Rodeo-deo-deo

Howdy howdy howdy.

Guess what, folks, it's rodeo time down here in Houston!

And man ALIVE, is it messing up our traffic!

However, looking at the brighter side of the issue, we decided to take advantage of the rodeo's close proximity to our current residence. Plus, I don't think you can really consider yourself a Texan until you've been to the rodeo.

Wait, am I trying to be a Texan? Huh. How 'bout that.

There's all sorts of carnival and livestock fun to be had but unfortunately, Sean had a school thing go pretty late, so we skipped out on some o' that jazz. Plus I couldn't even do most of the carnival things anyway, thanks to the two little rascals in my tumtum. So we grabbed some grub and did a quick look at the animals.

What a happy little pony. He looks so glad to be carting those wriggly kids around...

A goat! He wasn't eating a tin can or anything, just regular food. Lame.

OH! There was a baby animal station! This little guy was just a few hours old. Yep, he was born that day! And he was already trotting around on his spaghetti noodle legs. Sheesh, us human babies are such pansies!

Suckling pigs. Poor mama, she was just wedged in there, letting the piglets feast whenever they pleased. It's a sacrifice with which all mothers can empathize.

Heehee, little baby lambs, causing all sorts of trouble. From what we saw, all these babes born in recent days were born as twins! GOoooOOO twins!

Oh, by the way, sorry for boring photo angles. I'm no longer very good at squatting, leaning over, or any of the other contortions that give an interesting point of view. My sincerest apologies.

Anyway, off we trotted to the rodeo! Look how excited my hubby is!

We saw things like steer roping and some horse riding things and even bull riding! Yee haw!

Uh oh, that cowpoke's about to get bucked.

Some of my favorite events involved the kiddos. These youngins were let loose with some calves and if they caught them, roped 'em up, and brought them back to the center of the ring, that kid could raise the calf for the year and then sell it. I tell you, it was a riot!

Chaos ensued- kids running all over, flipping the calves over, holding on for 10 minutes only to have the calf slip through their fingers, giving chase again. I was exhausted just watching!

Then there was Mutton Busting: little 5 and 6 year olds dangling around the neck of a sheep to see how long they could hold on.

Invariably, this happened.

Unless your this lucky punk who's sheep trotted around for a few seconds until he finally stood still. The kid kept hanging on until the officials prized him off. Way to stick with it, I say.

They interviewed one girl, she may have been the winner, to find out her strategy. She replied, "I just... I like... like... I holded on real tight." Sounds like a winning strategy to me.

Along with the rodeo tickets was admission to the evening concert. That night, we saw...

Rascal Flatts. Some of you may understand how funny this is. You might say I'm not the biggest fan of country. Actually, you could say that I really don't like country. But honestly, of all the country bands to see, this one wasn't so bad. I actually knew some of their songs and had a fun time being in the atmosphere.

And they had a cool stage. It rotated so the whole arena would get a view. When it faced you, the backdrop was full of lights.

But when it turned away, you could see right through the scaffolding. I'm pretty amazed by that.

Yep, it was a fun concert. And we left early. Because it was late and I was tired.

But gol durn it, I sure had a fun time at the rodeo. Thanks Texas and your cowboyin' ways!