RO-DE-O!!!

 Most weekday mornings Tiffany and Abigail start their day right away with home school.  Tiffany has each day planned and they accomplish a lot in a few hours.  Abigail comes running down every so often for her "free time", kind of like a recess break, between subjects.  They cover reading, math, science, social studies, etc.  After finishing her school work and having lunch, Abigail got ready for the rodeo with her cowgirl outfit.  She was excited and so we were.  We love the stock show and rodeo.  Shawn left work early and we were on our way about 3:30.

 Because it was a holiday, Presidents Day, we went first to the kids petting zoo anticipating that it would be crowded as the evening progressed.  There were many animals, including goats, sheep, pot belly pigs, donkeys, wallabies, llamas and Abigail's favorite, an alpaca, she named Snowsuit.

 Steve loves to walk through the barns and see the equipment.  We enjoy the samples sponsored by local food chain, HEB, and we all get a kick out of the interesting variety of foods.  If it is big and on a stick, you can find it there.

 This year "bacon" items seemed to be the newest fad.  We didn't try the baconade, or the hot dogs wrapped in bacon,  beacon wrapped corn, the glazed donut bacon burger, the bacon bomber, or the fried bacon funnel cake.

 We also didn't try the fried snickers, fried cool aid, fried twinkles, fried oreos, fried cheese, or any number of other fried creations on a stick.

 Some of us did try the jumbo corn dog on a stick, the jumbo sausage on a stick,  and the cajun fried catfish.  After all the sampling, Steve and I went straight for dessert.  He had a chocolate shake and I had an apple dumpling with ice cream.

 After pushing our stomachs to their limit, he went to the rodeo.  We love their patriotic beginning and that they start each rodeo with a prayer and the Star Spangled Banner.  We love the excellent competition in the events and enjoy watching a few cowboys from Idaho and Utah.  One Utah cowboy came in second in one of the events and made us proud.  After the great rodeo, we enjoyed quite a bit of the Rascal Flats concert.  We left a little early to beat the traffic and get Abigail home to bed before too late.
We were tired the next morning so we were slow to get started.  However, after we went over to register Abigail for her new school in the fall, Tif, Abigail, Steve and I, went back out to the stock show to finish taking in the sights.  This time we walked through ALL of the barns.  The animals competing for today included hundreds of pigs and hundreds of steers.  We were sorry there weren't any sheep.  That takes place on a different day.

 The owners choose to guard their animals 24 hrs a day so often they take turns getting a little shut eye.  Lots of hard working farm kids help out and display their livestock.  It is comforting to know that there are still farmers' families who are still learning these skills and who know how to really work and be responsible for animals.

 We toured all the educational displays and learned about snakes, bats, opossum, falcons, eagles and more.

 Abigail was successful at roping a calf on her first try.  She had an excellent teacher.

 For lunch we tried something else.  Tiffany went for the smoked turkey leg.  Steve and I tackled the ribs.  Yum!  For dessert we shared a regular funnel cake.  It was good!!!

 We have enjoyed the mild weather and have loved watching people.  It is not at all strange to see shorts and cowboy boots on the girls in Texas.

 Before we left, we went back to the petting zoo.  Once again Abigail found her favorite, "Snowsuit." She really enjoyed those animals.

 In the parking lot, we laughed at the long rows of trucks.  Trucks outnumbered cars by about 40 to 1.  There are a lot of trucks in Texas.  Abigail was tired for a few minutes and then it was off to dance class.  Suddenly she found her energy again.  She loves dancing.