It's time to rodeo

Growing up the Houston Livestock show and rodeo was always a event we looked forward to.  In elementary school it started with the artwork competition we had to enter and extended to the great food at the midway, the carnival and the livestock show.  This year we got to take Josh for his first trip to see what rodeo Texas is all about. 

First though, he had to get into the spirit with a rodeo outift complete with leather belt and big belt buckle courtsey of Nana and Grandad. 

With his love of animals and his delight in making farm animal sounds, the livestock show was a hit.  With our germ lockdown, we avoided the petting farm but there were plenty of chickens, cows and bunnies to keep him occupied. 

Of course the requisite Texas longhorn was there to round out the experience.

After a quick stop to watch the herding dogs, we set out to find Josh's next biggest love - the tractor.  We found plenty of different options to try out.

After  quick stop to deck Papa out in a new hat, J caved to sleepiness and took a two hour nap in his stroller while we sampled the wine garden.  When we went in for the show I wasn't sure how he would sit through the several hours of rodeo but from the opening parade through to his first concert (Brad Paisley) he had a huge grin on his face and the cowboys had his rapt attention.

Towards the end of the concert he started to fade a little but considering it was almost three hours past his bedtime, he held his own pretty well and I think he enjoyed his first rodeo.