Lovely La Grange

Jill's Journal: Only one night in Louisville, a city we’ve spent copious amounts of time in over the years. Huge chunks of my life especially have been spent at Churchill Downs, of course, and I’ve also done several touristy things like the Louisville Slugger Factory and the Kentucky Derby Museum. Great city.

There’s lots of rougher areas in Louisville, like there are in any big city, but also many beautiful and quaint and charming parts as well. Rob had some work to do today with his computer servers which he’s housed in Louisville for several years, so the girls and I spent a little bit of time exploring. We stumbled across an amazing neighborhood just off an eclectic, artsy area with pristine craftsman-style houses. It looked like it was straight from a magazine or movie. Just beautiful.

Our time was short, however, as our main focus in Louisville was to get Rob’s work done and to visit our great old friends Gretchen and Steve, some of the first people we ever met and bonded with in Kentucky. We’ve shared so many fun times together over the years, including the births of our first children only three months apart. We headed just east to the lovely Louisville suburb of La Grange and their cozy, comfortable home. This is the most welcoming couple – we had such a fun time and their hospitality was out of this world. We found a spot in their backyard to park the fifth wheel and only two of their neighbors complained to the homeowner’s association about us, a source of great humor to us all after Gretchen answered a knock on the door from the developer.

This trip is all about experiences and Erika got a special one in La Grange…her very first sleepover! She and Elizabeth (Gretchen and Steve’s daughter) declared themselves best friends and we couldn’t resist their repeated requests for a sleepover. The picture shows them in their jammies, ready to hit the hay (or tell each other stories in the dark, as Erika later told me). Erika had an absolute ball and all three of our girls now feel terribly deprived after 21 hours in toy heaven with Elizabeth’s toy arsenal! They were ready to move in and never leave.

Steve made all of us a delectable breakfast this morning and we stayed until the afternoon, just enjoying the company of this sweet family. Rob needed to make one more stop in Louisville to work on his servers a bit more and then we were off! The adventure really begins.

Grand Finale Garage Sale!

Jill's Journal: Yesterday we had the mother of all garage sales! Well, maybe not – I’m certain there have been bigger and better ones…but in our world, this one was huge. We sold everything from our couch to socks, from our kitchen table to our sheets, from the girls’ train table to our potted flowers, from laundry baskets to lamps. In short, just about everything but the kitchen sink. It was a CRAZY day.

We started before dawn, at 5am, and didn’t close up shop until 5pm after we’d even sold the heavy-duty folding tables our smaller items were resting on. The girls were such troopers, especially on such a hot day, and made us proud. We had wonderful and unexpected helpers: our friend and neighbor Lee Ann, who we learned is a born saleswoman (she was amazing!), and our friend Gretchen from Louisville, who helped keep an eye on the kids and made sure everyone had lunch (we were so grateful!).

At the end of the day, we were stunned and completely thrilled to learn we’d netted over $2400. Wow! It was a lovely and fitting end to my brief garage sale career – I really do hate them and plan to never have another!!