The Lee Family: Rodeo!

We headed to the rodeo once again with our friend Harvey and Thelma and their 6-year old, Isabella. CK was given absolutely amazing box seats from one of his clients and it's one of my very favorite things that we get to do all year! We ended up leaving Olivia at home with a sitter since we had six tickets and we wouldn't be able to take her along. Plus, as much as I'm sure Olivia would absolutely love the rodeo, I'm pretty sure her interest would wane after a short time which would mean that I'd be busy dealing with her rather than enjoying the rodeo. We picked up our friends and headed to Ft Worth to eat at a new restaurant, AF+B. It was delicious and their desserts were amazing!! After we were done, we headed to the Ft Worth Stock Show and Rodeo!

It was such a luxury to park right next to the rodeo arena and sitting right on the arena edge! The rodeo started and Isabella and Sofia loved giving high fives to all the riders going by. The announcer is the best part of the entire experience and I think the first 15 minutes are the most moving and amazing part of the whole experience. In his big voice, the announcer explains how lucky we are to live in such an amazing country and how important faith is and should be in each of our lives. It's very refreshing to hear in a age when no one seems to be able to say what's on their mind for fear of controversy. Then, we all stood for the national anthem while the American flag was held by a woman on horseback. After that, the rodeo started and it was fantastic!

The rodeo was the 'ranch competition' which meant that there for seven or eight teams from different ranches in Texas and New Mexico that competed in calf roping, cutting, bronc riding, steer wrestling, and wild cow milking. That was a bit odd, but very interesting. It was really fun to watch the competition and although we missed the bull riding, there was the mutton busting, which was crazy and funny! Kids from 7-9 years old were put on top of sheep and let out to run free, much like bull riding but the sheep just took off instead. Some kids fell off immediately but a few held on for the length of the arena! As the announcer said "In some states this might be considered child abuse, but here in Texas, we call it fun!" It was very fun to watch and the kids obviously were kids of real ranch hands and were tough as nails. The rodeo ended after the crazy cow milking competition in which one of the cowboys would rope the cow, then two others would jump off their horses and try to contain her enough to get a little milk into a container. Once milk was in the container, that cowboy would run to the judge and the first cowboy would take the rope off the cow. It was pretty intense as some of the cows were huge and the cowboys were roughed up a bit.

The rodeo ended around 10pm and Sofia was totally mesmerized the entire time! She stayed in her seat and other than splitting a bag of cotton candy with Isabella early on in the rodeo, she didn't move. She rested her chin in her hands on the wire and took in everything! It was great to watch her enjoy it so much and also to be able to sit back and enjoy the entire evening without juggling her or Olivia! The next morning she came downstairs and the first thing she said was "when are we going to go to the rodeo again?"

Waiting for the show to begin