Churchill Downs Family Fun Day!

Today the family decided to take a trip to Churchill Downs Family Fun Day. It was definitely an interesting experience!

Y'all know that we are a military family, and a LARGE one, at that. We aren't from around here. So when we have the opportunity for some family adventuring, we try and pick things we have never done, and things that are not going to completely incapacitate our budget. Churchill Downs fit the bill! We have never been to a horse race. In fact, only the 9 year old even watched the Derby on T.V. And the best part was that the admission is only $3 for adults. With the Veterans Day discount, our total cost of entry was $3 for parking and $3 for my admission. SCORE!

We were determined to get the full effects of the race track, so we made 2 bets. We nearly broke the bank with our $9 in bets! Having no idea how to pick a winning race horse, or what the numbers next to the horses names on the jumbotron mean, we picked by cute jockey outfits (costumes? uniforms?). One of them was wearing American flag type of colors, so he was our chosen jockey. We bet $5 and then another $4 for something to the effect that if he and #3 came in first and second we would also win. Apparently we also do not know how to bet on race horses. I need a horse race betting for dummies class.

After stumbling through our bet, we then had to figure out where to find the track. After some wandering, we managed to find it. We picked a little space near the curve and the finish line and watched. It was pretty cool to see the horses thundering by, but it was very anticlimactic, and we all felt a little let down when it was over. We did not win, by the way. Our pretty horse came in 4th, though!

After the race, we found the Jr. Jockey Club. They had some face painting, pumpkin painting, pumpkin bowling and funny horse hats. AND we got to talk to Charlie the horse. Jack was completely fascinated with the Horse, and would not leave until he had bro-fisted about 22 times. Lucy got her face painted and she and I walked around the rest of the afternoon with horse hats on our heads. She tried out the pumpkin bowling too. Alex and jack and Lucy painted mini pumpkins and then we spent about 20 minutes following Jack who was following the Horse and waving and bro-fisting.

We caught another race, which was a bit more exciting. The stands had started to fill up and the crowds excitement was really contagious. We all picked out a horse and cheered for ours to win.

We headed over to the Derby Museum thinking that would be a good way to fill out the rest of the afternoon, but it would cost $49 for us to enter the museum, so we decided to leave that for another day. While I can't say we will ever go back to Churchill Downs as a family outing, it was interesting. I think the big boys and I may do a small unit study on horse racing and how to bet.

On our way home we hit up ColdStone Creamery and Half Price Books. I walked away with a slow cooker book, a Raw Gourmet book and Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food. A pretty good haul!

Hope your Sunday was as fun as mine!

Check out the rest of the pictures from today on our FaceBook Page, Let's Go, Fort Knox!