Rolex Recap I - Cross Country

 Rolex was the best anniversary trip ever!  We had so much fun!  I'm sorry it has taken me a week to get around to watermarking photos.  I've been so busy.

We drove all day Friday to get to Kentucky.  As we were approaching Lexington we found out that there were severe storms coming with a threat of tornadoes for Saturday.  As you all know we had intended on camping.... but we were quickly changing our minds.  Best case scenario is we would have been extremely uncomfortable (it was so cold at night, lots of rain and wind, etc.) and worst case scenario we could have been flooded out of our tent, have it damaged by hail (I'm so thankful we never had any hail!) or wind, etc.  The only problem was that all the hotels in Lexington were booked!!

We were very fortunate to find a total stranger on Facebook who was not coming because of the weather and offered to switch her hotel reservation over to us!  It was such a relief!!  It was a cheap hotel (no breakfast, coffee maker, microwave, fridge, etc.) but it was clean, comfortable and warm so I was extremely grateful!  We made it to the hotel with mere minutes to spare before the check in deadline, switched the hotel to our name, paid for it and settled in for the night.

Saturday was cold and wet!!  I stupidly (against the advice of hubby) wore my sneakers.... I was soaked from the knees down in no time.  :\  I did eventually go back to the car and switch into my mud boots and was much more comfortable after that (and of course the rain decided to stop at that point lol).

I texted, emailed and Facebooked a bunch of blogger friends before Rolex, but somehow only managed to meet one!  Monica from Chasing The Dream!!  Her blog is one of my favorites so it was really cool getting to meet and hang out with her.  :)  She sadly drowned her phone after getting back home and lost all of her pictures so I shared these with her that I took.

Her awesome Levi was cold so he wore one of her t-shirts.  :)

Levi walking with us through the booths.

Levi keeping warm while we watched 

cross country in the rain (they were under an umbrella).

My hubby holding Levi while Monica 

packed up her chair so we could go to the next jump.

Here we were checking out the stadium jumps.

And the cross country jumps.

This was my favorite of them posing in one of the skinnies hehe.

If you haven't seen her blog before be sure to check it out where I linked it above.  She's a lot of fun.  Oh and there were TONS of gorgeous dogs at Rolex!!  So many Corgis (and I somehow didn't manage to get a picture of a single one??)!!

Here is a random puppy I saw!!

While waiting for it to start I got this picture

 of people by the jump to show how big it is.

Now here are the photos you've all been waiting for!  Cross country!!  It was very difficult getting pictures.  Between the rain, all the umbrellas in front and around me, people sticking their phones and cameras up in my shots right as I hit the shutter button, etc. it was very difficult.  However I'm very happy with the photos I ended up with.  They aren't perfect, but for the circumstances they are great!  Watching Rolex cross country in person was so amazing!  I will never forget the rush of watching these top riders and horses powering around the course in extremely uncomfortable conditions (COLD & RAIN).

 I love this shot except for the raindrop over the horse's face...

 

 This picture is actually really cool.  I didn't zoom in for this shot.

It shows the crowds we were having to deal with.

 For comparison here is a zoomed in shot.

I accidentally moved the camera when I took this one so it's really blurry.

 It was so awesome!!!!  I didn't get very many pictures because of the weather and crowds, but I love the ones I got.  After the last rider they let everyone out on the course to see the jumps.  I got my picture on a bunch of them (table, log, keyhole, etc.), but they were with friends of mine who probably don't want their pictures on the blog, so I'll just share these two...

Me at the keyhole after they took down the signs and flowers.

This was actually on Sunday when the weather was a million times better.

Hubby standing on the keyhole on Saturday when the signs and flowers were still there.  :)

The security horses were gorgeous!  And huge!  

The bay is a Thoroughbred/Percheron.  I didn't ask about the others, 

but they probably are too.

 My friends and I also took our picture with this popular statue.

 We also hunted through all the names on this horseshoe ball and found...

 Got to meet her and get her autograph on Saturday after the cross country.

 Might have to click to enlarge, but hubby found Anky too!

I have a million more pictures and stories to share (took 900 pictures!), but they will have to wait for another post.  This one is getting long!!

P.S.  I'm back posting this to yesterday, so sorry for any confusion.