talk derby to me... part one.

we arrived to louisville on thursday before derby. like last year, we stayed with kyle's dad and his wife, ingrid. kyle's dad and ingrid are marvelous entertainers and this year they hosted a gorgeous dinner (we did not attend) and something like 50 guests. among the guests was a magician who stayed for the weekend. after the other guests had left, we got a private show of his upclose magic skills - and he is so much fun to watch and super talented!

one of the tricks involved a deck of cards and us writing our names on one card of our choosing. ultimately he throws the deck of cards up on the ceiling and poof! our card is the one sticking to the ceiling! i know i can't describe it nearly as awesomely as it was performed, but trust me - it was awesome!! and funny enough, the cards stick up there so strongly that he knows someone who still has a card on the ceiling from 7 years ago... there are now several cards with various names on the ceiling at kyle's dad's house.

on every friday before the running of the derby, the fillies run the oaks. it's an all day affair and generally speaking the color of the day is pink: pink ribbons decorating the downs, pink drinks in the form of the official drink of the day - the lily (no idea what's in it, but it is tasty!), and a tribute to susan g komen's race for the cure. It's also a day where the fashion is slightly less dressy and while some where hats and fascinators, it is certainly not a requirement like at the derby.

stefanie, kyle and me at her dad's house prior to heading to churchill downs for the oaks.

kyle's dad always gives her tickets and this year we had a couple extra. we had their 3rd floor clubhouse box again and also a couple tickets to her dad's suite. that's right, we roll in style!!

me and kyle in her dad's suite. later in the day as more people were getting drunk, i heard many times how 'shiny' my dress was. yes, folks, it's called sequins!

with the spires behind us.

all of the ladies this year: me, kyle, trish, and stefanie

kyle and i had to pick our horsies. we were very scientific... we picked based on name. we did ohhhhhkay.

overlooking the paddock we found a couple friends from chicago: trish, jordan, stefanie, kyle, ron and me. the day had started off a bit rainy, but the sun came out and it became so nice!

up in the suite: we kept running up and down between the suite and the clubhouse as the suite had free drinks and delicious food - not that i ate much food other than those delicious cookies and mini cupcakes!!

here is the magician, mio, doing some of his card tricks. he was a lot of fun!

back at the 3rd floor clubhouse: me, kyle, stef and trish were having a blast!

after the day at the races, we went to pick up our car which we'd parked in someone's lawn. since the traffic was pretty terrible, we decided to sit on a front porch and have a glass of wine.

and then we headed to a dinner that kyle's dad was able to make reservations for us at. it was so delicious!!!

omg, lobster pot pie, lobster tail, and mashed potatoes. delicious!!!! i could have had several plates of this stuff...

after dinner, you might be thinking we headed home after such a long day. you'd be wrong! we went to molly malone's which gets super SUPER packed during derby weekend. it's crazy! while there we found a couple more of kyle's friends. here's kyle, stef, trish and justin.

and here we all are! we were out way too late, but we had a great time... and even night capped it with some pizza from the place next door. delicious!!