Steeplechase 2011

Steeplechase is one of our favorite days of the year. 

We love to host our friends and family and enjoy the beautiful Kentucky Horse Park in the spring.  

The kids love it as much as the adults. 

Clara, MiMi and Ava

Lunch is served!

Steve entertaining Aunt Anne and Mary.

Grace Anne, my greatest helper. 

The Singers made their debut showing. 

I have a feeling we can expect them next year!

The Holly and Steve Show

We were also glad The Sloans came out.

Is he cute or what?

I don't mean to brag... 

but, I did win Best Theme 2011 for our Tailgate! 

As Lee said so well, "Validation at last."

Well, the entire day couldn't be glamorous. 

We had a huge rainstorm which ran anyone with sense out. 

We stayed.  And stayed.  And stayed. 

It certainly took a turn at that point. 

I told you things went a little off track after the rainstorm. 

Lee brought our Mule to pick up and drop off our friends at their cars.  Well during all of our fun, someone misplaced the key. 

We looked for several hours.  I mean really. 

Finally we tried to all push it onto the trailer

- including poor Ava in her Lilly dress!  With a baby driving??? 

But a great time was had by all.

Home sweet home.

Preparing for the Tetrathalon

I am so sorry it has been soooo very long since I have posted.
I have so much to add! The girls are having a fantastic summer.

This week Grace Anne went to Pony Club Camp for a few days, which is preparing her for the Tetrathalon Rally she will do this weekend. What is that you ask? She will swim, run, ride and shoot! She and her friend Claire will share Marble, their beloved Draft. It will be 2 full days and I think we will have a ball - well maybe not for Ava. Ava does love to practice the shooting part though...

Oscar Weekend

In February, Jackie won us tickets to go to the Oprah Show after many years of trying! We had a 2 week notice to fly to L.A. for her After Oscar taping. We jumped on it as quickly as possible and invited Bobby to meet us there!

Saturday - The three of us flew in and met at LAX. We got checked into our room in Beverly Hills and went out for lunch at The Farmers Market. We were starving, thanks to the poor treatment we received by the flight industry.

Jackie and Bobby

We shopped a little in the 90210 and then drove over to the Hills at sunset to see the city light up at night.

Sunday - Now y'all know that I am a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills addict. Well now I am a stalker - oops I mean fan. I googled several addresses from last seasons show, including the 60,000 square foot home of Lisa Vanderpump's friend Mohammad Hadid, a real estate developer. So... we found some nice neighborhoods.

Beautiful background - with so many climates in California, you could see the snow-capped mountains behind the lush green trees.

Enough stalking - I mean touring. We headed off to Santa Barbara and Montecito for the day.

We lunched in Santa Barbara at Pierre Lafond's, the brother of a friend of Jackie's from Nashville. We later shopped at Pierre's wife's store, where I bought a beautiful cashmere sweater.

Jackie invited a local acquaintance, Liz, to meet us and tell us about the area - well she was sooo much more than that! She gave us an unbelievable tour of Montecito.

Situated overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean, is the Four Seasons. Liz took us on a tour as if she owned it. A gorgeous property with Spanish influence, it is definitely a place I would travel back. http://www.fourseasons.com/santabarbara/

But, the best was yet to come...

OMG... http://www.sanysidroranch.com/ For the discriminating traveler, which I completely identify with. The grounds are breath taking.

Do not plan to do anything here but get plenty of R & R.

Actually it and many more of Montecito's fabulous must-see's are owned by the Beanie Baby creator, Ty Warner.

Now you didn't think I would come to Montecito without stalking Oprah did you? Here is her Service Entry... Sorry, we couldn't see the main gate.

A fantastic day!!!

Monday - The Oprah Show Experience.

Jackie and I got up around 4 am to get ready as we had to be at the parking lot at.... okay, I am not going to go into the details. I can't bare to relive it. Let's summarize: We went, we stood in line, Oprah was sick, we left and went to The Beverly Hills Hotel to drown our sorrows in $30 a glass Veuve!

We had the most amazing lunch and sat by Valentino. That's right.

All in all, an amazing trip.

We had so much fun and laughed til we cried. What a blessed life we live!