National Fine Arts: Monday

This morning started with getting a couple hours rest and then visiting the Kentucky International Convention Center in order to get registered for the Fine Arts Festival.  The students visited booths while waiting for the line to die down some.  The lines were longer than I was expecting, so I was glad they were willing to run down to the car to feed the meter for me a couple times.

After registering, we located the performance rooms so we would know where to arrive tomorrow.

One place we wanted to eat while we were in Kentucky was Kentucky Fried Chicken.  It was fun, but we quickly learned that it tastes the same as it does in Texas.

KFC what's cooking?

Finger licking good...

We shot a quick video while at KFC-hopefully it turns out and we can use it for announcements in youth when we get back home.

One of the students really likes history, and wanted to explore, so we walked around the area admiring the architecture.  There are such beautiful homes and buildings in Louisville!

We shot another video on the steps of this Catholic church for video announcements.  We will see how it turns out!

I love these old brick roads!

We have seen several horses around town, each painted differently.

Hmmm...this was supposed to be another picture of a horse, but somehow we got a picture of Rally's Burgers instead.

After a trip to Wal-Mart, we all were feeling exhausted.  Staying up to drive the night before was catching up with us all.  Since performances were in the morning, we decided to do a devotion in the room instead of attending the evening service which we expected to run very late.  We decided that we would only skip the one service, and be very diligent to attend all the others.

We relaxed a little in the hotel room, ordered pizza, and watched a movie before heading to bed.  (The girls were so tired they even skipped the end of the movie so they could get to bed.)

I think everyone enjoyed their first day, and is excited for their performances tomorrow.

Road Trip!

This is a week we have been planning for quite some time-it is National Fine Arts week.  Our church had 2 groups that made it to nationals this year-puppetry group, and piano solo.  I love a good road trip, and have been looking forward to this one for a while.  Nationals are in Louisville, Kentucky, which is about a 14 hour drive.  Here we all are:

Our first meal together was before we even got out of Texas-Dairy Queen-this slowed us down a while!

We finally made it to the Arkansas border...

...and then it sprinkled rain briefly, and we got to see a rainbow.

There were also some neat crosses along the highway.

Next state:  Tennessee.  I had potentially planned to stop in Memphis to get a hotel, but I wasn't the least bit tired, so we kept going.  I figured we would stop in Jackson or Nashville, but I still wasn't tired, which I couldn't believe, so we kept on going...

...all the way to Kentucky

I was happy to have arrived in just 14 and a half hours without needing rest.  We are ready for an exciting week!

Bits and Pieces

I had an errand to run in Fort Worth today, so the boys and I took the opportunity of being close to some letterboxes to get a few.  Here are some bits and pieces of our time...

A Passport to Italy

My oldest is working on getting his driver's license, and so I had him drive us all the way to Italy, Texas today.  We stopped to pick up the "Texas Passport Series #3-Italy" letterbox there before heading back home.  It was located in the cemetery just on the edge of town.  The clue referred to a handmade headstone.  I had never seen one quite like it before.

This is an older letterbox planted back in 2005, and I enjoyed checking out some of the signature stamps inside the logbook.

We happened to have found this hitchhiker at some point along the way, and it was neat to see it logged into another logbook...

...and this parasite was with it when we got it, too.

On the way back home, we stopped at a historical marker.

And then we stopped at another.

Wordless Wednesday: Prayer Time