Cowboys and Cowgirls For A Day

Saturday we spent all day at the Rodeo- it was so much fun.  It was the first day in a really, really long time we spent the entire day together as a family. We walked over at 9:00 and were excited for a full day of fun.

We first went and saw all the animals.  We saw the cows, pigs, and sheep; watched chicks hatching and taking their first steps, chickens, bees, and rabbits.

We then let Nathan ride a horse.

 He was thrilled to be on a "horsey". It was fun just watching him on the pony.

We then made our way over to the "Birthing Center" which was interesting.  Having just given birth a month ago I felt a little queasy and disgusted as we saw a little video of a sheep and horse give birth.  I'm sure I had one of those classic grossed-out looks the whole time. Chris laughed.  It was so painful to watch- did you know that horses have "violent and traumatic" births? It sure looked like it. We saw little piglets just a few days old, and a calf who had been born just hours earlier. Nathan mostly enjoyed running on the bleachers...it was a very popular activity among the 2 year old boys there.

We headed out to the petting zoo, with a quick detour going up and down the escalator

After some walking and meandering around we ended up at the Muttin' Bustin' tent (arguably the most exciting rodeo event of all time). We saw one girl stay on the entire time and made it to the other side of the pen and into the herd of sheep...I've never seen the muttin' bustin'  rodeo clowns move so fast...they dove into the herd to save the girl- it was awesome.

Then was the best part of the day (my day).  We got some fried oreos and snickers.  Now this may sound disgusting to some of you, but they are OH-MY-GOSH-THIS-IS-HEAVEN-IN-MY-MOUTH good.
Then the beauty of living so close to the stadium took full effect.  We went home and put Nathan down for a nap.  So just as everyone else's kids were starting their tantrums and melt downs our kids took nice long naps before we headed back with refreshed, happy, and excited kids.  Wonderful.

We then went into the stadium and found our seats- I've been in the nosebleeds before but never this high up...

yep- that is the very tip top of the stadium.  There are no more seats behind us.  This is the epitome of nosebleed seats. We got to watch lots of rodeo events and all the championship events.  (And the calf scramble- Chris loved it.  One girl got injured due to her extreme exuberance to catch a calf.)

We then saw BRAD PAISLEY.  He was great.

The best part of the whole concert was Nathan.  He made a new friend.
Meet Nathan.

Yep- the older boy beside us was named Nathan.  And he, according to Nathan, is the coolest kid ever.  They are now best buds.  And his mom is a lot cooler than me, she let him play carnival games so he won this sweet snake...for Nathan it was love at first sight.

Nathan also had some sweet dance moves.

Abby had lots of fun too- she basically slept the entire time.

We then went and ate some amazing rodeo food.  Corn dog, turkey leg, ribs, and bbq...yum yum.

We walked around the carnival (tragically we were told Nathan was too short for the Ferris Wheel which we now know was a LIE...lame). We then made it home around 9:30.

We're sad we won't be here for next years rodeo.
Having a rodeo nearby is a new requirement for where we move- it was just that fun.