Off to the Derby!

Today we hit the road and went to Kentucky to visit Churchill Downs!  We were really surprised at how close it is to the football stadium for the university, we had thoughts of it being on the outskirts of town or the county, it was not either of those!  They had a nice museum and video that gave a good history of the track.  

They had this fun exhibit that you could "ride" a horse against each other!  Anna won by a long shot!  Sorry Matt!

We were able to take a tour and we got some very exciting news!  We were going to see a race!  But first, the tour!  We went through the jockey entrance and headed to the paddock area.  

We then headed to the grass in front of the owners suite.  

We then saw the fillies come out.

We weren't able to see the starting gate but watched on the screen as the horses got settled and loaded into the starting gate.  

Here are some photos as they went by us!  

And here is a video of the race!  

We got to see the prior finish post too!

They had a couple of ponies but they were most definitely not interested in us, just in annoying each other!

We finished up our visit of the museum.  Dream BIG Anna!

Jockey uniform costume and a scale that talks about the weight checks.  

And a mock starting gate!

It was a very fun visit!

Visit to the actual brickyard!

Today was a full day of being a tourist!  One thing that was high on Olivier's list was to visit the speedway and we got to do a very slow lap on the track.  They also stopped at the bricks and allowed us to take photos.  

We also got to "kiss" the brick like the winners do!  

They have engraved bricks for the four who have won four times!  

Olivier wanted some solo photos too!  

Where they wave the flags.  

After lunch we went to the children's museum.  It was nice to check things out.  They had a lot of fun exhibits and we learned a lot about the mission to the moon.  

In the center of the museum they have a very cool glass sculpture!  

And in their pop culture exhibit they had a Taylor Swift outfit!  

There was a fun mirror maze and Anna got this fun photo!

And to close out the photos from the day, there was a car on exhibit that Olivier was very happy to be able to sit in!  

 

 

Indianapolis Brickyard Battle - Day 3!

Today was a morning day so it was a busy morning!  The first game started at 8 a.m. and the boys were sleepy heads which made us all very nervous to watch...  After losing the first set, they woke up and got a solid second set win and won the third set!  Great news since today is elimination day!  That moves them on to the next round of play!  The team they played against tied for 21st out of 32 teams.  

They had a break which didn't end up working out for them because they really lost their momentum.  The team they lost two ended up ranked right above them in the standings.  

After the game we headed to Matt's aunt and uncle's house where we got to visit with them as well as the aunt and uncle from Michigan.  It was nice to get to visit with them and it has been a long time since we have seen them!