A Weekend full of FUN!

We had a relaxing, but busy weekend.  I woke up Saturday morning at 4:50 to feed Shelby.  I laid in bed and let her nurse.  She fell asleep and I let her lay in bed with her Daddy.

I left and went to the Mother to Mother sale at St. Johns. It was a really nice sale! I found several good deals and came home with quite a few yard sale goodies!  Saturday afternoon, Lance and I just enjoyed our girls.  Larry and Rita called later in the afternoon and asked if we were doing anything, if they could come up and see the girls.  They showed up around 6:30.  We enjoyed salad, lasagna, apple crisp, and each other's company.  Rita held Shelby and Larry played with Jenna.  After Jenna went to bed, I held Shelby and she "talked" to Larry.  Shelby has found her voice and was chatting up a storm with Larry. 

Sunday morning Dad called and invited us up. We went and visited with my parents for a good while Sunday afternoon. Dad finished restoring and painting his Massey Ferguson 65, so he took Shelby for her first tractor ride.

 which I believe she may have slept through....

We visited for a while, the guys went out and looked at the crops, then we went to Lynnville for pizza.  Lance took some really cute pictures of Poppy and Jenna, but I can't seem to get them downloaded.

Chaos

I haven't posted much in August because things have been a little chaotic.  Where do I even begin?  Shelby turned 2 months old, she is holding her head up really well and she loves when you let her attempt to stand up.  She is giving more and more grins all the time.  She is such a happy, easy going little girl.  She is doing really well sleeping through the night.  She goes to bed somewhere around 9pm and sleeps until 4:30 or 5 am.  I would prefer she slept a little later in the morning, but it's nice to get to spend a little time with just her before I go to work.

Jenna turned 18 months old on the 3rd.  She has been busy learning her body parts.  She can presently identify her nose, tummy, foot, and head.  We are working on knee, elbow, eye, and ear-which she gets right sometimes.  Her vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds.  I got her up this morning and she was singing parts of her ABC's  she gets ABCDE, QRS, and W,XYZ.  It is hard to understand, but she definately has the tune down.  She has also started saying "hot-dog" and "popcorn".  She has been showing lots of interest in talking and repeating what we say.  I have been trying to teach her "I love you" but she is having trouble with "love".  As for potty training, she has been going on the potty at least twice a day.  She is DONE with it by about 4 pm and litterally throws a fit sitting on the potty of an evening.  I am proud of her for the accomplishment she has made thus far.  She is aware of when she needs to go, most of the time she tells me, we just don't always go while sitting on the potty. 

As for me, I am on my third week working for Farm Credit (FCS).  It is quite different than I was used to at UK.  I was thrown into things much quicker with UK, FCS is spending a lot of time and focus on training.  The first week was spent doing computer trainings, and getting all the paperwork and logistics of a new job complete.  The second week I worked in the Sullivan office where I will be stationed when I become a full blown ag lender.  I drove around with the guy that is leaving my post in Sullivan to go back to school.  We spent 3 days driving around and meeting some of the farmers in the area that do business with Farm Credit.  It was nice to get out of the office for a few days.  I am back in the Evansville office for a while shadowing a guy that has been with the company 5 years.  I won't say I love my job yet, but I think I will like it once I am out on my own, working full-time in Sullivan.

As for Lance, he has been busy with Vincennes Tractor.  The guys are gearing up for fall and that is definately going to keep him busy.  He is getting ready to go to Cincinnati, OH for a few days for "New Product Introduction"  Last year, he went Omaha for this, so it's definately closer to home this year.  When he comes home, it will be interesting to hear about all the new technologies and equipment that John Deere is rolling out.

Back to Work

Monday morning, I started my new job with Farm Credit Services of MidAmerica.  I am reporting to the Evansville office this week to start training with the Ag Loan officer located here.  It's going to take a while to get used to the new morning schedule.  Fortunately the girls have been doing really well with getting up early.  Shelby is doing pretty good at daycare.  Jenna is doing really well at daycare.  Miss Theresa has been working with Jenna and Adonis (an 18 mo old little boy she watches) on potty training.  Jenna has been having 1 or 2 accidents and usually 2 successful potties a day.  She has even starting poo'ing on the potty too!  I am really proud of how well she is doing, but we still have some work to do!

Shelby was 2 months old on Sunday.  I took pictures of her late Sunday evening, but haven't downloaded them off the camera yet.  Jenna is officially 18 months old today!  I will try to post pictures of the girls later, but I am tired tonight and will be getting up early again in the morning. 

Vacation (Day 2)

I have a previous post today about Day 1 of vacation that may help explain where we were while on vacation.We left our hotel in Corbin, KY and headed to Natural Bridge State Resort Park, in Stanton KY.  I had heard several of my colleagues with UK talk about the Staff Conference held at this park and how beautiful it was.  The park presented several challenges.  The first was 90+ degrees with lots of humidity.  The second was to see Natural Bridge you must hike 0.75 miles one way.  The third was carrying the girls that far.  We were determined to seee it so away we went.

The original trail was supposed to be the easiest hike, but the hike was thousands of steps up hills.

Jenna hiked the flat parts of the trails and she worked up a mighty sweat.

Shelby slept in the sling the entire way up.

When we got there, I was slightly disappointed.  We were directly under the bridge and we really couldn't see it!  The view was amazing, but we spent all day Saturday looking at tree covered mountains.  On the right hand side of the picture, notice the sandstone pillar.  That is one side of the base of the bridge.

The trail continued, up more steps, to climb to the top of the Natural Bridge.

That was an interesting experience to walk across the top of the Natural Bridge.

