Culpeper Trip (The Backlog!)

 We tend to get horse visitors on weekends.

Oh, don't mind me. Just taking pictures. I let the dogs out to make them interesting. Keep talking to make it look natural.

Shane has gotten a lot better about taking care of his chores early. He wants electronics!

Frankly, I think we let him do too much electronics, but I don't have a great alternative that fits our situation, either. I only have so much spare social energy upon reaching the weekend and that's usually loads more than Carrie has. 

Today, though, Carrie requested a family trip. She hadn't been up to see Beau in a couple of weeks and wanted company. We had nothing else going on, so Shane and I hopped in the car. He got to bring the Switch, because he'd done his Japanese practice and cleaned the cat pots before we left.

Our first stop was at a dry cleaners (boring). Our next stop was at Yoder's (hooray!). Carrie bribed us with lunch.

Shane hammed it up the moment he saw me pull out my phone. 

Yoder's is over halfway to Ironwood where the fjord herds beckoned Carrie forward.

Beau turned around and watched as Carrie came up (and a pair of deer watched in the background). 

Carrie's visited enough that Beau's not afraid of her. He probably thinks of her as the human most likely to give him itches.

Shane initially said he was going to stay in the car. However, he can't stand to miss out.

Carrie told him to back off for the moment after he caused a minor kerfuffle, though. 

Carrie calmed things down and got more of her Beau time in.

Shane got a chance to talk to a few fjords along the fence line.

If you like baby horses, we were in the right spot. The foals welcomed attention.

Everypony kept an eye on the proceedings, though. Herd instincts drive horses.

What has continuously surprised Carrie is how friendly the herd's stallion, Blitzen, is.

Normally, she would never allow Shane access to a stallion on his own. If Blitzen was a butthead, we might not have a baby fjord.

And no, I never went in. Horses make me go achoo. I was content to take pictures.

Fjords are a chonkier breed of ponies, but Carrie finds them cute.

Maybe that means I could put on a few more pounds. She'd have more of me to love!

Excuse me. I was trying to take pictures.

It wasn't a long visit, but Carrie got her Beau time in.

Shane commando crawled back out and went back to the car.

Carrie said her goodbyes to Beau and his mom, Josefine. We left a check to pay the remainder of what we owed Margaret for Beau and headed home.

While it wasn't a kid centric trip, I think it's good for Shane to go on outings. It's shared time as a family. 

And if he's creative, he can learn to complain in comedic ways! The best stories tend to come from the extremes. No one likes whining, but if you can turn it into a fun tale then at least your life won't be boring because it's empty.