CBMI ~ Kentucky Vacation ~ Day 1...

This past week we spent our last year vacationing in Kentucky while I attended my final year of CBMI...

Anna Lauren had mandatory cheer choreography on Saturday and Sunday so we didn't get to begin our 9 hour drive to Lexington, Kentucky until 1:30ish on Sunday.  We made the best of late night traveling and arrived at our hotel around 12:15 AM...

After a couple hours of sleep, I headed off for a full day of class while Matt and the kids had somewhat of a slow paced day.  They started with breakfast at a bagel place.  Cooper ALWAYS makes a friend.  Matt said this nice college kid talked to him, showed him pictures, etc.  

After breakfast they were on the search for a mall...

In Kentucky, there are horses everywhere...even in the mall...

If you know Cooper, you know he loves a cap/hat of any kind...therefore, he was thrilled to find a store of nothing but caps. And of course, he got a new Kentucky hat. 

For whatever reason, Anna Lauren is into Vera Bradley these days. She didn't get anything but enjoys looking and has her eye on a couple things for Christmas.

Just a ride in the mall but their faces are priceless...

When I got done with class, we headed to the Kentucky Horse Park for the Monday night run/walk...

Running through green pastures filled with horses is not something we normally do so it was fun to do something different...

There was a 2 mile loop and a 3.5 mile loop...since the kids were with us, we opted to do the 2 mile loop.  Anna Lauren and I partnered up and Matt/Cooper partnered up...

Just chilling while waiting on the boys...

It took Matt and Cooper way longer than us because Cooper easily got sidetracked and had to go through all the barns, look at all the horses, and talk to a person or two along the way...

Cooper was most fascinated by the police officer on horseback. Here she was explaining to him how she writes a ticket...

Anna Lauren and Cooper shared a sno-cone to cool off and then we headed to a little pizza place for dinner, a quick swim at the hotel, and then we called it a night early.  We were all tired from the late night traveling the night before.

CBMI ~ Kentucky Vacation ~ Day 2...

I got up Tuesday morning and headed to another full day of class...

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew enjoyed breakfast at Doodles, a place we found last year and loved.

After breakfast, they went o SkyZone and jumped 2.5 hours.  I'm telling you...they LOVE a trampoline park (Matt too)!!!

As if 2.5 hours of jumping wasn't enough, they went back to the hotel and swam for a little while before we went to dinner.

Cooper was excited to see Cooper Drive on our way to dinner...

After dinner, we chilled for a little while in Triangle Park.  It was probably a good 20 degrees cooler in Kentucky so we were soaking it up...

Unlike last year, we had a good view of Triangle Park from our hotel room.  When we were ready to go in the for the night, they asked me to go first so they could wave to me from our hotel room window...those three little "specks" are Matt, Cooper, and Anna Lauren.

Our view from the room was not disappointing this year...

CBMI ~ Kentucky Vacation ~ Day 3...

Wednesday is a always a little breath of fresh air because class is only 1/2 a day...

While I was in class Wednesday morning, they did a tour at the Toyota plant...

May sound crazy but reality is she will be driving before we know it...we better not blink twice!!!

The kids didn't love the tour but as Matt said, it was free and entertained them that morning.

As soon as I got out of class, we hit the road to Louisville (about an hour away) to spend the afternoon at Kentucky Kingdom.  Matt found a great deal on two day passes so the plan was to do the amusement park Wednesday afternoon and they would go back on Thursday and do the water park. Little did we know it was all together, and we could have done both.  O'well...they were good sports about not having their swimsuits and were completely happy just riding rides on Wednesday afternoon.

Their very first ride was the free fall...it went straight up I cannot even tell you how high and then dropped.  Cooper was all smiles at first...

Not so much afterwards...needless to say, he didn't ride again...

Cooper needed a little time to recover from his first ride so we headed to the kid section while Anna Lauren and Matt rode a really big roller coaster...

Cooper drove this old car and took his Daddy and Mommy for a ride...

We had the best chauffeur...

Everyone was ready to take a little rest so we stopped and watched the sea lion show...

Cooper was LOVING the show...

Hands down their most favorite ride...cannot count how many time they rode this roller coaster!!!

This picture sums up their day...we were having so much fun!!!

Cooper and I taking a little break while Anna Lauren and Matt rode another big roller coaster...

He loves some of the big rides, but he isn't too big to ride some of the small rides too...

As you can see, the park was not crowded...you could pretty much just walk up and get on any ride without waiting.  They only had to wait a few minutes for a couple of the bigger rides.

Cooper went back and forth, but he decided to ride the swings at the last minute...

See why he went back and forth...they were SO high!!!  After the swings, they rode a couple more rides until the park closed.  We grabbed some Panera Bread for dinner on our way back to the hotel and all crashed quickly after we got back.  Fun afternoon, but we were tired!!!