I love Kentucky in October!

It is official... My new favorite month is October. I have always contended that spring is my favorite time of year (I think because another school year is winding down and summer is on the horizon). But since having children, I have grown to love the fall and all of the festivals it brings to Kentucky. We have had many adventures in the past weeks, and the weather has been fantastic! We are blessed in central Kentucky to have many farms that welcome visitors year round, but they become very special places to go in September and October. We have discussed going away for fall break, but thanks to the many fun and inexpensive things we have found to do locally, I think we will just stay home and visit local attractions instead.

Chris and I joined Amy, Charles and Joann at Evans Orchard. As you can see, Evans Orchard is bustling with activity. We were a bit intimidated by the large crowd of cars we saw in the parking lot, but like Boyd's Orchard, they were able to handle the crowd with no problems. Sarah was particularly drawn to the large blow up slide in the middle of the screen. Imagine that!

Here is a shot of the apple orchard. It seems so peaceful out here. I think owning one of these would be a fun career (most of the time). Your efforts are rewarded yearly at harvest. I don't get those tangible rewards very often in teaching (they come long after the students have left high school).

They offer lunch on the grounds. The food was really good! Chris loved his hamburger, I loved my grilled chicken, and Sarah spent quite some time trying to figure out this pumpkin drink. Once she got the hang of it, all was well.
The hardest part about lunch was forcing Sarah to eat next to the bouncy slide!

Sarah made a friend. She was drawn to him because they matched. As usual, she talked his ear off! Notice his amazement at her verbal skills. Ha!


We bought tickets and waited for our "hay ride." Notice there is no hay, but there is a cover which was nice on this warm day.

Chris posing for a rare photo with his mom.

Sarah poses with her buddy, Papaw Coleman.

As you can see, she is pretty pumped about her tractor ride.

And we're off!

You can see that there are many different crops grown at Evans. They even had a corn maze to try if you are brave enough. We opted out today...it was too close to Sarah's nap time.

Sarah and I both love the pumpkin patch! I will just daydream about owning a farm like this some day... (I know, the grass is always greener, but can't a girl dream...)

Sarah had a blast on the tractor ride!

Afterward, our little lion posed for a photo. Roar!

Finally, we let her ride her first pony. She did a great job of holding on with no help! We plan to come back in a couple of weeks with her preschool, so we purposely did not do everything the orchard had to offer on this day. I guess this adventure should be entitled Evans Orchard (to be continued...)

Here is Sarah's first pony ride. I can't help but feel sorry for these ponies. I truly hope they get lots of breaks!

Till next time...

A Tale of Two Weekends (Part 2)

Chris came back from Notre Dame to find Sarah quite eager to hang out with her daddy. She was so well behaved for me while he was gone it was almost scary! (Maybe she is just a Daddy's girl and likes his attention). Since this is my Tuesday/Thursday work week, he decided to take Monday off to spend with us. We were able to pack the remainder of the weekend with some fun adventures.

We were able to have a picnic lunch at the UK Arboretum this weekend. We tried to think of fun outdoor activities for the family before cold weather sets in. I am definitely not a winter fan. I go absolutely stir crazy before April comes around! We packed some Lunchables, chips, yogurt, etc. and sprawled out in the field.

Sarah also had fun throwing and kicking her ball. Here she is spying the UK water tower. Go Cats!

She also got some practice with a Frisbee. She became frustrated at times, but got the hang of it by the time we left.

It was nice to watch her run. I wish we had more flat backyard space to do this at home. Maybe in our next house...oh sorry, I was just daydreaming!

Sarah and I posed for some goofy photos before packing up to check out the fall flowers.

This is such a fun age!

Next, we made our way to look at the flowers. This is how our walk began...

And, as usual, this is how it ended up!

The arboretum is having a scarecrow exhibition. I took photos of some of the more creative ones. This guy is going fishing.

The fall colors are really beautiful! I love the yellow, red, and orange colors that seem to be everywhere right now.

This was definitely Sarah's favorite scarecrow!

I love walking in this area. I think it is so beautiful! I wish I had the time, energy, and knowledge to make my garden look like this. Ours is a vast wasteland of dirt and dead plants since I started work in August. For those of you who don't know, Kentucky is now in a drought. We have only had one real period of rain in a month!

We ended up at the lily pad once more. It has a relaxing waterfall and a bench to sit and enjoy the sights and sounds. Sarah likes to move in for a closer look. We love the arboretum! Now, off to other adventures!

