Thunder over Louisville and Easter

April 12th was a big celebration called "Thunder over Louisville" which is the kick off for the Kentucky Derby Season. I went to the blue angel air show at Lannon park with the Haitt's.

Jason was busy working at the office. Luckily we had seen the blue angels practicing for two days before. Their practice path was directly over our office. 

Jason met us at 5:00 at the church for a wedding reception.  At 7:00 we went back to the park to watch the fireworks.  At the downtown Riverfront Park there were activities going on all day. We chose not to go downtown because a crowd of 300,000 was expected. We have a picture of us in front of a steamboat that people were taking a ride on.

The next picture is of us on our chairs watching people and waiting for the fireworks. We sat at the closest place to the exit, so we could get home before curfew!

The fireworks show was great. They put the fireworks on the bridge and on barges in the river. The show lasted about an hour.  It was a beautiful day and we had a great time enjoying one of "Louisville's finest" events.  

Saturday April 19th after doing some temple work for a member of our branch we took a drive with the Haitt's into northern Kentucky along the Ohio river. We drove from Crestwood to Prospect then north to Carrollton. Then we crossed the bridge into Madison, Indiana.  We saw some of the most beautiful green, rolling hills with Estate size homes and also horse ranches with the white fences. It was a perfect time of year to see the green grass, blossoms and budding trees. We have Missionaries assigned to each of these areas.

The branch in Carrollton meets in an old storefront on main street. We got a picture in front of it. For some reason all of our pictures turned out with a rose colored glow.

The next pictures were taken in Madison, Indiana. It is a Historic community and this yellow house is the Lanier Mansion. It was prom night and lots of people were there all dressed up getting their pictures taken at the Mansion.

 We found this cute quilt store on main street. It is the 1st quilt store I've found.

Easter Sunday was very Special. We are so grateful the birth, Atonement and Resurrection of the Savior which made it possible for our families to be together forever. We were able to see a wonderful musical production last Sunday at a Catholic church which helped us appreciate the Savior's love and Sacrifice for us. We are grateful to be serving the Lord at this time and in this place and seeing his tender mercies unfold.

At church this Sunday, the Hiatt's gave wonderful Easter/farewell talks prior to their returning home next week. A teenage girl they have helped activate gave her first talk and did a great job, also.

We had a delicious Easter dinner with the Halvorsen's and Hiatts and the 4 full time Elder's serving in our Branch.  We had ham, cheesy potatoes, green beans, braided bread, fruit compote and pineapple upside down cake  with lots of whipped cream for dessert.  The senior couples each contributed food to the meal.   We loved having someone to share Easter with and hope you all had a wonderful Easter and special day.   

Spring has Sprung

Saturday, March 29 we took the Hiatt's and drove to Frankfurt, which is the capital of Kentucky. It is a town full of history and we really wanted them to see it before they leave at the end of the month. It was pouring rain all day, so we never got out of the car, except for lunch of course! We will go back when it's nice weather and take more pictures of the beautiful houses and buildings. Here is a picture that we took of the Governor's mansion.

Monday, March 31 we got 9 new missionaries. We got to go to the mission home that night to have dinner and meet them. They always look so tired since they have to get up so early to catch their flights to Kentucky. 2 of the elders came from the Mexico MTC. 

Tuesday, we had transfers. That is always a fun and busy day where the new missionaries are assigned missionary companions. At 2:30 we left to go to the temple with the 6 departing missionaries.  We always enjoy spending time at the temple with them.

Wednesday the missionaries that had completed their missions flew home. The 4 missionaries traveling to Utah were delayed because of mechanical failure on the plane and had to wait to leave until 3:30 in the afternoon. We entertained them at the office, fed them lunch and then Dad took them to the airport in the afternoon.

Thursday night Dad went to a church member's home to fix their dryer. 

Friday evening, the Hiatts met us at the office and we went to a musical that I had read about. It was put on by a group of senior citizens. The organization has been doing a musical every 6 months for about 30 years.  This one was called "USA, we love you" It was very patriotic and had wonderful singing, acting and dancing. We loved it and it was a good stress reliever from our busy week.  ( We had lots of letters and reports to do after Transfers).

Saturday April 5th, Dad went with Bro Hiatt to help fix another church  member's washing machine, Dad is glad he brought tools.   When he came back we went grocery shopping and at noon we watched the morning session of General Conference at our house on the computer.  Between sessions we went with the Hiatt's on a hike up to the top of Iroquois park. They are doing major construction in the park so we took a picture with the construction equipment. 

There were a number of trees blown down with the wind.  This is Dad and Bro Hiatt with one of them. 

The next picture is from the North Lookout in Iroquois Park.  It looks toward the Louisville city center and on into Indiana.  You can see Churchill Downs with the big screen TV on the right side of the picture.  

After a brisk hike we came back to the Hiatt's to watch the afternoon session of conference on their TV. 

This is a picture of our apartment complex with the trees out in blossom.  The grass is getting green, daffodils and blossoms are out and allergy season has come to Louisville. 

Sunday we drove people to church to watch conference and drove them home. Between sessions we fed the missionaries.

Next week we are all getting new computers and printers at the office.  Dad has been busy receiving them, storing them and trying to figure the best way to back everything up and setting up to get them installed.

We enjoyed General Conference and hope you did also. We have plenty of things to work on- just need more hours in the day. We are grateful for our opportunity to serve a mission here in Kentucky and for all of our wonderful family and friends.