The Lee Family: Ft Worth Stock Show

Today we went to the Ft Worth Stock Show, as we did a year ago on Martin Luther King Day. We originally had a playdate planned with Sofia's friend, Shivani for the morning, so I texted her Mom and asked if I could take Shivani with us to the Stock Show or change the play date to the afternoon. Shivani wanted to go with us, so we set off for Fort Worth around 10am. It was a little cool, but very sunny and promised temperatures near 70 by noon! Once we parked and bought our tickets, we headed into the grounds and the girls were able to pet two goats that were being walked. They loved it! We headed to the far barns to look at all the goats and the girls tried to dodge goat droppings along the way, which was pretty funny to watch. We looked at the goats and watched the tail end of a show in one of the arenas. From there we headed to watch a cow being milked and the three girls found seats right up front while I stood in the back of the stands. It was so nice to have Shivani with us, since she and Sofia walked, talked and took their time and Olivia kept up with them while I pushed the stroller that had our sweaters, jackets, snacks, water bottles, blanket and things we collected.

After watching the cow being milked, we walked through the other cattle barns and saw the longhorns. One young girl was leading a young longhorn through the barn and offered for the girls to pet him. Shivani and Sofia walked slowly and I was nervous when Olivia ran toward the young cow! It all worked out and the girls really loved petting the longhorn. Rojo, one of the Longhorn steers from the Stockyards was there as well and the girls posed in front of him. He clearly was not a fan of being tied up and looked at so we took pictures and decided to get a little early lunch. We headed outside the barns looking for a good place to eat.

We found a place and Sofia and Olivia both ordered hot dogs while Shivani settled on nachos since nothing else really sounded good to her and I had the chili cheese fries, probably for the first time in 20 or so years! The seating area was really small, so we walked over and sat on a few bales of hay to eat. I really wanted to go to the cutting horse competition, which started at 2pm so we still had nearly 2 hours until it started. After filling up, we headed to the petting zoo, which was on the far side of all the rides. Of course, once we made it to the rides the girls wanted to go on them so we bought enough tickets that they could go on three rides. They decided on the outdoor rope maze which they went on twice and Sofia was great at waiting up for Olivia who was a little slower. From there the girls wanted to go down the Super Slide which was great except Olivia was too short which meant I had to go down with her on my lap! I'm not really afraid of heights but I must say I had second thoughts once I was at the top of the slide! Shivani and Sofia went down and LOVED it while Olivia and I took off for the bottom and I had to close my eyes because I was certain we'd crash through the metal gate and fly into the midway (we didn't). It was scary, but also a little fun.....Of course Sofia and Shivani wanted to go again! Instead, we tried to go on the little roller coaster but both Olivia and Shivani were too short so we left and headed to the house of mirrors which the girls loved but Olivia got lost in the glass walls. Luckily, Sofia noticed and went back for her. From there we went on the ferris wheel, which Shivani had never done before. We had great views from the top and it really was fun.

After the ferris wheel, we bought cotton candy and headed toward the cutting horse competition. Olivia was completely focused on her cotton candy as we walked and thoroughly enjoyed every bite, getting it all over her face. It was SO cute! As we walked, we were able to watch the cowboys get their horses ready for the Cowboys of Color Rodeo at 2pm. It was really fun to watch them saddle their horses and get ready for the competition. When we arrived I asked if there were any rodeo tickets for sale, but they were completely sold out.

The day had actually become quite warm - only about 70 degrees but it felt almost hot after the cold weather we've had. Shivani was ready to head home and play and Olivia was ready to sleep, but Sofia and I really wanted to watch the cutting horses. Unfortunately I was off by an hour, so we decided to head home to play since spending another hour at the Stock Show didn't make sense. Sofia was really bummed but once we made it home, she and Shivani had fun playing together. Shivani headed home shortly after and we had a lot of fun at the Stock Show. Such a fun day!

Three girls very excited to be at the Ft Worth Stock Show!!