Memorial Day Weekend

I had a very fun-filled weekend.  It started out kind of slow, with not much going on Saturday.  I tried to ride but couldn't catch Bingo, so that didn't happen.  Jake and I did make a yummy dinner though!  We had Hawaiian barbecue chicken and this potato, broccoli, and sausage dish that we learned from someone who we met while grilling a while back.

Sunday started out with a great service at church.  We had a visiting minister from Africa give the sermon.  Afterwards, we were served ethnic food from Africa which was really yummy while we were able to stop at all these booths to see how we could help minister to those in Africa.  Jake and I ended up sponsoring a child in Kenya.  His name is Benard and he's adorable.  I'll have to post a picture of him later.  We get to write to him and send him pictures and he'll write back to us about 3 times/year.  As far as sponsoring goes, it will ensure he is able to go to school and has clothes and is able to learn about Christianity at his school. 

Afterwards, we headed out to the west coast to go to various marinas and look at boats.  Despite the stormy weather, it was a lot of fun. 

Here's a cool wooden sailboat we found.

I started out Monday by going riding.  Luckily I was able to text someone at the barn and have Bingo left in so that I didn't have to worry about catching her out in the pasture.  I decided to try riding her without her martingale, just to see how she'd be.  We rode outside in the dressage ring.  She was ok.  They got some new horses in and one of the new horses was in a pasture by itself and whinnying and they were bringing horses in and out, so it was quite distracting.  We didn't canter, but got some nice trot work in the end.  Bingo is definitely better with the martingale, but I think I might try riding her without it once a week just to see how she does and hopefully help gradually wean her off of it.  After our ride, we rode up to the jump arena again and just kind of walked around while chatting to Ashley and Maddie.  Bingo got a bath afterwards since it was so hot out.  She was really good and stood while I held her and hosed her off.  Then she got to go back out to the pasture, which she was excited about.

Getting ready to ride.

Trotting out to eat grass afterwards.

So nice and clean and shiny after her bath!

The rest of Monday was spent at the pool, where I got an awful sunburn (but only on my back... this might lead to an interesting tan!)  Then Jake and I snuck away to set up for his roommate's surprise party.  We decorated the whole apartment (well, Jake's other roommate and I did, Jake just kind of stood there) along with the birthday boy's car.  He was completely surprised and his girlfriend was so excited to have pulled it off.  We spent some time grilling hot dogs and spent the rest of the afternoon playing frisbee (I learned this cool new throw!  Although it took me a few hours to get the hang of it, haha) and then playing Nerz. 

Overall a very fun weekend!