Mountain Laurel Festival

Over Memorial Day weekend Lawrence, Dick and I all headed to Pineville, Kentucky for the annual Mountain Laurel Festival.  The Youngs have always had a connection to Pineville through Dick's grandfather, Robert Edwin (Ed) Samuels.  The Samuels were a prominent family in the community, with Ed being a key part of the local bank, and his wife being the first female member of the board of education there.   His daughter, Florence, grew up there, and Dick grew up visiting the area often.  Each year Pineville hosts the Mountain Laurel Festival, which is part homecoming and part beauty pageant.  For three days the entire city celebrates its heritage, connects with family and friends, and crowns a high school princess and a college aged queen.  Every school in the Commonwealth sends a queen candidate, and she, along with her escort, spends the weekend socializing with the locals and the secret judges.  There are dinners, receptions, concerts, dances, and the entire time you feel like you've stepped back into a more wholesome time in American life.

Our family has actually had several queen candidates throughout the years.  My Aunt Marilyn was a candidate from Lindsey Wilson College back in the fifties, and Dick escorted Mary Lawrence as UofL's candidate around that same time.  Dick's brother Van escorted his future wife Libby as a Centre College candidate, and she was actually crowned queen.  Having heard all the lore surrounding the festival and pageant, it was fun to finally see it up close.

Another Pineville connection is through our Hurstbourne friends, Ed and Jeanie Wilson.  On a side note, I spent a lot of time with Ed and Jeanie as a teenager, having been close friends with their daughter, Lee.  I went on spring break with them and spent lots of time at their house, and it's been fun to reconnect with them at Hurstbourne as "grown ups."  Ed is from Pineville, and he has served on the board of the Mountain Laurel Festival for years, and this last year he encouraged Lawrence to get back to his roots and become a director.  He and Jeanie arranged for us to lodge with them at this year's festival, and we all had a ball at all the events. Lawrence was introduced as a new director, and Dick and Ed shared lots of memories and stories about the area while we were there.  Now that we've been introduced to this wonderful festival I don't know that we'll ever miss one.  We've already made our reservations for next year!  I captured lots of photos on my phone throughout the weekend, but no pictures can ever do justice to how beautiful the crowning ceremony of the queen is.  It's in the outdoor amphitheatre , and it is absolutely gorgeous.  Every little girl's dream!

Here are some memories from the weekend:

No visit to Pineville is complete without
lunch at the Flocoe - all the town's
gossip begins and ends here!

After lunch we perused around the square looking
at all the festival vendors' wares

Heading out to the Queen's reception

The Friday evening princess crowning in the Pineville High School gym

Up bright and early for the community breakfast on Saturday morning

Walking down after the breakfast to find our
spot for the parade

Enjoying drinks on the porch
before the parade

Senator Mitch McConnell starts off the parade

Pineville High Marching Band

Newly crowned high school princess and her court

UofL's candidate with her "L" up

The wonderful southern home we watched the parade from

Dick and Lawrence relax during the parade

The view from the state park lodge

The lovely queen candidates

The crowing of the new queen - from Somerset Community College

What a lovely weekend this was...we all had such a wonderful time, and I was so touched by the hospitality of everyone from Pineville.  They take great pride in carrying on the traditions of this annual festival, and I felt blessed to meet so many nice people.  Definitely will go down as one of my favorite memories of the year!  

Getting Ready for the Lake

After John's last lacrosse game on Saturday we headed down to the lake for a little clean up before opening weekend, which is usually Memorial Day.  We really didn't spend much time at the lake last summer, and I didn't make it down one single time over the winter, but it felt good to get down there and do a little organizing and cleaning.  

We've been getting by with some old mismatched lawn furniture on the deck, but Lawrence really wanted something more comfortable to sit in so we stopped by Lowes and Beth, Beth & Beyond before we went and picked up some new lounge chairs and a few rocking chairs.  The rocking chairs required some assembly, and I was pleasantly surprised that John and Sarah participated in that little project.  They put the second one together all by themselves.  

A rare moment of sibling cooperation

We got quite a bit done Saturday night...kitchen cleaned, pantry stocked for the summer, lawn mowed, rocking chairs assembled...after a quick KFC dinner we settled in by the fire John built and enjoyed the chilly spring night, which soon became very hot after Lawrence threw the rocking chair boxes into the fire.  I was scared our little campfire was going to set one of the trees on fire!

Someone call Smokey the Bear

The next morning we tackled some more chores, and Sarah took on the task of cleaning the wrought iron furniture on the deck and giving it a fresh coat of paint.  It was soooo dirty and nasty from the winter.  Here's the before:

Not a very inviting place to have dinner

After a good scrubbing we moved them down into the yard and she got to work painting them.

DIY Channel star

And then, viola!  Like new (not really, but almost!)

And with the new lounge chairs and rockers, the deck is ready and open for summer!  Cocktails anyone?