The bridge was made out of sandstone.  The top layer of sandstone was a very hard standstone, while the lower level was a very weak sandstone.  The years of wind, rain, and weather wore away the lower portions of the sandstone - forming a hole -which made a bridge.  From the top of the bridge, we saw the spot that would have allowed us to actually see the bridge.  After hiking across the top of the bridge we saw a sign for the outlook, it was another  0.4 miles.  We decided it would be worth the hike!

It definately was!  Through the trees we could see some of the sandstone that formed the Natural Bridge.

Can you see the little people on the top of the bridge?  They may put the size of the structure into perspective.

In true Bob Rentchler fashion, we decided it was silly to come and go the same way, so we found a different route back to the truck.  It was called Rock Garden Trail.  There were steps winding all over a huge rock formation.

The Rock Garden Trail had beautiful scenery...

and lots of steps!

It was a beautiful hike down.  While at the look out point, we saw the darkened sky and heard thunder off in the distance.  Fortunately, we made it back to the truck just ahead of the storm blowing through. 

We found out that we were not far from Clay City, KY.  Since we own a farm in Clay City, IN we thought it would be neat to see what Clay City, KY had to offer.  For those of you who know the size of Clay City, IN, I would say KY is not much bigger.

They had an elementary school, a couple banks and a few restaurants.  This was a really neat building across from the Dollar General.  It was functioning as a museum.

We left Clay City and got on the Mountain Parkway and Interstate 64.  We made it to Louisville and the girls were both getting restless.  We stopped in Clarksville, IN at Falls of the Ohio State Park and let Jenna run off some steam before supper and fed Shelby.  We loaded back up, stopped for supper, and headed home. 

The girls did excellent with traveling, which made it a wonderful trip.  If we could only find time to get away more often.... 

Vacation (Part 1)

Lance asked me on Thursday evening (last week) if I wanted to get away for the weekend.  I said "sure, why not.  Where do you want to go?"  He said "how about Eastern Kentucy and the Appalachian Mountains?"  So, Friday after Lance got off work we loaded up and headed east.  We arrived at our hotel room at roughly 1 am.  It was a very peaceful drive, because both the girls slept the majority of the drive.

Saturday morning we were all dressed, fed, and out of the hotel by 7:30 am.  The agenda for the day was to drive through the Appalachian Mountains, visit Moonbow Falls, the Original KFC, and see where the day took us from there.  We stopped at a pretty neat overlook off the side of the road, with beautiful scenery.

It was a beautiful day, but was supposed to be VERY hot.

Our first stop was Moonbow Falls.  This park was handicap friendly, which meant it was stroller friendly! 

Jenna decided she was so full of energy that she should push Shelby. She actually pushed the stroller the majority of the 0.2 mile hike, while Daddy served as the steering and brakes!

Moonbow Falls were about 68 feet tall and 125 feet wide.

They called it "Moonbow" because of the bowed curvature of the fall and the beauty of the fall by moonlight.

We left the falls to travel into Corbin, KY--the home of Colonel Sanders -- the most famous Kentuckian!  This was the Original KFC, Sanders Cafe.

Inside the KFC, of course there was everything you would have in a traditional KFC. as well as the original kitchen loaded with the original gadgets used by the Colonel.  They had the original cash register, books about him, and his original table where he ate his breakfast.  It was like a little museum in the restaurant or was it a restaurant inside of a museum...  The girls and I posed with a concrete statue of him.

We left there and went hiking.  We needed to work off the "nutritious" lunch we just ate.  There was a park with a nice overlook.  I don't remember what it was called.  Here is a picture of me and Shelby.  This is how Shelby was carried thoughout the rest of the vacation.

Lance and Jenna at the outlook.

We left the outlook and went into Pine Mountain State Park.  It had a hike to go see "Chained Rock".  It was a 0.5 mile hike to go see a rock that overlooked Pineville.  At the end of the dirt hiking trail, we were faced with a huge boulder with a face that went straight up!

Lance took Jenna on shoulder, straight up the boulder.  I wasn't so sure about this.  From the top, Lance found a safer path for Shelby and I to take.  We didn't hike all that way to not get to see the "chained rock".  Wondering what a chained rock looks like?  Here you go!

Each chain link was 7 pounds.  I took a picture of my foot (size 8.5) next to the chain to put it into perspective.  The story behind the chained rock was not really clear, but seeemed to be a ploy to get people to visit Pine Mountain Park and Pineville.

Though it was scorching hot, I must admit, the view was beautiful!

We left Pine Mountain and traveled to the Pinnacle Trail in another park.  Every park, had to have steps.

Here is the state line.  The left side of the pictre is Shelby and half of me in Virginia, while the right side is me and Jenna in Kentucky.  There was literally a "state line"!

The view from the outlook was pretty!

It looked down over a city and out over the mountains!

Jenna took off walking back towards the truck.  She was throwing her hands up in the air and just babbling away!

She then realized that mom, dad, and Shelby were a good distance behind her and she turned around to "drag us along". 

We left there and had had enough hiking for a while.  We took off to drive to see the Cumberland Gap.  It was okay, but there really wasn't much to see, other than a gap in the mountains.  Lance got to drive through his first tunnel and was very excited.  This tunnel goes directly through the Cumberland Mountain.

We went through the tunnel twice (once each direction).  We drove around the Cumberland Gap Park, but were not willing to take an 8 hour hike to the gap.  There were supposed to be white rocks in the mountains down the road a way through Tennessee and Virginia so we decided to see what we could see.  Needless to say, there are no pictures, because we were somewhat less than impressed.  I think it is mostly because we had seen so many beautiful things that morning and were pretty well wiped out by time we got there.  We left Virginia and Tennessee, to go back to Kentucky for dinner, showers, and bed.  We had another big day planned for Sunday!