All the pretty little horses

We've been in Kentucky for over a year now, if you can believe it. Seems like only yesterday that we were saying goodbye to Germany. In that year, we have been to Missouri, to Virginia, to North Carolina (twice), to Florida (three times), to Tennessee, to Alabama, to Utah, and even back to Germany, but we really haven't seen much of Kentucky.

So when my friend Ivy emailed to say that she and her kids would be visiting family here, I thought it would be great if we could meet up at someplace distinctly Kentuckian. That is how we came to be at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington one Sunday last month.

Ivy and I met through our homeschooling support group in Hawaii back when Mike was a second grader. Mike and Ivy's son Will became huge buddies, and we all had fun exploring Oahu together. Here's a picture of the kids from our whale-watching fieldtrip:



What a difference 6 years makes--here's a picture of the boys at the horse park:



The horse park itself was quite impressive. We got to see Man O' War's grave:



And we watched the parade of breeds show:



The horse park is dedicated to making sure that nobody leaves without understanding just how gosh-darn VERSATILE the horse is. Why, even the versatility is versatile. Ah, the versatile horse. You know how if you say or hear the same word often enough it starts to sound like nonsense? And so it was with "versatile":



By the end of the day, we were hot and tired, and the kids enjoyed hamming it up on the wooden rocking horse in the museum gift shop:



All in all, it was a fantastic way to spend the day. I just hope it doesn't take another 6 years for us to get together with Ivy and Will again!

• All my unedited pictures from that day are here.