YoutubeTuesday-Our first pony rides

I spent last week underway on the Navy’s newest destroyer TRUXTUN for her acceptance trials.  The ship performed very well and was blessed by the top navy Inspection command (INSURV).  It was great to get back to sea and put a ship through her paces, which included four hours at full power, crash back, highspeed turns, astern steering, missile firings, and gun shoots.  During all the fun I met a lady who lives in the area and helps with ship architecture during the week.  We got to talking and I found out that she also has a weekend business providing pony rides and a petting zoo for birthdays and special occasions.  She asked if I had children and if I thought they would enjoy getting close to the animals.  I was quite certain that both Binh and Ava would enjoy something like this.  Given that our German Shepard is about the size of a small pony, I did not think either child would be frightened by the ponies or horses.  That assumption turned out to be correct.  The kids had the time of their lives.  Pardon my strange squat in the picture above.  The ponies were actually quite short and I couldn’t hold onto the kids any other way.  The two videos this week are of Ava and Binh’s first pony rides (respectively).  Ava’s video has a bit of comedy in it toward the end.  Go Red Sox!