KY River and High Bridge

This SHOULD be an entry about our visit to my great uncle Allan, his wife Rose and my Nana and our FANTASTIC day together. However, I forgot to put the memory card in my camera, so I could only take about 10 pictures. Uncle Allan and Rose took us on a PADDLE BOAT RIDE down the KY river, so I hogged up all of the pictures on this amazing trip. Here is the view from the very front of the top deck of the Dixie Belle down the river.


Here is Jeff, enjoying the view.


Does this look a stressed man? Moving here has completely changed Jeff. He is so much more relaxed, so much happier.
Here is Alicat enjoying the view. She LOVED the ride, the captain was amazing, she ate up all of the information he gave out along the river.
Notice the look on Julianna's face. She spent the ENTIRE ride in the pilot house with the captain asking him questions. When I asked her to come over so I could take a picture of her, she refused. When I told her that when I posted them on the blog everyone would think she was left at home, she grudgingly posed for me.

I am such a dork. Jeff snapped this picture just as I was laughing at something the captain said. (See him in the pilot house over my shoulder??)

The rock walls on the sides of the river are called the Kentucky Pallisades. The rocks are amazing. I wished I had my film camera and extra zoom lenses, but this was pretty good. If you look at the rocks, you can make out neat faces in the rock. NH's old man on the mountain has nothing on these!
This is the High Bridge. There is a ton of history about it, most of which I can't remember, but it was so cool. A train went over it when we were going under it.

Another view of the High Bridge, this time from underneath. Look at that amazing blue sky. That metal on the left of the picture is actually the smoke stack (decorative) on the boat not part of the bridge.
Here are some great exposed roots. Although the river is at it's normal summer level, over the winter it gets quite a bit higher and washes away the dirt. I love exposed roots. Something about the way they reach for the water.

While on the river we saw this neat looking thing way up on the cliff. It kind of looked like a bridge that ended at the cliff. Uncle Allan told us that it was the High Bridge park, it was a lookout place. When we left Uncle Allan and Rose's house after a wonderful cookout, we decided to head that way. I am so fortunate that Jeff has the same sense of adventure as me. He had no problem heading down a road we didn't know towards a place we weren't sure of. It paid off. Here is Ali and Julianna on the lookout at High Bridge Park, that it THE train bridge we went under. If you look you can probably tell that the bottom of the walkway is an openish metal grate. We all went out, but Jeff beat a hasty retreat after looking around for a minute, and I was off of there as soon as I got some pictures. It is a little scary seeing all of that way down UNDER you.

Here is the big payoff though. The view down the Kentucky River. Amazing.

At High Bridge, there is this fantastic pavillian. There is an amazing view from it, it is open on the sides, a nice hardwood floor. Jeff and I agreed that if we get married some day in the future, we are getting married here.

We love Kentucky!!!

Strep??!!?

Yesterday morning Ali woke up feeling sick and not wanting to go to school. She has pulled this many a time, so I was not fooled. She said her throat hurt and her tummy hurt and did not want to get out of bed. I made her get up and get ready. After she got up, she was feeling better and in a better mood, so off to school she went. About two hours later I was at Big Lots (Yeah!! A Big Lots in Lexington) when Jeff called me. The school had called, Ali has strep. I didn't believe him at first, but like he said "I wouldn't kid about this." I had to go pick her up. How cool is it that her nurse's office at school does rapid strep tests??? Since we just moved here I didn't have a Dr. for her of course, so yesterday was a flurry of phone calls which included finding out that my insurence through work has been canceled (those bastards, I thought I had through the end of the month), and then 4000 calls straightening out Tricare. This morning Julianna woke up with a sore throat, so Jeff had a flurry of calls to make for her too. I got the Tricare thing settled this morning, got Ali set up with a Pediatrician here and a sick appointment. I took Julianna to a walk-in clinic in Krogers. Krogers! The grocery store here has a walk-in clinic. How cool is that??? I LOVE Lexington!!!! Julianna's strep came back negative, but her throat was red and swollen, so she was put on antibiotics, then I took Ali to her Dr. appt where she was put on antibiotics. Both of the girls got enough doses to go to school tomorrow. But seriously, we have been here for 8 days and strep throat already!!!!

Kentucky Horse park

We went to the Kentucky Horse Park today. What a fun place!! We happened to be there during a pony show, so we were able to watch the show. I had no idea ponies were so big, I need to find out the difference between horses and ponies. Here is Ali near a cool statue.


Here are the girls in front of the gate. They were a little bit crabby at the time, so they aren't all cozy here.
Here are the girls on the rocking horses in the museum.
Here is Jeff patting one of the foals. Ali is next to him, Julianna is on the other side.
Here they are again, this time looking at the horses.

We heart Kentucky

Yes, we love Kentucky. The weather is fantastic, the people are friendly, what a place! We had no problems heading up last weekend. Here is a picture of Jeff and I at a scenic overview in MD. We had a lot of fun going through the mountians.


Here is the sign for our apartment complex. I took it last night when I was doing laundry.


The girls love the pool. As you can see it is pretty large. Julianna loves to dive, normally Ali throws whatever we have that will sink, then Julianna dives to find it.Here are the girls on their first day of school, Wednesday. I love school uniforms! It makes life so much easier! They LOVE their school. They come home each day full of stories about what they learned and what they did. They have made friends, love their teachers, and even know the school cheer already. After 3 days, they both have decided they like Ashland more than their previous schools.Jeff and I had a great few days. After the girls went to school we got breakfast at Sonic (Jeff's new favorite fast food place, the manager knows his voice on the drive-thru, even offered him a job) then come back home to eat and read the paper. We tended to go back to sleep for a while, then finished unpacking and setting up the apartment. Monday Jeff goes back to work and I am going to start the job hunt in earnest.

packing

Packing, packing, packing! We spent the weekend packing for the move. We got a P.O.D., and was it worth it!! They dropped it off in my driveway Saturday, we packed it with everything we are bringing, and they are coming today topick it up. They will deliver it next Tuesday to our apartment, we unpack it, and the come take it. No towing, no worries. I am so happy. It fit everything we are moving. Now I have to throw away everything I had left and get ready to go. Saturday we head out, Monday we sign our lease and move in.

We also took the girls back-to-school shopping. Since we won't know what school they are going to be in, we only got them a back to school outfit, their backpacks, lunch bags and thermos' (Ali loves to have soup for lunch). The girls are excited now, they want to go NOW, not wait. There is just a week left, I am trying to focus them on what we are doing in the car and what we need to bring (like movies, DVD players, I-pods, coloring books, etc).