It was a jam-packed weekend. On Friday night we drove to Louisville, Kentucky. We arrived a couple hours before the hotel’s pool closed. Jude, Levi and I went swimming (or, more accurately, I went swimming while they clung to me like newborn monkeys). We had such a good time. The boys especially enjoyed jumping into the pool to me. Levi would go first and, after catching him, I would quickly attach him to my neck and then back up and then Jude would jump to me. Levi is fearless and, after we had all gotten out of the water to get a drink, he jumped into the pool’s deep end alone. I quickly jumped in and rescued him and he was barely phased. Jude is now comfortable in the water but cannot swim (even though just 6 months ago he could swim 10 feet independently at swimming lessons). I think we’ll need to get Levi in lessons since he’s a natural and loved practicing kicking and blowing bubbles in the water.
On Saturday, we headed to the Kentucky State Fair. The most memorable moments were an acrobatics show, a dog trick show, learning I was too young for a free mammogram (yeah!), watching Andy eat a donut burger (with 2 Krispy Kreme doughnuts for the buns) and sampling Andy’s deep fried Kool Aid (which tasted like bad doughnuts). I also learned at the Skin Cancer booth, to my dismay, that my beloved freckles are skin damage. So, maybe I should stop wanting a red-headed freckle-faced little girl.
After the fair, we went to Chuck E Cheese’s. It was the boys’ first time there. Andy and I had remembered how bad the pizza was when we were there 7 or so years ago so we were a little nervous, but thought we’d give it a shot.  It turns out, they got a new recipe and the pizza it was good, or as Andy would say, “edible.” We got Jude 35 tokens. The owner of the store saw Jude and stopped by our table to give Jude 7 free tokens because he has “such a good attitude” (in other words, there are some perks to being a cute boy who is 1/2 bald with a 6 inch scar on his head).  One kid told Jude some stuff including, “Your hair is missing.” Later his friend came up to me and said, “I’m sorry for what my friend said to yours.” Jude and Levi had a blast playing games. We even splurged and spent $1 to let Jude go in the Ticket Blaster booth where he had to wear goggles and try to scoop up/catch as many tickets as he could in 30 seconds. Andy and I coached him like it was a high stakes event. We had him tuck in his t-shirt and told him to scoop them off the ground where they like to congregate and stuff them down his shirt for safe keeping. In the end, the worker told him before he entered the booth not to scoop them off the ground and our this time obedient little boys walked out almost empty handed.
After 4 hours at Chuck E Cheese’s, Jude and Levi and I went swimming again at the hotel. It was super fun and when we went to sleep Saturday night, it really felt like Sunday night since we’d been so busy.
Today (Sunday) we planned on just going to the Louisville Slugger factory/museum. Since it didn’t open until noon, I suggested we do a drive by of the home of the Kentucky Derby (Churchhill Downs), which I thought was closed for the season. I was pleasantly surprised when I learned it was indeed open. We bought the general admission tour, which wasn’t too impressive. I sure would have loved to see some horses race. The boys’ favorite part was sitting on some plastic life sized horses and pretending to be jockies while playing some horse racing video game. After the tour, Jude and I were in the gift shop and I was planning on buying Jude an argyle-pattered t-shirt with a pair of jockey goggles pressed on it and Levi a t-shirt that said “Hold Your Race Horses.” But, after Jude used some shelves as his stairs to try to reach some toys on a top shelf and a shelf and all the t-shirts on it came crashing down, we cleaned up the mess and made a quick escape without making any purchases.  Guess he saved me some money.
Then we went to the Louisville Slugger factory/museum. The boys loved the giant baseball glove made of limestone and taking swings in the batting cage. We really enjoyed learning how baseball bats are made. At the end of the tour, we were presented with 5 free mini bats and the tour guide told Jude, “no fighting with it.” It was as if he had known Jude forever.
After touring the baseball bat factory, we walked around downtown a bit. I realized how ridiculous I must look toting around my bunch of boys. I had Asher in the Baby Bjorn and was pushing our sit-n-stand double stroller with Levi in the front and my backpack diaper bag on the back of the stroller and Jude was taking a break from standing on the stroller and was dancing along side me as we walked (Andy was 10 feet in front of us carrying only the camera as usual). A guy who was pushing one of those jumbo, double wide BOB Revolution strollers actually crashed his stroller with 2 girls loaded in it while gawking at me. He explained his crash to the people he was with by pointing at me and saying, “She is loaded down.” Ha! At least I got a good workout in today pushing around my bundle of boys.
Even after a fun weekend, it was great to get back to Jill’s House. The boys had fun playing with Sofia from Ukraine and some new friends from Alabama tonight.