A Week In Louisville Kentucky

I've been MIA again.  Yes, yes...it was another trip.  This one without my kids.

Last week I spent 6 days with three of my favorite, all time people. The girls made it to the National Fine Arts Convention (they don't like the word Competition) for Assembly of God teens for the third year in a row. Pretty impressive.  And this year it was held in Louisville, which is only 3 hours away.

So I offered to be an extra pair of hands. And my offer was accepted.  I packed the car up yet again and went for a ride.

I did take advantage of an opportunity to stop and fill up a big blue bag. But more on that at a later date.

We all arrived the night before the beginning of a week of presentations and classes. And I could do a whole post on how it was the worst hotel stay I have ever, ever had. From broken refrigerator, fried toaster, no ventilation, a drunk maintenance man and a horrible, rude and arrogant manager.  Expedia and Hotels.com will be hearing from me. I promise. But lets not go all the way into that.

First day was pretty much registration and getting schedules for the girls presentations. We also figured out where to park in downtown Louisville and how to find the convention center.

We explored the convention center and found the rooms the girls would be presenting in. Like the first day of school, its just comforting to know where you are going to be the next day.  One of the other things the girls were interested in was finding the horses around town.

Tuesday was a day off so we took a drive to a state park with an old school house and Abraham Lincoln's father's old log cabin.  We had a picnic and then went out in a paddle boat.  Very peaceful and relaxing day before presentation day.

Wednesday was all business and a long day at the convention center.  Both girls finished with Excellents and I was so proud of them. I love the fact that they compete every year in so many categories.

And let me tell you, this is a fantastic convention. All these kids (15,000 this year) that are so talented! Every thing from drawing, painting, photography, speaking, signing, singing, songwriting, bands, vocalists, acting, etc.  I enjoyed some of the urban dancing in down times. So fun.

Thursday the girls and I took a trip to Indiana to a cave and working gristmill, old fashioned soap shop, candy shop, candle shop and bakery. I didn't realize the girls had never been to a cave before so that made it even better.

All too soon it was time to return home so we snapped a quick shot.

And Friday was full of retrieving paperwork and scores, classes and preparing to travel back home.

What a great week. So glad it was in my back yard this year!