On Chris's day off we decided to go to the pumpkin patch. The only question was, which one should we try this year? We went to Bi-Water last year and had a blast! We decided to try Boyd's Orchard in Versailles. We had heard great things about it and decided to check it out for ourselves.

Sarah immediately found the pumpkin she was looking for...She was given a book last year entitled "The Littlest Pumpkin". The story is about a pumpkin that is so small that no one wants to take it home. She was determined to take home the littlest pumpkin (the good news for us is it is very easy on our pocketbook:>) Here she is posing with her pride and joy.

This is Sarah's first attempt at the smaller slide in the orchard. It wasn't a 10.0 but she wanted to go again and again!

There were lots of school groups in attendance. We even saw some friends from church there with Dixie Magnet Elementary School! Sarah was excited to see some of her preschool teachers there as chaperones.

This gives you an idea of just how crowded it was. We simply stayed out of the way of the crowds and played in areas they had already been. It worked out just great.

We moved on to visit some animals in the petting zoo.

We even spied Chris the bull at the petting zoo!

And here is our little lamb Sarah!

We finished up our trip by allowing Sarah to slide on the biggest slide at the orchard. She just barely made the height requirement (36 inches), and I was skeptical that she would even slide down. Here is the video proof of her first attempt. She loved it! She went down about six more times before we decided to call it a day. We were all exhausted and ready for a nap.

I wanted to finish the weekend post with a photo of Sarah with Daddy and Papaw Coleman at her favorite place- McDonalds! Sarah loves him dearly. It has been great to have them as neighbors and for Sarah to spend lots of quality time with them. Needless to say from my last two posts, this was an action packed weekend. I love Kentucky in October! I dread the cold weather but will hold on to the fond memories of our outside adventures until the warm breezes blow back our way next April.

Bye for now.

A Tale of Two Weekends

Hello all,
This weekend the Coleman family split up to allow Chris some much needed time away from the stresses of work (and family, yes, I admit I stress him out at times. What can I say, I am a type A personality...) A coworker invited him on a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to Notre Dame and watch a football game. He left on Friday night and Sarah and I decided to have a girls night out at our favorite restaurant in Midway. We invited my friend Mollie and Sarah's aunt Amy to join us.

When we arrived, we found a sand sculpture that had a fall scene which Sarah found very cool.

I know this photo is blurry, but Sarah was very proud of her Halloween outfit, so I thought I would share it with you all. The bear she is carrying was made last weekend by Sarah, aunt Amy and Mamaw Coleman at the Build a Bear Factory. She named it "Porkey" (don't ask) and he is wearing boxer shorts and black and orange bows in his hair. Sarah is nothing if not creative:>)

After dinner we drove to the Scott County Park. There we found a dreaded hot air balloon! They were selling short rides up and down. Needless to say, we did not ride on this night. Sarah is not a fan at all (we found this out last April at UK's Alumni weekend).

Here she is crawled up in aunt Amy's arms looking at a "baby balloon" Check out the body language (not happy).

Her luck changed on Saturday afternoon when Amy and I took Sarah to the Horse Festival in downtown Georgetown. She found yet another bouncy castle (she is hooked as you can see).

Sarah also had her very first Blow Pop experience at the Festival. I am sure it won't be her last!

The Horse Parade showcases many different kinds of horses (all I know is color and size, so I was not enthralled). But as you can see below, Sarah had a good time.

Here is the obligatory shoulder shot!

Horses Galore!

Sarah was intrigued by the horse and buggies more than anything.

All in all we had a nice "girls only" weekend.

Take two

These are some of the cool photos Chris brought home from Notre Dame. Here is the famous touchdown Jesus.

Here are the many Heisman Trophies awarded to Notre Dame players.

More campus photos

This is truly a beautiful campus. (UK just doesn't compare)

Here is something I always longed for at UK, a lake to sit beside and read or relax.

Chris said Notre Dame has a great tradition of the band playing pregame concerts followed by the trumpets calling the players to the stadium. Here they are playing the fight song. Later, all the band regroups and marches to the stadium followed by all of the fans.

Here is a photo of the cathedral on campus

Here is a photo of the band performing a pre-game concert before leading the crowd to the stadium.

Here is the famous touchdown Jesus as seen from inside the stadium

Chris had a fantastic time this weekend and I must say, so did we! The next post will be our long weekend part 3 (Chris is taking Monday off to spend some time with us on my day off).

Catch ya later!