And They Call The Thing Rodeo

As promised, we followed up our visit with the Trail Riders with a visit to The Rodeo, aka The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.  We took Gommy and Papa the Monday after Annabelle's party.  Unfortunately, Chris had to work, but the rest of us made up for his absence.

Believe it or not, there is more to the event than carnival rides and concerts.  Don't ask Sam, though, because he wasn't much into seeing the animals that the youth had worked so hard to raise for a chance at well-earned scholarship money.  Maybe when he's older.

We did get him into the petting zoo, which was no small feat.  He freaks when the animals run into him, and petting zoo animals can be a bit crazy.  He loved feeding them and brushing them, but that's it.  Annabelle, on the other had, loved every minute of it.  She is all about animals, lets them lick her, pets them, giggles, etc.

He rocked the pony ride, though.  Next year, baby girl, I'll pay for you to go, too.  When you have some concept of what is happening to you.

Driving the Chevy Trucks and John Deere Tractors is a priority for every visitor, too...right?

Fun on the Farm was a cute display we hadn't visited before.  Each kid starts with a "seed" that they bury in the sand and pretend to water.  They leave that station with a piece of produce in a basket.  Next they can play in a corn kernel pit, and collect a plastic ear of corn for their basket.  They continue on to feed some corn to pretend chickens, milk a pretend cow, sheer a pretend sheep.  At each stop they collect an item for their basket.  At the end they "sell" their items at the farmers market for a play dollar, which they trade in for a snack of their choosing.  Sam chose a fruit roll up.  He'd never seen one before - how did he know to pick that?

Because it was Monday morning and so empty, Sam got to participate in the Pedal Tractor Pull.  Since it was just two 3-year-olds, they didn't do the whole thing, but he had fun riding the tractor.

And then the rides.  Who doesn't love those?

And what about BabyBelle?  Well, we were there all morning, so she spent a good bit a time nuzzled into Papa, where she eventually fell asleep.  Too sweet.

A stop for some fried food, a light rail ride back to the car (a hit with both kids!) and we called it a day.  Great fun!

**Fun note: I got a call from my credit card company calling to investigate possible fraud because they didn't think that "Fried What?" was a legitimate business.  Hahahaha.