The "agventure" begins. The rodeo boasts two incredible petting zoos. They are included in the price of admission and are simply extraordinary. We had some up-close time with some of the craziest creatures. Nathan loves them all.
Look at this guy! Rather hirsute, isn't he? At first I thought he might be some kind of buffalo. Turns out he's just a miniature long-haired breed of cattle. 
Here is Queenie, oblivious to the fact that she is sitting on the rare, shaggy cow. She couldn't be more disinterested. 
Is that a...zebra? Yes, it is. Two of them! And, they are kissing! Like Romeo and Juliet. Destined to fall in love. Destined to remain separated by a green iron fence. Better have poison control on stand-by.
This is a milk cow. I feel a sense of kinship each time I see a cow used for milking. I guess the love of dairy cows is just in the genetics. If only I knew how to decipher between a dairy cow and a beef cow. They all scream "steak" to me. 
Nia found the entire event incredibly engaging. She couldn't wait to see what would happen next!
Nathan being quite gentle with a baby...honestly, I cannot tell if that is a goat or a sheep. But Nathan is handling it delicately, so it is noteworthy.
Oh, look, a baby cow! It's too bad they grow up. I noticed that almost all forms of livestock are simply adorable in their youth: cows, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, etc. It's too bad they have to grow up.
Just to clarify: are those pointy things ears??
Nathan loved the rabbits. They were probably blue-ribbon winners or something. They had spent much more time on their hairdos than all of us combined. They looked, smelled, and felt much nicer than we do even on our good days.
Okay, this picture didn't turn out the best, but I had to include it because it illustrates the John Deere display at the rodeo. John Deere set up some HUGE tractors with special stairs for the kids. Then, on the inside, a flat screen TV ran constant footage of driving through the fields. It gave the impression that you were actually going somewhere, but reduced the obvious risk of injury associated with letting every two-year-old get behind the wheel of a 7760 Cotton Picker.
Nathan bought into the ploy and assumed his new role as a John Deere cotton picker. He felt good about supplying cotton to underpaid workers in countries such as China to produce into overpriced shirts like Uncle Kyle likes. Ha ha.
Then we watched some newborn chickens. Well, maybe 'newborn' is the wrong word. I mean, they have been outside the hen for some time. They are newly hatched. Yes, that is more appropriate. They seriously look dead when they first come out. But, it was really neat to watch as one LITERALLY broke through the shell. One guy got so tuckered halfway through that he took a nap with only his head sticking out the hole.
Back to the award winning rabbits. Maybe they were particularly hyped up about rabbits with Easter coming so soon.
After much begging, prodding and prying from the Houston Rodeo Counsel, we finally submitted our cattle into the show. Our Belgian Blue's won the Grand Prize in both looks, intelligence, and taste (just like their owners, I guess--except our "taste" is not the "good steak" kind of taste but like the, "wow, those Joneses have good taste" kind of taste!).
The last picture on this post is of Nathan checking out one of the huge trucks that were on display. Every truck company imaginable creates a "lone star" edition of their largest truck. Nathan thought Dad was thinking of buying and made it his personal mission to check out not only every single truck, but every single button, lever, feature, etc., in ever single truck. It was a long process, but in the end, Ford won out based on the Michigan connection. On a side note, Kyle really was Nathan's height when he took driver's ed. We told Nathan that if he 'believed in himself' that he could drive even though he was little. We wanted to discourage him, but he kept singing the theme song from one of his favorite Veggie Tales movies:
"With God's help little guys can do big things, too!" We couldn't argue with that, I guess.
1 comment:
This is hysterical, the entire post! Great pictures and wonderful storytelling ... I am STILL laughing! :) The rodeo looks like so much fun ~ and what better fudge is there in ALL the world but fudge from MICHIGAN!!???
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