Let's Ro-De-O!

Yee Haw!!

It's Rodeo Time in Houston Y'all!

The trail riders made it in last weekend;  Tate and I missed it was we were winging our way to Canada.  We thoroughly enjoyed it last year.  I'm not going to any shows this year as noone quite tips my fancy.  Ok, so Keith Urban isn't coming.  BUT he is coming to Houston August 16th!  And uhhh, yeah, I'll be there!!!

So today after swim lessons we headed out to the Rodeo and Livestock showgrounds.  But first I must say Tate did great at swim lessons even after missing the last 2 weeks (due to his ER visit and then while we were in Canada!)

We arrived at Reliant Stadium, parked and had a festive ride on the tram to the entrance.  Once inside Tate and I were ready to see some cows, horses, chicks (birds!!! :) ) and cowboys (for me :) ).

As we walked through Reliant Arena so he could eat his lunch, I perused all the merchandise for sale.  From cowboy boots and hats to huge sterling silver jewelry, there is something for everyone.  As we were walking along we ran into my dear friend Julie!!  Yay!!  She's a volunteer this year, and today was one of her days to work.  I would love to volunteer, but it's a HUGE time commitment with lots of meetings throughout the year and you have to commit to work several days during the 3 weeks the rodeo is in town.  Not something I can really do at this time in my life.

She ran back to her 'station', Fun on the Farm while Tate and I made the first of many potty breaks.  We then headed outside.  First stop...

Pony Rides!!

  

And then a variety of carnival rides!!  We began with a....

TRAIN RIDE!!!

The engineer position of course! 

Such a careful driver!

Then onto the more mundane :) rides...

Look at that JOY!!

And he rode a CAMEL!!!

 He thought the camel ride was the absolute best!!  (because he went slow)  He said the horses were too fast.  I think this all stems back to his falling off the train at his birthday party last July;  he'll bring it up every now and then, sure to remind me that I stopped the train for him.  Sweet boy.  Goodness I love him.

We then went through 'Fun on the Farm' so we could see Aunt Julie...

Sweet little goat born about a week ago!!

We then meandered over to grab some lunch after Aunt Julie took a couple of pics of me and my sweet boy.

Once back inside the arena Tate got his second wind and was bouncing up and down because he wanted to see 'cows and chicks!!!'  So Mommy found him some cows and chicks!!  And a new baby goat named Darby, born this morning at 3am!  And we saw a cow in labor at the birthing center!

Now that's a cow! 

He was just thrilled to see the chicks.  I have no idea
where this love of baby chicks has come from!

As we were looking at the chickens on down the way there was a little girl who was about 1 looking at them as well.  My Tate bent over several times to explain to this little girl that she was looking at chickens and that she needed to be careful and keep her little fingers out of the wire fence because it was dirty and he didn't want the chickens to bite her fingers.  He must have spent 3-4 minutes pointing the chickens out and giving her a safety lesson.  I was so proud and overcome with emotion at the kindness of my son.

We grabbed some lunch for me and french fries for Tate.  This was the only time he cried the entire 3 1/2 hours we were there, and we missed his nap, AND he had woken up this morning at 5:18, so I was duly impressed.  I asked for unseasoned fries to ward off any pepper being on the fries (plus my 3 1/2 year old doesn't need salt).  Well there were black specks.  From the grill or oven, what have you.  Oh the whimpering and whining.  I tried to wipe them off.  And he continued to whine.  I told him the fries were not dirty and he at least needed to try them.  I insisted he try them as there were no other choices he would probably even like (I had already walked up and down the food aisle looking for 'clean' fries).  The sweet woman who made him the fries insisted I return them to her, and she took them back to try to wipe them off for me...above and beyond what I thought she should have done for my picky eater.  She was so very kind and worried about Tate.  I gave him the 'cleaner' fries and he still shook his head. She wanted to redo them, and I said no...he was going to have to deal. I thanked her profusely and took my whining child to get something for myself to eat from Pappasitos.  I got him some ketchup and said "Eat or don't eat.  I don't care.  Those are fine."

And he ate them.  With glee.  He gave me 5 or 6 and said they were just too dirty, but otherwise he chowed down happily once he realized the 'dirt' wasn't going to kill him.  I was quite excited as for Tate this is huge, eating something he really didn't want to, though we all know there was nothing wrong with the fries.

In any event, with full bellies we returned to the carnival area for once last walk through and to ride any rides we missed.

And of course we ended our Rodeo experience for 2013 with one last ride on the train...

I love the 'rodeo chickens' in the middle of train tracks!

We walked slowly back to the tram to make our way back to our car.  My little cowboy was quite tired and sat quietly in his stroller.  As it was almost 230 I definitely didn't want him falling asleep, which thankfully he didn't.  He was most excited about our return to the parking lot on the tram and cuddled up next to me in the seat.

Throughout the day, Tate would spontaneously want to give me hugs which just brings such joy to my heart.  Several times he just piped up "The rodeo is so much fun!"  After riding the train the second time, he looked up at me and said "Thanks for letting me ride the train!"  His boundless joy and energy just buoyed me up even in the midst of my exhaustion after a long day of travel yesterday and not a good night's sleep last night.  

And I was surprised by how very much fun I had with my son today.  As we were riding back to our car and he put his head on my shoulder and said "That was a fun day at the rodeo" I almost cried with the intensity of my emotions of how very much I love him and how very fun it was for me too.

This is what I dreamed my life as a mother would be.