We quickly learned that if you live in Houston, in March you RODEO. We took it to the extreme this year when we scored not just one but 3 sets of tickets on opening day!
Our first Rodeo started out as a total soaker. Dad was with us and we were seeing Alan Jackson! Dad has always been a big fan of his and let's face it, he's a top 40 kinda guy! We can sing every song of his. We parked and began the 2 mile walk to the midway. It began to rain and when I say rain I really mean POUR and fill your boots with water. Lillian was in the stroller and we thought we were sheltering her but it turns out, the stroller cover was just soaking her more. When we made it to the livestock show arena, it had subsided raining but we were still wet. We took a few to dry out and wring out our hair.
We toured the petting zoo where the goats tried to eat Lillian's dress and the boys took a spin or two on the carnival rides!
Then, we headed inside to catch the Rodeo which we quickly learned in years past, is actually the best part (aside from all the fried foods)! We love the bull riding and bareback. We sit on the edge of our seats for the chuck wagon races and we laugh and laugh as the teenagers try to tackle pool little calves in the 4H calf scramble! The pinnacle of all Rodeo's is the mutton bustin'. That's where ten 5-6 year olds are placed on the back of a sheep as it kamikaze runs to the other end of the arena. It was certainly Lincoln's cup of tea when he was old enough. I can't see Lillian enjoying it as most of the little girls wind up thrown off and crying before its over. Occasionally one makes it all the way across and comes up crying or with a look of sheer terror as the crowd goes wild for the child who held onto the bull, er sheep!
Onto the main event, Alan Jackson didn't disappoint! He sung all of this best songs and didn't try to bore anyone with "new" music! Heck, he's probably too old to worry about new stuff and he's satisfied with his previous top 40 chart toppers!
This one didn't make it all the way through the concert. 10pm is WAY past her bedtime! We all enjoyed round 1 of Rodeo Houston and I'm glad dad got to go with us to see AJ!
The next Rodeo roundup was a group of my girlfriends in the neighborhood. We all got tickets to see Luke Bryan and made it a girls date!
We took the time to sit in the wine garden with a couple bottles of rose and cheese trays. Not something I would have done with Jason or the kids, it was a nice change of pace to the carnival scene!
Luke Bryan was a great act. Some of the girls were really smitten with him, I just think I'll keep the one I've got! I mean, he's no country star but I never get tired of seeing him walk in wearing that business suit!
The third and finally rodeo trip was the closing day of Rodeo Houston. We had tickets with Jason's parents and they ended up not being able to make the show due to rain and closed interstates. Houston flooding problems. So we hit the rodeo one last time and this time, we didn't fool with that 2 mile walk from the parking lot. We got us a pedal tax and let one poor guy pull our entire family on the back of a bicycle. He's got stronger legs than I do! It was a fun ride anyway!
We made our rounds at the carnival, sampling all the yelp'd best fried food of the rodeo. We landed on the fact that you just simply can't beat fried oreos for the best fried delicacy.
We like to think we really covered the BEST of Rodeo Houston 2017 and already look forward to next year's acts!
