Washington D.C. Horse Show

"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered."
 - G. K. Chesterton

The week after our wonderful experience horse back riding, I discovered that the Washington D.C horse show was coming the following weekend to the Verizon Center! So as a surprise for the girls I decided to buy our family discounted tickets to go Saturday on "family day".  Little did I know at the time that it was going to be one of the coldest, and wettest days for us to make the trek to D.C.!

I thought Faith looked cute with her Hello Kitty coat and matching umbrella! :-)

We parked at the NIH and took the Metro from the Medical Center. Here are some fun photos of our family while we were riding down to the trains in the elevator:

Jillian wearing her fleece, coat, hat and gloves and it was still October! I am a little concerned what this coming winter is going to look like. I am guessing, it's going to be really cold! 

Brad is such a good guy. Even if his face looks a little scared in this photo,  he's always up for an adventure.

My sweet girls and I ready for the fun to begin! 

The fun always starts for us on the Metro train! There were delays on the railways, but we we were prepared and brought Little House on the Prairie, and some reading flashcards to pass the time. 

I love sweet Anna's smile.

The first thing we did when we arrived at the Horse Show was get the big girls tattoos for their hands! 

Then Jillian took a photo with a "horse" and showed off her "I Love Horses" tattoo.

Faith was a little more serious with the horse but gave a small grin.

Little Anna did NOT like the horse at all! I am not sure if it was the horses's big eyes, her big nose, or what but she was not a fan.

Jillian and Faith gave the horse a big good-bye hug. 

Then Jillian played a game of horse-shoes.

She did a really great job and even got a few in the basket. 

Then it was Faith's turn to throw the horse-shoes.

She is a little shorter than Jillian, and it was a difficult game, so the sweet lady gave her a lift to help her try to get the horse-shoe into the basket.  Both of them won prizes for their good effort. 

Then it was horse-shoe painting time. 

The girls enjoying their lollipops while walking to our seats! (It was a sweet treat day, because they also were given a complimentary Georgetown chocolate cupcake!)

Daddy and Anna at the horse show! 

First, we watched a showing of horses. The horses did walking, trotting, cantering, and galloping.

Then we had a short intercession for the next competition to be set up. Anna had a good time just hanging out. 

Here the riders are walking the course to see what their horses are going to jump in the competition.  

It was really amazing and beautiful to watch the horses get all four of their legs off the ground at the same time.  ( I am not eloquent at describing what the horses were doing but to learn more about horse shows, I found this web-site Horse Shows 101. )

Anna eating some caramel popcorn.

I really enjoyed seeing all the names of the horses. One of the horses for instance was named "Firework". I thought that was a great horse name.

After the show, we went and did some exploring of some restaurants (that were in walking distance) that we were given coupons for at the horse show.  

It was a few block walk, but it was completely worth the cold walk, because we discovered the BEST BBQ place in all of D.C. (and we have been to several because of our family mission to find good BBQ in our new home). 

The name of the restaurant is Hill Country after the Texas Hill Country (where Brad and I honeymooned)!  It was a really nice, casual restaurant. 

We loved all their Texas Memorabilia. 

And their food was AMAZING! Already, I am looking forward to going back sometime soon! It will be worth the trip. 

Then we made our journey back home on the trains. Little Anna was exhausted by the time we got on the train and took a little cat nap in her stroller.

When we got back to the NIH, I had to go through security to get back on campus, and the girls looked at one of their new My Little Pony books from the horse show. 

It was extremely COLD when we got back to the NIH (by the way, the building above is where Brad works now).  I love this picture of Faith running with her umbrella hanging down.  

Faith had light sprinkle of snow in her hair. 

And we got home we were in for a big surprise when we discovered there was snow all over our car.... 

and our flowers too! It was a fun adventure and one I would do again in a heartbeat.  But I was thankful to get home to a warm house that afternoon. We had a pizza night that evening and played a couple of rounds of Sequence for Kids too. It was a good day of adventures and fun.