Stock Show 2014

Once again, we took a trip to the Stock Show with the family last month over Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend. We like to get an early start and finish up early afternoon before it gets too busy, and so that we can get back home in time for the kids' nap. We got there so early this year, that we actually had to kill time before the pony rides and petting zoo opened for the day. So the kids got a ride on the next best thing: the mechanical horse.

We even had time to head downstairs to let them climb on the tractors before the main attractions opened.

Then it was finally time for the pony rides. It was the first time I walked with the kids instead of being the photographer and Merrick's first pony ride ever. Tiki, the horse he rode on, happened to be the same one that Karamea rode on for the first time.

After the pony rides, we ventured over to the petting zoo, which is always a crazy crowd of people and animals, and the kids enjoyed seeing the different animals.

We headed over to the Events Center, where some horse jumping competitions were going on and got there just in time to see the last 15 minutes or so. Since it was less crowded there, we grabbed a bite to eat, and the girls were enthralled with seeing people exercising their horses in the arena while we ate.

We walked over to the stockyards and explored the barns.  

One of the funniest things I have ever seen is the spandex covers they put on the sheep to keep them clean before showing them. The owners certainly have a sense of humor about it too, since they had such outlandish fabric patterns...everything from tie dye, to zebra/giraffe/tiger print, to polka dot.

Karamea asked one of the owners why it had the muzzle on, and they graciously explained that the sheep would eat the wood shavings they were laying in and get sick if they didn't have the muzzle. We lingered a bit at the bathing area and watched some girls wash their sheep, which was also comical. They were stubborn little buggers! One sheep was facing one direction while its owner washed it, then she tried to get it to turn so she could wash the other side, and she would give it a shove, and it would just swing its rear end back the same way again...and again, and again. This seriously happened ten times or more. I'm sure the sheep was scared and just felt comfortable facing that direction, but as we watched the scene unfold, I felt a little twang in my heart as I paused to consider some of the spiritual parallels that are drawn between sheep and people in the Bible. I wonder what ways I am like the stubborn sheep and keep moving back to my own comfortable position, be it attitude, habits, or actions...but that is a post for another time...

Then we went back into the building where all the vendors are and the girls rode another kind of horse:

By then it was early afternoon, and it was getting extremely crowded. We all just wanted to get out. It was so busy that even Kaylee was asking to leave...Aside from a longer-than-necessary wait for the shuttle and some pushy people, everything else went smoothly. Phew! It was a full day, but this is a tradition that I love and it was one that I cherished as I was growing up. It will be even more fun when Merrick is a bit bigger next year since we plan on going to the rodeo for the first time with the family.