the oaks. part 2 of derby weekend.

on friday, we got all dressed up and pretty and went to churchill downs for a day of racing and the the oaks (the oaks is for the fillies). kyle's dad had given us the rover for the weekend so that thankfully kyle could do all the driving and i didn't have to worry about it. he also gave us his vip valet parking pass which was nice, but we had to wait in some looooooong lines! her dad takes a police escorted limo in order to avoid the lines. we could have gone with him, but we wanted to have a car at our disposal for later in the evening. her dad had also given us 4 tickets to his 3rd floor clubhouse box (there are 6 seats total per box).


on our way to the oaks. we were stopped in traffic and taking photos. that's kyle's hat with pretty fresh flowers. smelled so good!


we had just dropped our car off at valet after taking forever in traffic! we are just outside of churchill downs. the best part of valet was that we didn't have as far to walk in our heels!

once we got there, we roamed around for a bit... got some food, and of course our drinks! the official drink of the day is called the lily. it was cranberry, vodka, lemonade, sprite... something something. not sure, but it was delicious! so we had a few of those along with a bunch of beer.


this is a view of the downs. it is overlooking the paddock.


this is one of the jockeys... we saw several of them sitting/hanging out up there. we couldn't get close to them b/c it was a different area, but we could see them. so cute!


setting up for the horsies!

at one point, we went over to find my cousin ben and my uncle jim. ben had taken jim to the oaks and derby for his 70th birthday present. jim is a big race horse fan and at one point owned an interest in a race horse and was writing a book about racing (if i recall correctly!). they were sitting a rather far walk away (for heel wearing) and in the 114 section so they weren't allowed to come up and visit us. i stayed and chatted with them for awhile and then headed back to our box to do some betting! and ok, some more drinking!


my little cousin ben, me, and uncle jimbo (as his daughter lovingly calls him)



i'm in kyle's hat... and we are drinking lilies here


johan, kyle, me and sheri in our box. we had fantastic seat. a BIG HUGE GINORMOUS thank you to kyle and her dad for giving us this amazing opportunity!!!


the spires in the background: me, sheri, and kyle



horsie #5 won the oaks just for us! every horse in every race both days either won, placed or showed for us and we won itty bitty amounts of money that we kept reinvesting. we each put in 10 bucks as our original bet!

after the oaks, we went to a restaurant called, equus, for a sit down dinner with her dad and like 50 of his best friends. it was delicious!! and there was plenty of wine being served... so after dinner, we were all quite ready to head.... home?! nahhhhhhh, we had more drinking to do.... every year kyle goes to bardstown road and to molly malone's so that's where we headed after a delicious dinner. i may or may not have eaten the leftovers of other people's plates!!! but when so much good food (and 5 courses) are served... i mean... what's there to do, but eat it all?! i wish i'd taken pics and could describe the food better for you, hol, but unfortunately i didn't. i remember there being: a king prawn, salad, halibut course, beef course, and dessert. at molly's, we met some of kyle's friends and made some new ones and had a bunch of drinks. what a great day!