive was the capitol of Kentucky: Frankfort. We found it and jumped out for a quick photo. Graham is now seeing capitols everywhere he looks-every church that he sees, he asks if it is the capitol.
We made it to Louisville and were about 45 minutes early for the Louisville Slugger tour so we headed to Churchill Downs for the museum and tour. The kids really got into this one and Reagan enjoyed seeing all of the hats. She even tried on on like she did in 2004 (click here for that picture) Of course the kids loved sitting on the horses pretending to be jockeys and Robby enjoyed placing bets on the horses. The kids even got into the action-Reagan and Anderson’s horse one and they would have won a total of 60 cents and Graham would have only lost 2.40 compared to the whole 6 dollars that Robby and I would have lost. I told them that I would take them to the races one day (sorry, Mom). Maybe we can go to the Arkansas Derby and the girls can wear big hats. Oh, Reagan would be in heaven.
After we finished with the museum, we watched a movie in a circle theater. Reagan and Anderson were in awe and Graham just wanted to know when we were going “to get out of here”-he doesn’t like anything loud or anything that he thinks will be loud. Next up was a tour of the track and grandstand. It was just a short tour but since it is cold out, we put on all of our jackets, hats for some and gloves for others. But actually in the sun, it wasn’t that bad.
Graham kept wanting to know where the horses were and about in the middle of the tour Anderson turned to me and said “when are we going on the tour?” I replied that we were on the tour and he said “but I don’t see the bus.” Guess he thought we were going on a bus-which is odd because I can’t really think of many tours that we have been on that have involved buses. When the boys saw the track, they saw dirt and mud and would have given anything to get out on that track.
After the tour, we went to see the horse in a stable nearby and watched the trainer give it a carrot and a few peppermints. Who knew horses ate peppermints? Then we went in the gift shop for Reagan to try on another hat and soon we were off to the next stop.
On our way to the Louisville Slugger tour we stopped at White Castle for hamburgers. I thought the kids would like the little burgers-Campbell did, Anderson didn’t touch his, Reagan and Graham had a few bites-craziness, you just never know what they will eat from one day to the next. Anyway, no one is starving so no worries.
We found a parking spot right across the street from the Slugger factory and headed in. After a bathroom stop, we were in the museum looking at bats. The boys really enjoyed seeing everything and I thought they really understood how the bats were made-but as we were walking to the car, Anderson said “this bat won’t break, it is made of metal.” I tried to remind him of all of the pieces of wood he held, the pretend chain saw he pulled the trigger on or the logs that they touched.
There was another movie which the kids did very good at. They do want to ask alot of questions during movies-which is good except they don’t have a soft voice. Reagan can use an inside voice and usually does but the boys have no volume control at all. Anyway, next up was the tour-the kids were really into it. The machines got their attention and they wanted to see everyone and see what it does. You would have thought they were giving out gold when I told them they could take home a piece of the bat from their discard pile. And when they passed out real bats at the end-oh, my! That was the highlight of the day-of course, I didn’t let them hold them for very long (I’m not crazy-I want us to go home with no broken windows and all of our teeth). Here is a picture of Anderson when he was here last time with his bat (click here for the picture)
Last time we were here, we bought Anderson a bat and had his name put on it. We did the same thing this time for Graham. We only hope that we bought a bat similar in size since we can’t remember what Anderson’s looks like-I only get it down for birthday pinatas. We told Graham that he was getting a bat like Anderson’s bat but he doesn’t understand that he will get another one in the mail and not just the free one that was handed out today. Don’t feel sorry for the girls, they are going to get American Girl dolls from an American Girl store sometime soon.
Back in the car, we turned on a movie, passed out a snack and put the pedal to the medal to head to Indianapolis. Robby and I spent most of our drive trying to find a neat place to eat supper (we did). About half way here, we did see a Russell Stover sign and since we had promised the kids ice cream, we decided to stop there. Once the kids saw all of the chocolate, the picked candy as their treat and Campbell screamed, yes screamed, until we handed her some. We had our candy (and one of the workers commented on how well behaved the kids were-I told them that we hadn’t been there long enough and give us time). Poor Reagan, couldn’t decide and wanted to know if the cookie was soft, the worker felt it and said yes. But once we got it that cookies was hard as a rock-Reagan doesn’t like hard cookies. She did like my oreo ball that I had picked out and left me with that hard old cookie.
After we finished with our snacks, Robby let everyone pick out some candy from their leftover area. That was our bribe for the rest of the evening that they could have 5 pieces of candy in the hotel tonight if they were good. Of course, when we made it inside the hotel, we had left Reagan’s candy in the car. Hers was different from the boys, but when I told her she could have 6 pieces of the boys for being so mature about things, she was delighted.
Once we made it to Indianapolis, we headed to the Capitol. Two in one day, one yesterday and another capitol tomorrow-man, we are getting around. Next up was supper at our dive that we found: Mug and Bun. It was a drive in but it also had inside seating. We were the only ones in the place (actually, we ran everyone else off). The kids really enjoyed the juke box. Campbell now dances and waves her arms. We were quite noisy but the kids had a blast. It was just diner food with homemade root beer. All Graham wants to eat on our trip is hot dogs and he eats them up-so that is what he gets.
After supper, we headed to the hotel. It is still in Indianapolis but it was about 20 miles away. Remember it is free so it is worth it. Once we took our hotel exit, Robby saw a sign for Butler so we drove around their campus and took a picture with their bull dog. We even drove past the governor’s mansion (Robby remembered the street from last time-he can remember everything like that. He has even saw a hotel we stayed at last time we were here. The boys will be like him too, they can always find our hotel room and know which way to the elevator. Meanwhile, I can’t remember the hotel we stayed at last night).
Soon we were to our hotel and it is a swanky little place. Nice big room and a tiny bathroom. Where is Campbell? Well, that pack n play is wedged in the bathroom. I put her in bed, then I stepped into the shower, climbed over the potty and up onto the counter, then crawled to the door and squeezed out. Silly huh but if she wasn’t in there, this whole room would still be up. After they had their candy, they crashed.
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