We Love To Rodeo!

"I love to rodeo" is a famous quote in the Fuller family. We liked to say it all the time, for no real reason other than the fact that it was a fun saying that came from a story my dad told us about a guy that said that. We never really went to rodeos, and didn't really know anything about cowboy or horses.

(I guess one time each year...we'd head down to Clifton and Preston to visit cousins and go to the "famous" Preston rodeo. But I don't actually remember the rodeo, just the carnival rides before the rodeo. We might not have ever even went to the actual rodeo. I'm not sure.)

Anyway.....now me and my own little family can say "I LOVE TO RODEO," and say it cuz we mean it! There were two rodeos here in town, and we decided to hit them both up, the Katy Rodeo, and the Houston Rodeo.

KATY RODEO
All week long they have different events going on for the town, as well as the rodeo at nights. This particular day, I can't really remember what this was called, or why they have it, but they have a huge ol' horse parade with buggies and everything walk through town. It was super cool to see. We went and ate breakfast at one of our friend's houses, then walked out and set up chairs on her corner so we could watch all the horses coming through.

A couple days later, we went to the parade. Holy smokes! This parade sure beats little old Rexburg's 4th of July parade. Both kids came home with a full grocery sack of candy!

And Had came home with 30,000 mardi gras beads! For some reason, people kept throwing him more and more.







We went to the rodeo and livestock show at the end of the week. The kids and Had loved seeing the animals! (Me, not so much. I think they stink.) Jete and Jerz ate sausage on a stick while we all sat and watched the rodeo.

HOUSTON RODEO

A couple weeks later, Hadley got to take a day off, one of his 5 for the year, and we headed downtown to the Houston Rodeo. We had heard it was awesome, and huge, and fun for the whole family.

It was!

We all loved it. There were carnival rides, mutton bustin (Jeter was too chicken to ride the sheep, but he did tell us that if he dared to go down there, then he would beat everyone and stay on his sheep the longest), tractor pulls, livestock, vendors, and food! Oh and I'm just realizing as I'm typing this, we didn't really go to the actual Houston Rodeo, just all the fun stuff that comes along with the rodeo. We met Tyson and Lauren and their kids there (friends from podiatry school), and played till we were broke.

Loving the airplane ride, even daring to take a hand off the wheel to wave to us.


Jerzi started out so excited to ride on this little 4 wheeler ride. Then it started going up and down and spinning....it progressively got worse, and by the end she was freaking out. I was torn inside between laughing my head off, and wanting to go ask the guy to stop the ride.

Brave dudes for the stomach ride!

Racing down the slides....always a favorite!

Ford had this little dirt track set up to race cars. It was pretty fun. And it was the only thing there that didn't cost money. We just had to sign up with them by giving them our email, so we can get their junk mail for the rest of our lives. Well worth it. Jeter was in heaven, and didn't ever want to leave.

I'm not sure if this is a donkey or a pony, or if his name really is Licorce or Licorice, but while Jerzi was sleepin in the stroller, Jete saddled up.

What a cute little cowboy!

A carousel is always a must! Jerzi's favorite ride. She never stopped smiling!

My favorite part for the kids...the farm!

They give you seeds and you plant them and water them. Then you get to take your crop with you in your basket.

The kids got to get eggs from the chickens, wool from the sheep, milk from the cows and play in a sandpit made of corn kernels.

Takin a break from all their hard work for a pic.

They also got to go drive the tractor "out in the fields".

He's a natural!

Seriously, look how cool this is! You sit in the tractor to drive, and they have a screen of a tractor going through a field so it seems more real. So awesome!

After a hard days work, the little farmers got to take all their goods to the market and sell them. Then with the money they had earned, they got to buy a snack at the store. How cute is that? I was seriously dying. I loved it, and so did the kids.

(I have taken my kids to children's museums. And this is by far cooler than anything I've ever seen at any children's museum.)

For about the next month, Jerzi was asking us any time we got in the car if we were going to the rodeo. I'm glad rodeos left a good impression on her. And I'm glad that we went, even if we did blow some money on the yummy food, and those dang rides!

Easter

 Easter was relaxing, low key, and enjoyable this year.  We had a Easter egg hunt and picnic at the church.  The primary presidency talked to the kids about the real meaning of Easter, then we all sang some Easter songs, then went outside for the hunt.

 They split the kids up according to age, so I had to go with Jerzi, and let Jete fend for himself, on the other side of the church. I realized about 3/4 of the way through it, that I should quit "coaching" Jerz on picking up every egg.  I don't know why I do that.  I don't even want her to have the candy. I guess its just the competitive side coming out in me.  She was ignoring me anyway. She just wanted the pink eggs or the big ones.  After I realized that she was happy with just a few eggs, we booked it over to Jete's egg hunt.

 On the way to the church that day, Jeter told me how he was gonna get so many eggs that his basket would be overflowing, so I fully expected him to have way too many eggs (they were only supposed to find 12, then be done).  Instead, I found him off by himself, checking out what was inside the few eggs that he had.  He told me that the other kids were too big and too fast so he couldn't get very many eggs.  I felt so bad.  I should have just had him come over to Jerzi's hunt, like lots of the other mom did with kids his age.  I think I try and "follow the rules" a little too much.

All the kids sat around after and filled themselves up on candy, then we had our picnic.  The kids were fine with all the candy they got (or didn't get).  I was the one that felt bad that they didn't get very many eggs.  HAHA  

Our annual unspoken Easter Egg-Dyeing Contest!

Every year we dye eggs and without ever saying we're having a contest, we always try to outdo everybody else's egg.  What else would you expect?  :)

So I was taking kind of a long time trying to dye a cool one for Jerzi, and Had sneakily came and wrote 2nd on it with a white crayon so I wouldn't see it until after it was all dyed, thinking that it was gonna be my best one.  When I saw the 2nd place, I laughed like crazy.  For one, he did something like that last year too, for two, he was worried that it was gonna be #1, for three, he wrote that without me seeing it, and four, I had one more egg left that he didn't know about.  Wahaha! 

Here's the real winner!

 The funny part of the whole thing was that me and Had were each saying how our own egg was the best.  So after it was all said and done, we asked Jerz which egg was the best out of all of them.  She pointed to one, and it was....

Dun dun dun

Jete's! 

He was so excited!  We all had a good laugh.

Our cute little munchkins Easter morning