When I was about 17 or 18 years old this nice lady I babysat for commissioned me to go with her mother (or mother in law) and her 3 year old son and 6 month old baby girl to Rodeo Houston. I was to be in charge of the baby. I did not realize it at the time but she thought she was doing me a favor. She was giving me the opportunity to see the Rodeo for the first time. I only took the job to get paid. I mean who in the world wants to take a 6 month old baby to the Rodeo? And with a stranger no less... I didn't know her mom. It was not easy lugging all the baby gear. Stopping to change diapers. Stopping to feed the baby. I did not have fun AT ALL. And I didn't get the appeal of the rodeo. She even purchased tickets to see the actual rodeo and concert part of it. I'm not into Country music, I had no idea who this Clint Black singer was. Man what a long day that was. At the end of the evening her mother in law would not pay me. She said it was payment enough to buy my rodeo/concert tickets. I couldn't believe it. Don't worry though because I spoke with the lady about it and she DID pay me... she even apologized that her mother did not pay me.
It took me years to go back. Actually it took me until Liam was 3 years old, Violet was 21 months old... so that means it took me 11 - 12 years to go back. Now we've gone to the Rodeo the past 3 years in a row. I think I enjoy more each year.
For those who don't know. Rodeo Houston is the worlds largest rodeo and the worlds largest livestock show. Only the best of the best are allowed to compete. FFA youth benefit greatly if they raise livestock for show they get big money. FFA youth members can also participate in the calf scramble. And Rodeo artwork for kids can win cash prizes too. There is a lot more to it, but you get the picture.
This year we left Drake with David's mom and dad (again, who wants to take a baby to the rodeo?) I doubt we'll take him next year either.
We usually do a handful of things given our kids are still pretty young. We also go early in the day and leave before it gets dark.
We let them have a pony ride. We usually visit the petting "zoo" area... but this year we skipped it. We look at some of the livestock. Kids always like to see the baby chicks hatching. Then we eat. Sometimes bb-q. This year Liam had a slice of pizza and Violet had a hamburger. David searched for the best hamburger. We found a good one... but next year we must remember to go try Salt Grass's hamburger. Their food stand is inside, that's why we missed it again this year. We tried the fried oreos, they were tasty. Next year we might try a fried snicker bar.
After lunch we went to watch an event called Mutton Bustin'. This is where brave 5 - 6 year old children who weigh between 40 - 60 lbs., and who's parents are willing to take the risk, climb on a big ole sheep and hold on for dear life for as long as they possibly can. It's a fun show to watch, it was so fun in fact that we asked Liam if that is something he wanted to try. He was very excited and said "Yes"! It's $15 to let them ride... David had to purchase the DVD (which they will send to us), and a t-shirt bringing the cost to $40. That was fine by me, not every child gets to experience this after all... and that t-shirt came in handy, Violet ended up wearing it after getting her shirt all wet later that day.
As you can see (or can't see, I tried uploading a video but after 8 hours of it trying I just gave up) Liam didn't last too long. We were sooo proud of him though. I was worried he might get too scared at the last minute. Or trampled on. Some of the kids come out crying. But he had fun and says he wants to be a cowboy, and he said "mom, cowboy's never give up". I love that attitude. I'm kind of a careful mom, I don't let the kids jump off of things, or play in the front yard, they have to hold my hand still when crossing the street. So I was proud of myself for letting him have this little adventure... and grateful to God that he didn't get hurt. He says he wants to do it again next year.
While waiting for Liam to sign up, Violet and I went through a little farm maze. This is fun, it starts by grabbing a bucket and getting a cup of seeds and corn, you use this to "feed" the "chickens" (plastic chickens in a walk through chicken coop). For doing this you are given a wooden egg to put in your bucket. Then you get a "seed" (a wooden chip with a picture of a vegetable). The child then goes to the appropriate planter (depends on if you are given a carrot, onion, bell pepper, or tomato chip). You get to dig in the dirt (wet sand) to plant your "seed" and water it. Your reward is a plastic vegetable of whatever seed you planted to go into the bucket. Next stop is a walk through barn where the "sheep" are. The child is given a small bag of wool for the bucket and they can pet the fake sheep with the real sheep skin on top of it. Next step is milking the cows. They have fake cows that you can actually milk, the utters squirt out water into a bucket. The child is given a small milk carton. Next there is a bunch of corn kernels in boxes (kind of like sand boxes) that the kids can lay in and play with... I don't know what this has to do with farming, but the kids love it. They get to pick a piece of corn for this activity. Then there are the Peach trees, wooden trees with little shelves and peaches on them. Peach goes in the bucket. Then we pass some large John Deer tractors that the kids are allowed to climb in. The tractors have a tv/video on the windshield that makes it look like you are actually plowing in a field. Then you sort everything in your bucket into the "farmers market" where after all your hard work the child is given a fake dollar. Upon leaving there is a store with different treats to choose from, all of which cost one fake dollar. You can choose a small bag of lays potato chips, a capri sun drink, a rice krispi treat, or peanut butter crackers. Violet chose a capri sun, later I took Liam through and he chose a bag of chips.
I like the farm maze because it's fun, it teaches the children a lesson, it rewards them... and best of all, it's free.
Lastly it's carnival time! We spend another $40 on carnival tickets, that's 80 tickets and they go quickly. They rode with daddy on the big ferris wheel. They went on a sort of bouncy house adventure maze. The carousel of course. a kiddie train. A big slide, I went once with Liam, Liam went once by himself, and David went twice with Violet. After all that we had one ticket left that we couldn't use because nothing cost just 1 ticket. FYI they have many more rides than that, that is just all we rode.
We sat down and saw an animal show about unusual animals while we ate soft serve ice cream, nachos, drank lemonade, and water. Around this time Violet started crying about every little thing. I tried to get them to walk around to look at the different things they had to sell there. But Violet cried that her legs hurt and she couldn't be held and she couldn't walk. She finally consented to let daddy carry her as we left.
It was especially nice this year with the cloud cover and cool wind. It's a fun time and one of the best parts about living in Houston. Rodeo Houston has definitely become a family tradition that we'll keep as often as we can, for as long as we live here.
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