KENTUCKY

This post is forever long, I apologize now in advance. I've been putting this off because I know it's going to seem like a novel by the time I"m done. It's not easy writing about a week and a half of events in just a few words... Here goes.....

Jared has been working in Kentucky for the past month, he had been out for 2 weeks and decided to come home for a few days. He was supposed to be here for 4 days, but once he got here alot of problems occurred @ work and had to fly back to Kentucky after being here only a day and a half. Well that wasn't enough time for me so I decided I was going to pack up our kids and go visit him!! My first plan was to surprise him but figured he'd find out any way and how was I going to keep it from him when I'd need a ride from the airport.

So I call him let him know what I'm thinking and to my surprise he's all for it. Well a few hours later he calls me asking if I want to drive our buddies pick up out, With 3 kids YES I'm all over that, but after looking for airfare and the prices to fly without advance tickets, I decided to be brave and drive the 2,000 miles.. So with 3 kids, 1 friend, a big gas guzzling pickup, plenty of movies, and enough monster energy drinks to last a week, we headed out.

We made a quick stop in Kanab to drop off our dog to my brother and say goodbye to my parents. We drove for several hours and I start thinking to myself how good the kids were being, so of course the fuse that runs the dvd player blows. We replaced that stupid fuse 3 different times before we realized that the fuse we actually needed to replace was under the hood, oh happy kids they were those hours we didn't have movies.

That all happen in Flagstaff AZ we made it through New Mexico and into Texas without it. They were much happier once it was working again. We passed through AZ, and most of New Mexico @ night so we didn't see much. Of course it was day time when we went through Texas and Oklahoma, all we saw was flat land and windmills, very boring. Once we got into Arkansas it was dark again so through Arkansas and Tennessee there was nothing to be seen, except for the stupid deer out there. Around here if there are deer out and you come up on them with your headlights on they'll run off, well the deer out East start jumping up and down put their heads down and start coming right for your lights. Very scary when your not expecting it. The possum are the same way, its like they want you to run them over.

Heather stuck my very expensive camera OUT THE WINDOW and took this picture, I could have pulled the truck over and fainted...Not cool

We happen to pull off the freeway to refill Chloe's bottle and these fun cars were there,

along with a can of spray paint. I wrote the kids name on one of them and got a cute picture of Nate and Sierra.

The best thing about driving through Tennessee was crossing the Mississippi river, Sierra was the only kid awake and she loved it. It was such a big bridge I thought I'd freak out cause I Hate bridges, but it wasn't that bad, maybe it was because it was dark out and I couldn't see it, but I'm going to go with it being because I'm a brave, fearless person!!! HAHA

This is obviously not the Mississippi river. This is a very scary bridge you have to cross while driving through Land Between The Lakes State Park. There are two of these bridges and while driving across them it seems like your going to hit mirrors with the on coming traffic.Very scary.

We finally arrived at our destination (over 1800 miles later) around 8 in the morning on Sunday, all the guys had already left for work so we were by ourselves (STILL) trying to find our way around Murray KY. We had nothing better to do so we went driving around just checkin things out, there's not alot to see I tell ya. We did find a soccer field that Nate wanted to go to, however we couldn't figure out how to get there, there were no roads in or out of that place so we gave up and went to the park!

Chloe loves going down the slide and playing with her brother!

Chloe's eye got an infection, it looked so sad. Her right eye got it worse than her left eye

After some problems with a few of the workers in Murray we decided we spend the rest of our time in the other town Cadiz. Jared is staying in a little house there at a place called Fish Lake. It was right next to Lake Berkley, so the kids and myself decided to go check out the little stream that feeds into the lake, all the guys there were telling the kids that they saw snapping turtles and that they caught some fish there so off we go through the trees and what seems to be the creepiest back woods of Kentucky,(right off the highway) Once again, I'm a Brave, Fearless person.. Well we ended up not seeing anything and boy was Nate mad at me for making him leave without even a glance at any living creature.

The view from our cabin. (not the best pic but you get the hint)

We spent a few days just riding around with Jared. It was fun to see all the greenness that is Kentucky but it was sad to see all the damage that was don't to the trees from the ice storms, everywhere you'd look there were trees either completely tipped over or the branches were broken off.

Just one of the many huge fields of green that we saw.

This poor tree is minor compared to some of the trees we saw

Jared took this picture a tree went through it

A week after we got to Kentucky my sister Alesha flew out, her hubby is working there as well. While she was there Jared and Freddy took a day off and we all headed to Nashville Tennessee. We went to the Grand Ole Opry, then we went to a store that was all Willie Nelson stuff. Just up from there was a store called Cooters place, it had a replica of the Dukes of Hazard car and a bunch of memorabilia from the show. We went to Downtown Nashville for Dinner, We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and got some pictures of the river that was right next to it. There was way too much to see for only one visit so maybe someday we'll get back out there to see more.

Nate and Sierra

Alesha, Freddy, me and Chloe

Chloe and mysefl

Alesha and Chloe with Elvis

A bridge in Tennessee


Jared and our crazy kids

I think they're sick of the car

We left for home 2 days later, and of course Jared being a Cox got us to the airport with barley enough time to get through security before we hear last call for boarding for our flight. So with 3 kids, all our luggage and just me and my sister to carry it all we book it through the airport to make it before it leaves. Of course we're the last ones to board and there are NO seats together. I had never flown and neither had any of the kids so here we are all flying for the first time separated from each other. I thought the kids would freak out but luckily they sat next to really nice people that took great care of them for me. I'm sure if they had been next to me it wouldn't have went as smooth as it did.... So there it is my adventure to and from Kentucky. Now I just need my hubby to be done with the job and back home with us....