At the Rodeo

This weekend Jeff and I traveled to Houston to see the rodeo with my dad and step-mom, Iza. This is the second year that we've done it, and so far it's always been a good time. This time we headed to the rodeo early so that we could spend some time wandering around before the show. Of course when we first made these plans we hadn't expected the weekend to end up so cold and rainy. Still, the good thing is that the bad weather forced us into the first building that we came to, and that contained the petting zoo,"Do not feed the pigs or donkey".

We saw very pregnant goats, some goats who were really hungry, and this adorable guy above. I failed to get a picture of the most persistent llama I've ever met. He would sneak up behind up and lean over your shoulder to try and steal snacks. He was quite stealthy, but really sweet. It's very strange to have a llama lean his face against yours and kind of nuzzle you. There were pigs and a donkey, also wee baby goats, and wallabies. It was a lot of fun to feed the bigger animals some alfalfa treats and the smaller ones little handfuls of oats. One of the wallabies thought Jeff tasted fantastic and just kept licking his hand over and over again.

When we ran out of animal treats we walked around the birthing center and saw all sorts of babies. The youngest animal that we saw was a sheep named Lucky who was born that morning at 8am. He was still working on getting his legs under him, and his moms lickings were enough to keep him off balance. There were lots of the little sheep, even more piglets, and a few calves. The animals that were still waiting to have babies looked absolutely miserable, but everyone else seemed happy and doing well.

Next we headed out into the cold again, in search of the infamous smoked turkey leg. Jeff and Dad and Iza ate turkey legs, but I wasn't in the mood for turkey. I had a big corn dog instead, and it was good. Once we had eaten our fill and rested for a few minutes we headed back into the building to the shopping zone and I had a bit of a falling down at a candy place. I haven't eaten very much candy since I got pregnant, I really haven't been in the mood often, but I must have been Friday because we spent a small fortune on sweets. At least the stash ought to last for a while.

The rodeo itself was a lot of fun. I don't follow the sport, so I don't know any of the competitors, but it's still a good show. I prefer the bits where cowboys get tossed rather than the ones where they rope or wrestle calves. Watching the 4H kids try to catch calves is always a blast and this year we got to see 4 year olds attempt to ride sheep. Only one boy ended up crying when he fell, mostly the kids seemed to have a great time and although they are all declared winners at the end, there is a best and he got a belt buckle. That was a super happy kid, although so shy he refused to speak out loud when they interviewed him.

We watched about an hour of Clint Black. By then he'd played all the songs Jeff had ever heard from him and I'd realized I didn't care one squat about Clint Black. The Reba show last year on the other hand was really great to see. Since my parents weren't all that keen on him either we bailed early and missed some of the traffic leaving the show.

Saturday we celebrated an early birthday for Jeff and ate a lot of tasty food. My dad and I talked the night away even after everyone else had gone to sleep. Sunday we met Danny, Tricia, and Dan for some lunch before leaving town and as we neared Austin the skies lightened and the temperature crept back up to warm. It really was a great weekend, despite the weather, but it's always nice to get back home.