The National Western Stockshow and Rodeo

It has been a few years since we had been to the stock show... we used to go every year. Of course when I was younger, we even showed horses in the stock show. But it seems like it's been 3 or 4 years since the last time we went and this year we made an effort to go. We ended up going on the last weekend it was here, but the weather turned out to be pretty good, and despite being the final weekend, the crowds weren't too bad. Paige and Cole didn't remember ever having gone, which is reasonable since they were probably babies... but they were very excited to go, especially to the rodeo. We got tickets to the afternoon rodeo, thinking it would be shorter... but it was a full length rodeo with all the events, and all the in between goodies as well. The kids actually sat through it in it's entirety and enjoyed it. Cole says his favorite events were the barrel racing cowgirls followed by the steer wrestling. Paige and I are in agreement that bull riding is the best... and Robert chimes in that he enjoys the bareback riding. That's the cool thing about rodeo... there is something for everyone!

Aside from the rodeo, we wandered through the stock barns and saw the sheep and cattle. We sat for a bit and watched the sheep herding dogs do their thing. We missed the horse shows, and didn't get a chance to walk through the horse barns... but we did manage to find the petting zoo where the kids played with sheep, goats, ducks, pot bellied pigs, and one very friendly alpaca.

The kids adorned themselves with new cowboy hats, and Cole fancied making his very own rope. He enlisted Paige's help and twisted and twined it all together all by himself. He is quite proud of his accomplishment.

The food at the stock show is always fun! Robert ate his very first...FRIED TWINKIE. I can't even stand real twinkies, let alone the thought of a Fried one... he says they are very overrated. I think I will stick with my funnel cake, thank you very much! We all enjoyed footlong corndogs and the kids had slushies while we shared a beer.

We wandered through the exhibits and looked at all the fun stuff for sale. We toured some really cool trailers that are half horse trailer, half RV. I actually really liked those, and next time I have a spare $75,000 lying around I plan to get one! It would be fun to own horses again...

So the day ended with the kids making their souveneir sand art charachters. I think it was a great time and maybe we'll try harder to go every year again!