Visiting Kentucky's State Capital

I got this great idea while we were in the middle of this cold winter here in Kentucky, to go visit the state Capital in Frankfort.  I got online to see their hours and get some information, and then I planned out the whole day.  I thought it would be a good way for Matt to relax away from his busy seminary schedule.  When we got to the capitol building, it looked completely deserted.  There weren't even any cars in the parking lot.  We walked around the capital building to see if any doors were opened and they weren't.  Well, as you probably guessed, I made another Cali girl mistake.  The Capitol building in Kentucky was not open in the winter on weekends.  It never even dawned on me to think that it would be too cold for any tourists to come.  We came.  :) :)  We had lot's of fun looking around the building and around town anyways.  So here's a few pictures from our adventures in the capital city of Frankfort, KY.

Here's the back of the KY, state Capitol Building

And... here we are in the front of the Capitol.

I was really cold, can you tell?

I think that most state Capitols pretty much look the same.  I guess we all like to try to copy the White House or something.  :)

Sun glorious sun!! For a little while the sun came out and I just had to soak up some rays.  :)

When we first got married and we were living in California and I made Matt a scarf.  He kindly said "thank you" and then it went to the back of a drawer and was never again used.  He said he didn't really like scarfs.  This winter he was begging me to make him a big thick warm scarf.  Let's just say, he likes scarfs now and he puts them to good use.  :)

We also visited the cemetery in Frankfort.  Here I am reading the historical marker for the grave of Daniel Boone.  If you look really close you can see the Capitol dome in the background.

Here's the monument for Daniel Boone's Grave.

At the cemetery there was a section dedicated to babies that had never been born (lost to miscarriage).  I've never seen anything like this at any cemetery that I've been too.  I found that it really touched me being that I have been through the loss of children through miscarriage.

Theses are the Bible verses that were displayed at the monument for the unborn children.

We enjoyed our tour of the candy factory at Rebecca Ruth Candies.  We felt like we were walking onto the set of the I Love Lucy movie where she was stuffing all of those chocolates into her mouth.  This candy factory is famous for making Kentucky Bourbon Balls.  Don't worry, we didn't try any, we're good Seminary students.  :)  Matt did find his new favorite candy though.  They're called Kentucky Colonels.  It's a mint filling with a pecan half on top covered in milk chocolate.  He loved them!  It was great touring and sampling chocolate from this world-famous candy shop that has made it through several of America's economic crisis including the Great Depression and even prohibition and the sugar rationing of World War II.  

Snow, Ice, Cold, Cold and More Cold!!

No one told me that it could get this cold in Kentucky!!  This poor California girl is freezing over here. I had my first experience of below freezing weather this January.  Did you know that the insides of your nose can freeze together?  Well it can and did.  This cold weather is crazy and amazing all at the same time. :)  At least I can now say I lived through the Polar Vortex of January 2014.  Well, all of you California family and friends enjoy your warm weathered winter as you look at these freezing pictures taken around Louisville and at the Seminary during the Polar Vortex.

Scraping ice off of your car in the morning is only fun the first time you do it.  But...sometimes the ice makes some beautiful feather like crystal structures that almost make it fun to scrape ice again.  :)

Don't I have the cutest ice scraper? :)  And look, he's using my super unique bear claw ice scraper that keeps your hands semi-warm while your scraping ice.

We had a small ice storm one night and the next morning we woke up to a crystal world.  Everything was covered in ice.  When the sun came up it looked like millions of diamonds everywhere.  It was absolutely breath taking.  On this day I could endure the cold for the unbelievable beauty that surrounded me.  The following pictures are from that ice storm.

Christmas in Louisville 2013

For Christmas 2013, we decided to stay in Louisville and see what this great city has to offer for the Christmas Season.  I'm glad we decided to do this!!  There's so much to do at Christmas time in this city.  Here are some of the pictures of the different things we did and places we went.  Enjoy!!

First, I must mention, that Christmas time ushered in the beginnings of the Polar Vortex over here in Kentucky.  This is Matt's truck covered in icicles  right before we left to go to the Creation Museum in Northern Kentucky.

This is a pretty bad quality of a picture, but it's the only one that I actually took at the Creation Museum.  So this is the only actual proof that I have that we went there.  :)  Matt got to hold this huge snake, I didn't really want too.  I'm not a snake person.  :)  We love to visit the Creation Museum and this was the first activity we did to usher in the Christmas season here in Kentucky.

We spent the entire day at the Creation Museum, and then spent the night over in Ohio, near Cincinnati.   We quickly realized that Matt's windshield wiper blades from California had given up the ghost and were no match for the Northern KY, snow.  :)

Louisville, is known for having the best city water there is.  I don't really have anything to compare it with since I'm a country girl who grew up on well water.  I still don't drink the water from the tap here though.  In this picture Matt and I are walking around the water treatment plant's reservoir.  The water is pumped in directly from the Ohio river and treated here.  It was a really cold and windy day; that's why my hair looks even more wild than it usually does.  :)

Here's something really unique that we did.  We went and saw Christmas lights inside a cave.  It was pretty amazing.  It was called Lights Under Louisville.  This picture is the entrance to the cave.  I thought it was interesting that the first light display said, "Keep Christ in Christmas."  The next few photos are from are time under Louisville enjoying the light displays.  It was about a 20 minute drive through this amazingly festive cavern.

We enjoyed going to the Frazier History Museum in Downtown Louisville on a Sunday afternoon.  They had a bunch of Christmas trees on display and each one was decorated to the theme of a different country.

For our Christmas Eve dinner this year we had schnitzel with spaetzle.  As you can see it was definitely a German themed dinner.  We were on a schnitzel kick and it seemed like it would make a great Christmas Eve dinner. We even made the spaetzle from scratch.  After our dinner we went to Clifton Baptist Church for the first Christmas Eve service that we have ever been too.  We really enjoyed our time at church, and then we went around town and enjoyed all the different light displays at people's homes.  It was a great Christmas Eve night finished off by watching the Nativity, and sleeping out in the living room by the Christmas tree.  

Our Christmas morning tradition is to wake up and have freshly made maple cinnamon rolls.  We love the recipe from the Pioneer Woman's cook book.  They were so good as you can tell by the empty plate.  :)

This is a crazy picture.  We look like we've had way too much sugar or something.  :) Matt's mom sent us our Christmas gifts and when we opened them, confetti exploded everywhere.  It was so funny!! Our carpet was literally covered in confetti.

I got Matt a bunch of calligraphy supplies for his gift.

Matt got me some really nice frying pans and also some quilting supplies.


We really had a great Christmas as we celebrated our Lord's birth over here in Louisville, KY.  We constantly praise the Lord for where He has brought us and what he is teaching us while we are here at Southern  Seminary.