Spectacular Bid

it was 1979, May 5. i can see it now, my 9 month pregnant mother standing at attention in the living room belting out "My Old Kentucky Home" by Stephen Foster. my ears perked up at the outside world, and knew something special was happening. it all began with the winning of Spectacular Bid. i was born two days later.

even when you move away from kentucky, if your parents bleed blue something remains in you. tradition, culture, something so special that you know you need to be a part of it. that's how i've always felt about the kentucky and the derby epitomizes it for me. the first saturday in may is a holiday in my world, and every couple of years falls upon my birthday. although this year my birthday comes later, today we celebrated my 30th year in tandem.

because i have an amazing husband, and because i have amazing friends, and because i have an amazing family i had the best birthday party of my life. i've had some good ones along the way, but this one took the cake. it was a combo, a roller-skating/ ketucky derby party or "kentucky roller derby". we did the limbo, ate hot brown bruschetta, destroyed a beautiful hat cake, drank Ale8, and watched the derby of course. my horse lost but it didn't matter, today i should have been given the roses because i felt so special. and yes, my mother sang "My Old Kentucky Home" as usual.

***my camera wasn't charged for the first half so i didn't get to take very many photos myself, maybe that's good once in a while..... but thanks to the people i stole some of these photos from, you're the best.