Nashville and Parelli Clinic

Stingray nose view up close! I fed one some shrimp and got a bloody knuckle! They are strong and their bite feels like a horse bite almost! Totally cool though! I probably wasn't holding the food just right anyway. Christian and I also got totally drenched in salt water. They have trained the rays that when someone has food they stick their nose up out of the water like in this picture and they they jump and flap around for you to give them the food. And no, the employee on staff didn't warn us of that at all!Bottom feeder in the tank that cleans up all the shrimp pieces the rays miss
I love how they just swim right up the side of the tank like this. It makes them very easy to pet. And they are so soft, especially the baby ones.
Boys outside the stingray place
the bigger picture...
on the carousel. They let you go as many times as you want, and Aricin wanted to go a lot. Niels got dizzy!
Niels and Christian enjoying the rays
Niels and Aricin posing for a picture
Duck and I at the clinic during our last private lesson

Yesterday we just got back from spending 4 days near Nashville, TN. I was attending a 4 day Parelli horse camp (clinic) with my horse Duck under the expert guidance of 5* Parelli Professional, Carol Coppinger. More about the clinic will be posted in my horse blog so feel free to click on that if you want to read more about the horsey side of the trip and Parelli clinic.

Niels and the boys came along and Niels played Mr. Mom and travel dad while we were there. I was in my clinic from 8am to about 7pm each day, so Niels was an angel and had the boys all that time as well as being sweet enough to drive the truck and trailer 7 hours each way. (Can you say SUPER husband?)

They did a lot, but I don't have a lot of pictures for a couple of reasons.

1. He kept forgetting the camera

2. When I remembered the camera for him it was dead!

They had a great time and Niels did a wonderful job of keeping them busy around Nashville. They went mini golfing, to the driving range, they swam at the hotel pool (brrr, it wasn't heated), they went to the movies and saw "Night at the Museum 2", the Adventure Science Center, and the Nashville Zoo. On the last day I got out a bit earlier so we went to the Opry Mills Mall which was right next to the Grand Ole Opry.

At the mall we visited a place called Stingray Reef where there are 20-30 stingrays you can pet and feed shrimp to as well as a carousel.

The stingray reef is owned by the Aquarium resturaunt and that was a cool place. On the way out of the reef, Aricin needed to go potty and the reef place sent us across the hall to the Aquarium restaurant to use the restroom. Well the restroom was close to the back and the whole place has salt water aquariums akin to Vegas! Huge, with archways where they swim above you, with big sharks and huge schools of fish and coral etc. Needless to say it was a very long trip to the bathroom with both boys to which I got a text from Niels that simply read "did you fall in?" :)

Needless to say, I signed up on the spot for next years clinic. And I am sure the boys will once again get to visit Nashville.