Rodeo

Austin's annual rodeo is held every March and usually coincides with SXSW and Spring Break. Because most of Austin spends spring break either filling their forearms with wristbands and wandering downtown seeing bands or killing their brain cells in drinking binges away from UT's campus, the rodeo is a fairly tame and slightly under-attended event. It's not a large rodeo by Texas standards, but it's still got all the classic components; namely a BBQ cook off, a stock show, lots of tractors, and a carnival with questionably safe rides.

Kevin and I got hooked on attending the rodeo about six years ago when we learned about the BBQ cook-off. The concept is genius: during the course of two days teams compete in a variety of food and drink categories. Their entries are judged by a panel, but their fare is open for the public to enjoy. Basically, you pay the rodeo admission fee and you can wander from tent to tent all day sampling all the BBQ and beer you can stomach. You are encouraged to make donations at each tent you visit and all the money that is raised goes toward scholarships. As young, childless adults Kevin and I would spend all day tossing singles in jars and stuffing ourselves silly; it was basically the only part of the rodeo we bothered to visit....Let's just say the rodeo is a totally different experience with children in tow.

While we took Reese to the rodeo last year as well, she was very excited to visit it again this year. We left Paige home with Aunt Kim and set out with our little cowgirl in tow.
Back story on the outfit: At Reese's baby shower I was given a beautiful modern cowgirl outfit (courtesy of Courtney Johnson and Ramonster). Reese finally grew into this winter and was anxious for a warm weather occasion to sport it. In combination with her cowboy hat from Christmas she made quite a cowgirl. Notice the purple socks that she insisted "match perfect!"

At the rodeo Reese took in all the sights. Our first stops were the petting zoo (full of mainly deer and goats this year) and the cow milking demonstration. We took a LONG stroll through the stock yards where Reese was fascinated by the cows. She wanted NOTHING to do with the miniature ponies but apparently the GIANT bovines didn't bother her.


For lunch Reese polished of a corn dog and we headed to the carnival. With Reese's age and height we planned on killing time checking out the carnival rides until the BBQ cook off began at noon. To our surprise, though, Reese was willing and able to ride quite a few rides.

(She was technically an inch too short to ride most of them unaccompanied, but most of the operators weren't exactly thorough with their height checks and as one lady said, "With the cowgirl hat on she qualifies.") All of the rides she chose were a variation of the same thing: crawl into an object (either vehicle or animal related), sit down, buckle up, and go around in a circle four or five times. She is definitely NOT her daddy's girl when it comes to spinning rides--I thought he might get queasy just watching her go around so many times.

She didn't loose her lunch in the process of enjoying the carnival and we made two stops at the BBQ cook off for beer and brisket for mommy and daddy before calling it a day.
We made it home with a cranky cowgirl just in time for her afternoon nap, but of course she wasn't the least bit sleepy if you asked her....