Just the three of us
The Midwest Horse Fair is this weekend, starting today. I hadn't planned on going to it, but thought it looked interesting, and filed it away so it would get put on the calendar early next year. As J. and I were talking about it, he decided I should go for the day. (He's great like that.) On a whim, I thought it would be fun to take G. and L. (my most horse-loving children who are in the country) with me. When I asked them about it, they were extremely excited by the idea.
We are back home now after four hours of driving (round trip) and nine hours at the fair. We had a wonderful time together and though it would have been far less expensive if I had gone by myself, it was worth every penny to have them with me. I don't get to do things very often with just my two youngest, whom I realize aren't quite so terribly young anymore.
They were troopers. We were up at five and out of the house by five-thirty. They sat through a couple of jumping clinics which they weren't all that terribly interested in, but sat quietly and patiently. They sat through a couple of sessions that didn't have any horses and were just talking. They walked and walked and walked in the very cold weather. (Yes, snow was coming down on us at one point.) Food was acquired at odd times and sometimes they were hungry and had to wait. We passed many, many items in the vendor hall that they both thought looked really enticing but that we left behind without buying. And people spoke to them and they replied back.
All of the things on that list were things that were extremely challenging for one or both girls for a very long time. There were years where I just expected a melt down whenever we went somewhere because of hunger of frustration or both. One girl was even a runner who would run away from us in public if she was too upset and frustrated. This was our reality for years.
So, not only did we have a fantastic day together, we had a fantastic day without any hard behaviors. Given the list of things these girls navigated today, I am just a little overwhelmed by far they have come.
As we sat eating dinner tonight before the drive home, one of them asked what each of our favorite thing was that we did or saw. They each had quite a list of favorites from the blacksmith competition to the various horses we saw to the various driving carts and horses. G. in particular has decided that learning to drive a horse would be something she is very interested in. Probably the drill team was both of the girls' absolute favorite thing and now their goal is to ride well enough to do something like that when they are older.
It was one of those magical days that you want to bottle up and keep. And it was certainly worth every single penny.
These are a couple of driving demonstration booths.
Here G. and L. got to see what it would be like to hold the reins for a team of six horses.
And who doesn't love miniature donkeys. G. and L. wanted me to take a picture of these for P., who kind of adores miniature donkeys.
We are back home now after four hours of driving (round trip) and nine hours at the fair. We had a wonderful time together and though it would have been far less expensive if I had gone by myself, it was worth every penny to have them with me. I don't get to do things very often with just my two youngest, whom I realize aren't quite so terribly young anymore.
They were troopers. We were up at five and out of the house by five-thirty. They sat through a couple of jumping clinics which they weren't all that terribly interested in, but sat quietly and patiently. They sat through a couple of sessions that didn't have any horses and were just talking. They walked and walked and walked in the very cold weather. (Yes, snow was coming down on us at one point.) Food was acquired at odd times and sometimes they were hungry and had to wait. We passed many, many items in the vendor hall that they both thought looked really enticing but that we left behind without buying. And people spoke to them and they replied back.
All of the things on that list were things that were extremely challenging for one or both girls for a very long time. There were years where I just expected a melt down whenever we went somewhere because of hunger of frustration or both. One girl was even a runner who would run away from us in public if she was too upset and frustrated. This was our reality for years.
So, not only did we have a fantastic day together, we had a fantastic day without any hard behaviors. Given the list of things these girls navigated today, I am just a little overwhelmed by far they have come.
As we sat eating dinner tonight before the drive home, one of them asked what each of our favorite thing was that we did or saw. They each had quite a list of favorites from the blacksmith competition to the various horses we saw to the various driving carts and horses. G. in particular has decided that learning to drive a horse would be something she is very interested in. Probably the drill team was both of the girls' absolute favorite thing and now their goal is to ride well enough to do something like that when they are older.
It was one of those magical days that you want to bottle up and keep. And it was certainly worth every single penny.
(G. is in the hat)
These are a couple of driving demonstration booths.
Here G. and L. got to see what it would be like to hold the reins for a team of six horses.
And who doesn't love miniature donkeys. G. and L. wanted me to take a picture of these for P., who kind of adores miniature donkeys.
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