Kenny!

 Kenny Chesney came to the rodeo this year and I was so upset about missing him.  I would normally never miss Kenny at the rodeo, but he was right in the middle of spring break. 

 Fast forward to Monday of last week when he announced that he was adding a Friday show in Orange Beach (he already had a Saturday show scheduled) and guess who was showing up in Orange Beach on Friday...Me! 

Now you know I prefer a suite situation for a concert, but since it was his birthday, I let JR talk me in to general admission in the pit.

I'm still not sure we were in the right section because everyone around us was wearing VIP armbands and passes, and we were this close to Kenny!

Kenny puts on a fantastic show and JR and I had a great time singing along with every single song! 

20

 It's JR's birthday today and he's the big two zero.

We went down to see him in Gulf Shores, and we celebrated yesterday.

We had lunch at the famous Flora Bama. 

I guess I need a geography refresher, because I had no idea we were that close to Florida. 

Then we celebrated again with dinner out.

And he lined up all his birthday cards in his new place.

Last Day

 The last day of school was yesterday, but Kyle and Reed were lucky enough to finish their finals on Wednesday, so I guess you can say the last day of school was Wednesday.  

They looked like this.

Reed got distinguished honor roll this year (all A's for every 9 weeks)

And most shockingly of all, JR (whose claim to fame is that he went to every Pi Phi date party of the year) somehow squeaked on to the Dean's honor roll this semester. 

Interview

 So I had no idea he was even in this until it was sent to me, but here's Reed getting interviewed at school. It's about an hour, so skip to 22 minutes in to watch Reed's interview.  There's even video of him studying in our kitchen (again, I had no idea any of this even happened!)

Click here to watch

And since his interview is about his running, we'll keep on that theme.

I thought this video and picture he took the other evening were so cool. 

I'm not sure it was the safest (or smartest) for them to be out running while it was lightning, but it did make for a great video. 

Yearbooks

 I don't know how my kids do it, but they always seem to get themselves in their yearbooks.  

Even JR landed himself 2 pics in the Ole Miss yearbook! 

Weekend Favs

 I think everyone got to do their favorite things this weekend.

This bunch went fishing in Matagorda. (Ok, fishing isn't Jason's very favorite, but I heard he caught the biggest fish).

This one looks like he's miserable down in Alabama. 

And after an evening at the racquet club, Chloe and I were excited to spend the day together.

Mother's Day

 We all had a great Mother's Day, and brunch seemed more fancy and delicious than usual.

And we were all able to look at the camera, keep our eyes open, and smile at the same time! 

Moved Out

 We got JR moved out on Saturday and I have a few things to say about move out vs move in. 

Move out is 1 million times easier than move in, but it's also 1 million times more disgusting.

This mattress thrown out on the roof is the absolute best thing I laid eyes on.  JR's room was actually fine, everything else....let's just say it's not for the faint of heart (or nose).

We definitely did more organizing going than coming.  We literally just shoved everything in bags and stuffed it in the car. 

And here's our move in day vs move out day pics.

We have him home until Friday when he leaves to spend the summer working in Orange Beach, Alabama.  

I know.  Rough life.

Hats 4 & 5

 We spent all of Saturday at the derby since that's the whole reason we went.  There's an hour in-between each race and they bugle the "call to post" 10 minutes before the race so you know to get back to your seat. 

This was the 149th Kentucky Derby and we looked like this

And here we are at the track

So by the time we took pictures and got to our seats, I had already had enough of my hat.  (It was just too heavy for me to walk around or function.) 

But I was prepared! I brought a back-up fascinator with me (if you look at the first picture you can see my supplies in my clear bag I'm making Jason hold) and worked my crafting magic while sitting in our seats. I was able to fashion a new hat using the straight pins in my original hat. 

So here I am in my "unofficial" derby hat, but it's the one I wore all day. 

All hats aside, we had a great day at the races.

 Jason was doing awesome with his bets! 

We won on Fluffy Socks, General Jim, and Cody's Wish.  We were killing it, I mean I think we made like 12 whole bucks! 

And we had a great view since we were right at the finish line. (We couldn't see the horses starting from where we were).

Here we are enjoying being "big" winners from our box.  We had 6 seats. 

Since he had done so well all day, we were pretty sure we had it in the bag for the big race.  The main race is definitely a different deal than all the others.  People are going crazy!

Reed told us to bet on 2 Phil's and JR told us to bet on the horse that was "picked to come in 2nd" which was Angel of Empire. 

And if you watched the derby then you know that 2 Phil's came in 2nd and Angel of Empire came in 3rd. We thought 2 Phil's was going to win, so it was an exciting race with a disappointing ending.

But even though we lost, we still looked cute and had a super fun day.

Hats 1, 2, and 3

I'm categorizing this trip by what hats I wore to each activity.  We landed on Thursday to an airport lined with private jets.  I could see them parked everywhere from my economy seat on United. 

We made it to our hotel downtown where we were close enough to the Ohio River that we could have taken the walk over the bridge to Indiana, but we never had time.

Our first event was a welcome reception where I learned that Kentucky, and the derby, is really in to 2 things:

1. bourbon and 2. cigars

This is what we looked like for that

We were up bright and early on Friday morning to head over to Lexington to the Spendthrift horse farm. 

We learned all about horse farms and I now know:

1. you need to be a billionaire to own one

2. these horses have way better living accommodations than most people

Here we are with the 1,000+ acres of rolling Kentucky blue grass behind us

And with their Kentucky derby trophy. 

I'm not gonna lie, I thought it would be bigger. 

After lunch we headed over to a bourbon factory that everyone was really excited about. (I, of course, had never heard of it)

I learned that 

1. bourbon is just moonshine until you put it in a barrel and age it

2. It's not my favorite drink.

Jason made me drink everything in the tasting; I think just to laugh at my reactions. 

And here's the proof I drank them

I wore my 3rd hat of the trip to dinner at Le Moo which was lovely since I wasn't forced to drink bourbon, and nobody was smoking cigars.

MIA

 I know I've been MIA since we got back from the derby.  I've actually been sick.  After coughing every breath and feeling horrible I finally went to the doctor.  I can't even remember the last time I went to the doctor because I was sick, I guess when I was a kid. 

I tested negative for all the things, and the doctor said it was drainage.  I'm on 4 different prescriptions, and this is the first day I'm feeling like I'm starting to feel better.

I guess I'll start at the end of the trip since I'm sure this didn't help my cough.

Derby tip: Don't leave on Sunday.

This was what greeted us when we arrived at the airport:

This was the baggage check line.

And this was my view in the security line. 

Then once we were through security there was nowhere to sit at the gates.  And I don't mean there just weren't chairs to sit in, there was no room to sit on the floor either.

And then our flight was delayed 3 hours.  So yeah, fun all around.

But we did make it home Sunday night around 10.

The Big Reveal

 Jason and I leave tomorrow for the Kentucky Derby.  No, we aren't into horse racing, but we are in to dressing up fancy while we drink mint julips. 

I made my own fascinator for the big day, and I'm going to go ahead and reveal it now because:

1. I'm not sure it's going to make it fully intact in my luggage.

2. As mentioned before, I made it, so it could literally fall apart at any moment.

3. It's super heavy and there's no way I'm going to be able to wear it the whole day.  Jason even told me I lean to the side when I walk around. 

So here she is.  She matches my dress perfectly.

And just in case these don't have a moment in my pictures, here are my shoes, which I know are a low heel for me, but I couldn't love them more.