A horse-filled visit

Last week my mom came down to visit for a few days. She hadn't been down to visit for over a year and it was her birthday, so we took the opportunity to celebrate in a couple different ways. First of all, my mom is a horse fanatic, so what better way to celebrate than 1) watch the horse races and 2) go horseback riding, which we did! Unfortunately, Noah had to work both days my mom was visiting, so he couldn't join us on our outings (or maybe fortunately for him because he's not a big fan of horses.) :)


The horse races at Del Mar were pretty exciting. This was my first time going to any type of horse races and there's a whole horse-racing culture that I didn't even know existed. I tried my hand at betting on one race and my horse actually came in first! My total profit came to a whopping $2.20.


Horseback riding was also quite an adventure. We went out of a place in the South Bay and got to take our horses along Imperial Beach. We actually rode right up to the CA/Mexico border fence. Also, along the ride back to the stables, my horse stopped on the trail and decided to sit down! It was quite startling because I thought for sure she was going to start rolling around in the dirt, which would not have been good with me sitting on her back. Just as the guide was about to tell me to jump off, she quickly got back up and we were on our way. Phew!


Overall, my mom and I had a great few days together during her visit to San Diego! Pictures are included below...

Mom and daughter at the Del Mare race track

And they're off...

Crossing the finish line

My winning horse

The scoreboard showing my winnings

On the trail to the beach

Approaching Imperial Beach

The border fence with Mexico in the background

The end of the trail. This isn't the most flattering picture, but after 3 hours on a horse, our butts, knees, legs, and backs were aching and we were ready to get back on the ground!

Olympics

Is everyone else out there enjoying the Olympics as much as we are?! WOW, it has been so exciting! We have been putting our new DVR to good use this past week.

Of course, the Michael Phelps journey was awesome to watch, but there have been lots of other exciting events, such as men's and women's gymnastics, women's indoor volleyball (USA's win against Poland was a close call!), men's and women's diving, and various track and field events. There's just something about watching the best athletes in the world display their talent that we find so riveting and inspiring. Yay for the Olympics!

P.S. Let's go USA!!

The Vaccine Book

So, I just finished reading "The Vaccine Book" (pictured above). I read this book for two reasons: 1) I work with children with Autism and there is a lot of controversy surrounding the issue of vaccines being linked to Autism and 2) Noah and I hope to have kids of our own in the future, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to read up on the issue.


I found the tone of the book to be good; the author provides a lot of information regarding the pros and cons of getting or not getting each vaccine and basically leaves it up to the reader to decide what they would do for their child based on all the information presented. The fact that the book is not blantantly pro- or anti-vaccine is refreshing. However, after reading this book, I feel a little overwhelmed by the whole vaccine issue. There's so much information regarding the pros and cons of vaccines. At the end of the book though, the author provides an alternate vaccine schedule for those parents who still want to get vaccines, but in a way that doesn't bombard their child with multiple vaccines at once. This seems like something to consider....


Also, the book is eye-opening in the sense that it gives information on the specific ingredients that are in vaccines...formaldehyde, fetal cow blood, monkey kidney cells...yikes! Monkey kidney cells...who knew?!

Anyway, this was definitely an interesting read. I think I may need to read it again (and maybe some other info) before actually making a decision on the issue. It's good to be informed though because at one point in the book, when talking about the Hep B vaccine, the author says, "Parents should be aware that some hospitals give the hep B vaccine to babies without discussing it with the parents first" (pg. 53). Wow, that's a little scary.

So, for any of you out there that read this blog and want to weigh in on the vaccine issue, I'd love to hear your viewpoint. Please leave a comment!