Scared Straight!

In an effort to scare these wayward homeschoolers of mine into changing their ways, we took a little field trip to the Houston Police Museum and the Police Horse Stables. 

They didn't get scared, but we did have fun. And, it was totally free!

The Police Museum is a neat little place, across the street from us. It took us about 8 weeks of being here to visit. Typical, right?

Some awesome firearm that I'm sure was used for something really significant,
or has some special feature, or took out some really infamous bad guy.

Display of all the badges of officers killed in the line of duty. So sad.
My girls and I got on our knees prayed for the families left behind.

Cutesy.

Remember back in the day when the police would go to schools and talk about safety
and DARE and whatnot? Well, this robot and the car below would go, too! So cute. 

It's for Sheriff Barbie!

Then, we met some friends at the Horse Stables. Houston has about 36 horses in the Mounted Division. This was really neat. The cops just visited with us and answered my 87 questions!  Love that! You can bring carrots and apples to feed the horses. We also learned that they love peppermints. Presh!
We learned that they don't train the horses with the 'overexposure' method anymore. I had asked about the horses getting spooked with the traffic and the rail and whatnot, but one of the policemen told us that they have learned that if the owner doesn't make a big deal about it, the horse won't, either. Just like our kids, right!?
Also, the horses are donated. There are certain specs, but they will train younger or older horses. Companies can also sponsor the horses for $5,000 a year, the cost of maintaining the horse. Less expensive than a squad car, they told us. So, for the sponsorship, the horse gets a nickname showcasing the business. Snazzy.

The kid was in heaven.

This is Nacho, maybe he was sponsored by Moe's or something. (I don't really know that.)

This was hilarious. Justice making a scary face.
This is the Scared Straight trip, after all.

This is Spirit (He is sponsored by Spirit of Texas Bank.) making a funny face.

Spirit (his real name is Shadow) is a ham and evidently loves to perform.

It was a great little trip, the girls want to go back. We have seen these horses downtown, too, so that's been fun. I'm sure the cops are like, "Holy peppermint, Batman, there's that lady with girls that was peppering us with questions!" Ha! No, really, they are super nice. :)

Have a grand day!