Ride 'em, cowboy!

Lemme get a big ol' "yeehaw", y'all! Today we went to the Ft. Worth Stock Show and Rodeo to see the rodeo. Luke got all gussied up in his cowboy boots and cowboy sweater; he was more of what you'd call a "city cowboy", but he still looked mighty cute.

Anyway, we drove through the first real rain we've had in well over a month, parked in the mud, rode the "shuttle" (a covered trailer pulled by a big ol' tractor) and finally made it into the Will Rogers Coliseum for the show. I must admit that I thought it was really neat. I especially liked the barrel racing and the trick riding, but the bull riders stole the show.

One of the coolest events was, for lack of a better term, the calf-catching. About 15 FFA (that's Future Farmers of America for those of you non-Texans) high school students and about 8 calves came out into the ring. The first student to catch a calf, put a halter on it, and lead it back into the middle of the square won $500. It was a hoot! Those calves sure can run when they want to, and none of them seemed really pleased about being chased and thrown onto the ground. They all gave up quite a fight, but finally someone won.

Luke seemed to enjoy it, too, especially the part where he got to eat cotton candy at 11:00 in the morning. The pictures are a little blurry because I had to use the extended flash setting, but you can still kind of get the idea. I think this gets us one step closer to becoming true Texans!