Paintsville, Kentucky Trip

Soooo... this blog post should have happened like.. 6 weeks ago. But better late than never, right?

Mid June we all went down to my paternal grandfather's family reunion in a rural eastern Kentucky city called Paintsville. I have been going to these reunions for as long as I can remember. They have been held at different parks, houses, cities but the last 8 years or so, they have been held in Paintsville at the Ramada Inn.

We traveled down a day early so that I could work on family history with a local historical society representative (who happened to be by 4th cousin, twice removed!). I am so glad we traveled down earlier, it was a great ride.. the kids did great and we had some quality family time before everyone else arrived.

Here we are at our picninc place. We ate at this same place two years ago with Lily. It's just past Portsmouth on the other side of the Ohio River in Kentucky

Enjoying sandwiches, sun chips, grapes and the sun



As for most little kids, most of the fun on vacations is swimming

On Thursday afternoon, I got to meet up with a lady named Jan at the local library and go through all kinds of books and records in their genealogical room. A person from our church let me borrow, what I call, his scan wand... a portable hand-held scanner. I zoomed through the documents, gathering about 75 that day.

Later that evening we went swimming with the kids, had delicious local pizza and then called it a day. The next day we traveled to a local working farm, but I'll make another post about that with it's own pictures. I took a ton of pictures this trip and they are too much for one post!

That afternoon, I met up with Jan again at the courthouse, where she had all the connections. We looked through marriage documents (from the early 1900's), land deeds, wills and testaments and war documents. It was absolutely amazing. I found the original land deed from 1848 in which the land was given to my 4th great grandfather and still owned by great Uncle Custard.

Later that day the rest of the family began to trickle in from all over. My siblings and mom arrived and we all headed out to dinner which was followed by ice cream.

Lily, Angela and I all had cookie monster cooke dough ice cream and it turned out tongues blue!



The next morning we toured places that held meaning to my grandfather with some of my aunts and uncles. I will make another post about this too, too many pictures.

Later that day, we had a huge BBQ at the Paintsville Lake state park. The food was delcious, there was a playground for Lily and we had lots of family to chat with. But boy was it h-o-t. My Uncle Chris from Texas arrived and got his picture with baby Rob.



Rob was such a trooper through this whole BBQ. We kept getting him wet to keep him cool and kept him in the shade. I think the kids lasted two hours or so? Pretty good for 90 degree weather with like 100% humidity.



Auntie Bree getting her loves in with bebe Roberto



Our family shot from the BBQ

After the picnic, my Mom's cousin from my grandmother's side came up to visit with us. We chatted with her and her husband and two kids for the rest of the day. Jordan and some of the boys went and bought fireworks, naturally. The came back with all kinds of stuff that we lit off on the 4th. The best fireworks we have bought to date!

We didn't end up leaving Paintsville until 10:00pm at night. I think that's the latest that Lily has stayed up in the short 2 1/2 years she's been alive. Ha! On the ride home, both kids were out. But every 45 minutes or so, Lily would moan and quitly weep.. not cry, just weep. I would throw myself into the back seat, try to squeeze between two car seats and then gently rub her face and tell her it's okay. It was so odd...she woke up the entire time home, which is about 4 hours. Right as we hit the 270 loop, about 15 minutes from home, the interstate got really bumpy. We hear a cough (warning sound) followed by vomit. I put half of my body in the backseat, hold her tired little head and her hair while Jordan takes off his shirt (while still driving) and gives it to me so Lily can puke in it, and not on her blankie and hippo.

...................

What a way to end a trip! She felt much better after that and I figured that's why she had been moaning, her belly was aching! Note to self: do not let your toddler stay up mad late, eat crazy greasy pizza, run around all over the place and then travel home in car. It will equal vomit, every time..!