Time to relax

Before heading home we went down to the dock to have a pizza and take the boat out for a quick check.  It was a bit chilly, but being on the water made us ready for summer.  Bring on the sun!

Claire's Birthday and Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a gorgeous spring day this year, and I felt blessed to get to spend it with my kiddos and to have a nice visit with my mother-in-law, aka Mary Lawrence, aka Nana.  I'm so mad I didn't get a picture of her and Lawrence out on her porch...we sat outside and visited in the sunshine, and I had meant to snap a photo!

My own mama wasn't in town on Mother's Day...she was in Russell Springs with Sherry, Marilyn and my grandmother.  They got to spend the day with Grandmother, and I'm sure she was happy to have them there.  

Sherry, Mom, Marilyn and Grandmother

We went to the Hamilton's that night to celebrate Mother's Day and Claire's 15th birthday.  We had a nice night hanging out and visiting.

Fabulous night for the deck

Sarah and Claire doing crafts with Reese

Claire and her grandfather Bruce
(photo bombed by Susan!)

Claire received a really special gift from her grandmother, Helen.  Bruce had given Helen a beautiful scarab bracelet back in the '50s for a birthday gift, and she gave it to Claire that night.  Love family treasures!  There is absolutely nothing better.

So pretty!

Showing Helen how nice it looked 

Hugs for the special gift 

Lots of fun teenager goodies 

Claire and her mama

Three generations...Granny Shanny, Claire and Reese (Claire's
niece of course, not her daughter!) 

Happy to be their mom

Happy Birthday Claire!

Syd-Star

On Wednesday night we finally got to go see Sydney play some softball!  Between lacrosse and field hockey we always seem to have conflicts on her game nights, but this week we were free so we headed over to Providence to watch her team play Silver Creek.  They were raising funds that night for cancer awareness so the girls were wearing their pink and navy uniforms (they're so cute, I think they should wear them all the time!).  Syd played great...I think she has long softball career ahead of her!

Go Pioneers!

National Honor Society Induction

This last week Sarah and Tanner were both inducted into CAL's chapter of the National Honor Society.  Tanner had actually been inducted last year at Eastern, but having transferred to CAL this year he had to become an official member of their chapter.  I don't think he was too thrilled having to sit with all the new inductees, who were mostly sophomores.

Sarah was happy because for once she wasn't the last name in line ("T" Young comes after "S" Young!).  It's the little things that make her happy.  :-)

We harass Sarah a lot about her grades and not studying enough, but in reality we are super proud of her accomplishments.  Lord knows neither Lawrence or I were ever in NHS, so she's way ahead of us there!  

It has been fun having Tanner at CAL this year.  Sarah loves seeing her cousin around, and they've been able to hang out a lot with their mutual friends.

We are proud of these smarties!

Derby Weekend

Derby weekend was a fun one this year, and while we didn't go to the track on Derby Day, we did do some other fun things leading up to the big day.  On Thursday we went out to Churchill Downs with the Weises, Russells and Vargas.  We've gone out on Thursday (given an official name this year of "Thurby") with them the last several years, and it's become one of our favorite days at the track.  In fact, we had so much fun this year that I didn't even stop and think to take one single picture (shame on me!), so I'm going to include a throwback from last year's Thurby day.  Here is one of my favorites of Lawrence and me in front of the spires from 2013.

We stayed until the last race and then went to our traditional dinner at Z's in the neighborhood.  We laughed so much on this day...it was fun, fun, fun.

Somehow Sarah had sweet talked her dad into agreeing to take her and five of her friends to the Oaks this year (he is definitely the "fun" parent).  He got them a box and off they went that day for a fun day at the track.  

The day was a bit chilly but they all insisted they didn't need sweaters or wraps.  Having been at the track many a chilly day myself, I knew to send Lawrence with a bag of items, and late in the day he texted me a picture of them saying the wraps and the box lunches from Panera I sent with him were a good idea! 

The girls had fun hooking up with friends and the day appears to have been a success.  It's probably best I wasn't there, as I surely would have been a nervous wreck making sure they didn't get into any trouble in the infield!

That night we got to do something we've never done before...go to the infamous Barnstable Brown party.  Lawrence's friend Billy Collis gave the firm six tickets (they do work for him from time to time), and we all stepped out in to style to rub elbows with the stars.

The Firm - together for 20 years!

The party was such a fun spectacle to see...in some ways it was different from what I expected (the house itself is a bit tired), but in other ways it was just as I had pictured...lots of semi famous (and some really famous!) people, great food and music, and lots of over the top decor.  We had a ball, and I'm really glad we got to go.  

Me, Laura and Amy heading up the walk to the house

Checking out the pool

Watching Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert 

All the girls from Oaks spent the night, and we were all dragging on Saturday morning.  The day was beautiful outside, and after everyone went home Lawrence and I went and picked up flowers for the yard and I got all our spring planting done.  That evening Sarah went down the street to babysit for the Dezarns and we were all in bed by 10:30...not the most exciting Derby day ever, but definitely a great Derby weekend!