It's Rodeo Time in Houston!

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo opened this week.  We love going to see the animals and the exhibits.  Oh, and the tractors.  There is always so much more to see than we could possibly fit into one day.  It is great that the boys have a little longer attention span.  Every year we can go a little longer and see a little more.  This year we even managed to watch some of the show events during the day.  We saw the team penning event:  three horses/riders try to pen three cows out of a herd of 30.  The cows are all numbers 0-9 and there are three of each number.  A number is called as they cross a line in the arena and that's the number they have to pen.  It was amazing how fast they can do it and how wily those cows can be!  The boys both loved it. 

But of course, the best part is the tractors.  We learned last year that the school groups arrive early, but if we arrive right when they open we can get about 15 minutes of uncrowded tractor time before they all get there.  But we were foiled in our quest when we learned that they had moved the tractors to a different location.  So instead we checked out the chickens, turkeys, rabbits, cows, longhorns, pigs, and goats before continuing our quest.

This is in the birthing area.  They have pigs, sheep and cows who are due to give birth during the rodeo.  This was a sheep who had given birth to two beautiful black lambs the day before.  Justin thought it was pretty cool!

These are chicks that hatched within the past day or two.

Here is Elsie's calf, Beauregard.  (You know, Borden milk.)  Justin was so sweet petting him.

Neither boy was all that fascinated by the petting zoo.  And with all the "waste" on the ground, I kept running behind Justin to make sure he didn't fall down in anything.  This picture took about 5 minutes to create.  And you notice the thrill on their faces.

This is Miss Moo.  Justin wouldn't have anything to do with her.  Travis reluctantly posed for a picture.

Then we headed outside for the "Fun on the Farm" exhibit.  The boys each got a basket and then they went along a course.  They "fed" chickens and collected a wooden egg, they "milked" a cow and received a small carton of milk, they picked a peach from a tree, and they "planted" and harvested vegetables.  That's what Travis and Justin are doing here.  They were given a plastic seed "vegetable" and then they had to go find the plot that had the vegetable matching their seed.  They dug a hole, put in the seed, watered it, and then harvested a plastic version of their vegetable for their basket.  At the end of the course they "sold" their items to market by sorting them into baskets.  They received a dollar that they could then use to to buy a snack (capri sun, rice krispie treats, crackers, etc.) at the store.  The amazing thing to me was in the sorting section.  Scanning and sorting is one the the big things that Justin works on in OT and so I was kind of excited to see a "real-life" example.  He rocked!  It was tough for him because there was a mad scramble by all the kids to get all their items in the right baskets so Justin had to look between legs and be careful not to get knocked over.  And in spite of the obstacles, he get everything in the right basket without any help.  It was a burst-my-buttons kind of moment for sure.

Justin digging his hole.

Planting the seed

And then it was on to the tractors.  Unfortunately, because the outside stuff opens later than the inside stuff, there was no window of opportunity for extra tractor time.  We did sit in both tractors, but we had to wait in line. 

Justin really got into driving the tractor this year.  (They put flat screens TVs in the front windshield so that it looks like you are driving through a field.) 

It's getting to be a tradition for a picture in the tractor tire.  Either Travis is growing or the tire's shrinking...

Here's last year...

And 2009...

It was Justin's first picture standing up and we weren't sure what he would do, but he just grabbed right on and stood up! 

This was Justin last year...

The boys checked out a few engines and we watched the pig races again.  Since we just did our physicals, we avoided the fried food area (no fried oreos...sniff!)

But we did make one last stop in the "soil" area of Agventure.  The boys dug for earthworms.  Travis was hesitant at first, but then he got into it.

And I had to hold onto Justin with both hands; he was ready to nose dive right in!

It was worth it, he found one!

All in all, a fabulous family outing.  Highly recommended.   We could have stayed much longer, but nap was calling.  Another family event!