Frankfort and Louisville, KY

One Sunday we took a drive to Frankfort, which is the capital of Kentucky. Being the capital it has the capitol building of Kentucky which has beautiful grounds. We had a picnic lunch here.

One of the houses we passed on a scenic drive that we took from Frankfort to Lexington. The drive has many horse farms and we even saw a deer.

We then went for a hike that Mark and I had done before, just outside of Lexington. It has some great views.

At the very end of our hike, Ashleigh nearly stepped on this snake. She screamed but still managed to get this great photo.

Chicago

While Mum and Ashleigh were here we wanted to do some kind of trip. Some friends of ours here at Seminary have family and have spent time in Chicago. We were able to stay at their parent's place and they showed us the sights. It was really helpful, I would have never done something like this without Mark. Ashleigh took these photos as she was the only one who was faithful to remember her camera. Thanks Ashleigh. This photo is of the boys at the zoo. Chicago has one of the best zoos in the States. It was pretty cool.

The Sunday we were in Chicago we went to Broadview Baptist Church which is a large black church. It was a lot of fun, their choir was amazing and they also baptised about 6 people that day.

Millennium Park.

The famous Navy Pier.

We ate pizza at a famous place in Chicago. You can write on the walls in this restaurant so the children had fun leaving their mark.Ashleigh and Rachel with Janet, our guide.

Mum and Ashleigh's Visit

While Mark was away we had my Mum and my niece Ashleigh visit from New Zealand. They were here for a month. Ashleigh had been saving for the trip since we moved over here and it was so good to have them visit. We did lots of things around Louisville, went on a few day trips and went to Chicago for 5 or 6 days. Here are a few random photos of some things we did around Louisville. More later.

Dessert at the 'Old Spaghetti Factory'. A beautiful restaurant in Louisville.

The girls at the slugger museum.

Ashleigh with 'static' hair at the science museum.

Krispy Creme is the famous American donut. The children get a free donut for every "A" they receive on their report card so we had saved getting these for when Mum and Ashleigh were here.

Picking blueberries at Hubers. We went back there for Mark's birthday a few days ago to pick peaches as they are his favourite fruit.

Lounging around at the Bas Pro Shop. I think Matthew is pretending to be a bear or something.

Ashleigh ordering lunch at Sonic.

I took Ashleigh and Mum to the stables one day to watch Anna-Marie ride and Ashleigh took this lovely photo of her at the stables.

An Update

Well, I know it has been a while. So here is my attempt to update you with what we have been up to, starting with Mark. As you probably all realise it is very expensive for us to live here in the States with Mark only being able to work 20 hours a week and with the New Zealand dollar being so bad against the US. So in an attempt to help us finish seminary as quickly as possible Mark went to England and Scotland on a seminary trip which will equate to 3 classes. It was a great trip which he thoroughly enjoyed. The classes included were Church History 2, Puritians and History of British Christianity. It has meant that his entire summer has been taken up with school work but it does mean that he will be able to graduate in December of this year. Something the whole family is looking forward to. Here is a few ramdom photos of his trip.

Dover Castle.

A thousand year old church at Dover.

Big Ben, London

Shopping at Harrods.

On the London Eye.

Rachel's 13th Birthday, Part One

For Rachel's 13th birthday we brought season passes to the fun park in Louisville, only 10 minutes from our place. We had never been and thought it would make for a good summer gift. We were able to take six of her friends to the park for the day on free friends passes and had a fun day. I can see us spending quite a bit of time there over the summer, especially at the water park as it gets hotter.

Rachel and Taylor on a ride which makes most people feel ill. Joel did it once and is not keen to do it again. One boys was actually sick on this ride. Yuk. Mark and some of the kids on the boat ride.

The water park where we spent the later part of the day. This also has 4 or 5 great slides. The pool is a wave pool which Matthew really enjoys.

This video is of Matthew and I on the Ferris Wheel.

Mother's Day

My request for Mother's Day this year was a family picnic. While the weather is nice you just have to make the most of it here. We went to Bernheim Forest and had a lovely afternoon. The kids treated me very well buying me a special lunch and even finding me some New Zealand cheese from my favourite, but too expensive store, Wholefoods. The also bought me my very own MP3 player. Now I don't need to borrow the girls all the time to go to the gym. Thanks guys, I love being your Mum.

We always appreciate the wildlife and often end up with far too many photos. Here are a few. One aspect of wildlife we didn't appreciate this time was the deer tick that we found on Matthew the next day and had to burn off. Not nice.

Fishing in Kentucky

We had our first experience fishing a Kentucky river last weekend. Two brothers from church took the children and I. It begun before dawn when they picked us up, the next stop was McDonald's for the compulsory chicken biscuit and sweet tea, also compulsory was country music on the way. We caught no fish, probably due to several inches of rain the day before and a flooded river but the kids and I still had a lot of fun.

We were fishing down the bottom and up the top of this dam. apparently it is normally a trickle and you can easily walk across it.

Fishing here in America still involves putting a worm on a hook, not Anna-Marie's favourite part of fishing.

Ben and Anna-Marie

Joel and Rachel wading with Eli. The only catch of the day were fresh water crayfish which later escaped in our house. Anna-Marie found one by standing on it with bare feet; yuk! She wasn't very impressed.

Rachel and Joel ended up very wet. Joel fell in a few moments after this photo was taken as his hand is right by a snake that he hasn't seen yet. He got quite the fright.

Thunder Over Louisville

The Kentucky Derby is here. Louisville goes crazy over the derby and one of the things they do is called Thunder Over Louisville. It happens two weeks before the derby and begins with an airshow and ends with the biggest fireworks display in North America. It was incredible. These are not my photos as I forgot to take my camera. I borrowed these off the Internet.