Thunder Over Louisville Weekend

It seems that in the spring, each week and weekend is busier than the last. This week marks the end of the semester at Uof L, as well as midterm for our kiddos at school. That means my paper, assignment and final are due, as well as progress reports for the first graders. We're also trying to get our flower beds back in shape. But we put it all on hold for the Kentucky Derby Kickoff event: Thunder Over Louisville. For those out-of-towners, Thunder is the opening event for the Kentucky Derby Festival and is the largest fireworks display in the United States. It's pretty amazing.

Saturday morning, I had to go take a class on the history and mission of the Catholic Church for work. It was actually very fascinating, but it means two more papers to write. I left and headed home to my mom and the kiddos. Tony had already left to help the church's men's club. They have a parking lot and concession stand to raise money for the church. Mom and I loaded up the kiddos and headed down to the river. Luckily, Tony was able to save us a parking spot in the Men's Club lot. We left our chairs and such at the concession stand and Mom and I took the kiddos to walk down the river to see Tony's sister. She just got engaged and I was dying to see her ring! She and her fiance, his son, and some of their friends had RVs set up in a lot in Jeffersonville. It was a long hike, but there was plenty to look at. Here are the boys playing ball with their soon to be "first" first cousin, Hunter.
After visiting with Erin, Matt and Hunter, we walked back to Clarksville. The boys were starving, so we bought fish from the Men's Club and settled in to eat. The nice thing about their spot is that they have a yard roped off behind the trailer, so there's room for the kids to run while the adults sit and visit and watch the parade of crazy people go by. There's usually about a half million people that come to Thunder (no joke!). After everyone visited and played, I went down the road and got a funnel cake. YUM! It was Sophie's first, and she didn't disappoint me!

The boys really like visiting and watching the air show (all afternoon - starting at 3 - military fighters and jets put on an air show) more than the fireworks. I hate fighting the traffic of half million people when the show ends. So, around 7:30 Mom and I packed everyone up and left the riverfront. We went and got ice cream and then went to watch the fireworks from St. Anthony's field. It's much farther away, but much closer to home with no traffic issues. You can still see plenty of the fireworks show. Here are the boys:

Here's Sophie and I waiting for the show to start. It was delayed due to a computer glitch, and Sophie ended up missing the whole thing by being sound asleep.

This afternoon after church and lunch, Aidan went to a friend's birthday and Andrew had baseball practice. I was able to get the grass cut and Tony has almost finished the flower beds. They're going to be beautiful - I'll post pictures later this week if I can find time.