Texas Sized Fun.

On Saturday we ventured out and took Carter to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. I'm telling you it's one of the biggest things around here and people look forward to it all year. In fact the Friday before the rodeo begins is "Go Texans" day and everyone wears their cowboy hats, boots and levis to work. The HLSR happens for about a month each spring and the rodeo is followed by a concert each night and is usually headlined by some pretty big musicians. We've gone every year since we moved to Texas and even went the year before we moved here with Scott and Lindsay when we came down to visit and pick out an apartment. Last year, we were lucky enough to get to go to one of the suites for a night. I use to work for Reliant Energy, and the venue that hosts the rodeo is named the Reliant Center. So as you can guess, this was a great working bonus and the suite for our company was pretty lush. We were right on the 50 yard line, and had our own wait staff. It was like going to the rodeo and hanging out in a hotel suite. After this experience it makes it a little harder to go back to the "cheap seats" where we normally sit. This year going to the rodeo with Carter would have been an entirely different experience. Because we've been to the actual rodeo and concerts before, we decided not to waste our money and even try our luck in taking Carter. We'll wait until next year and get a sitter. :)

Instead we spent our time at the livestock show trying to give Carter a small experience of real life farm animals. He loved the chickens the most as you can see below in the picture with Mike. I think this goes back to his love for ducks. They also had a really neat birthing exhibit where we saw several pigs and their brand new babies. In the picture with Carter and I, we were admiring more than ten baby pigs. Is there a name for baby pigs? We saw cows, mini-cows, goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens, bulls and lamas. Every time we would take him to see an animal he would try to lean over the fence to get to them. Well, that or chew on the metal fence the animal was in. We also enjoyed the rodeo food. They charge way too much for it, but boy is it good. We had barbecue sandwiches, dippin dots ice cream, funnel cakes and Carter had his first french fry. He wasn't really sure what to do with it. He played with it for awhile, then broke it in half and banged both pieces together and then he figure out he could eat it. It's too cute watching him figure out new things.

By the end of the day we were all pretty spent. Carter fell asleep on my shoulder while we walked through the carnival and stayed asleep in his stroller for half an hour. Isn't he a doll all tuckered out? It was at the end of the day we finally found some nice stranger to take a picture of us. Carter was still asleep. But when you have the opportunity to get a picture with all of us together you take it.

We made a quick stop downtown on the way home to pick up Mike's car and check out his new office. To my surprise almost his entire team was there at 6:00 p.m. on a Saturday night. It was a great impromptu "meet the team." They adored Carter, who was very shy and spent most of his time with his head hidden in my leg. Once the crowd disappeared, Carter and I played in the window while Mike packed up his computer. This is Mike's view. A great upgrade compared to his last job where his team was stuck in the basement on folding tables. It was great to meet his new team members and to see his new office. Carter loved playing in the window, so as long as Mike stays by the window we might be able to go visit again.