The Houston Rodeo just left town again, but not before we had a chance to go this past Saturday. I never thought when we first moved here that we'd look forward to going to the rodeo every year, but we do. I don't know if you have to live here to appreciate it or just attend once, but it's a lot of fun, especially when you have a little kid.
We began our Saturday morning by watching what is called "Coon Jumping." After watching it, I can tell you it's a bit of a misnomer because the coons aren't really the ones jumping. The mules jump. I guess it started in the backwoods of Kentucky when they were hunting coons and needed to jump fences. Apparently horses need a running start, but mules don't. Since it was dark and there wasn't room for a running start, mules were the animal of choice. One day a bunch of fellas were bragging about how high their mules could jump, and now you know why the competition began. Don't worry, if you're like me, you didn't have a clue that any of this stuff goes on. But now you know, and I'm sure you consider yourself that much smarter for it. :-)
After the coon jumping, Eli was dying to try out some of the rides, so he rode on a flying pirate ship (if you know how much he loves pirates these days--particularly Captain Hook--you know how much he loved it) and a dragon kiddie roller coaster. I tried to convince him to no avail that he probably wouldn't enjoy the roller coaster. Why did I think that? We were at the park the previous day, and some older kids were on the seesaw. Eli wanted aboard, and so they obliged. At first he started saying, "Woohoo!" Then, as they began going faster and higher, he looked at me with fear in his eyes and said, "Mommy, I'm scared." That was why I was pretty sure he wasn't going to like the roller coaster. But he insisted. "It's scary," I said. "No, Mommy, it's good. Please?" Well, I relented. Sure enough, he was quite scared. The first couple of times around, he was crouched down low with a look of terror on his face. On the second to last time around, he turned to me and said, "Mommy, I want to get off." Of course, there was not much I could do until the ride ended, but I couldn't help laughing just a little bit. After all, it was kind of funny. In fact, one of the kids in his nursery class showed up right after, and he too begged his parents to ride. His parents told us he wanted to ride the big roller coaster with his daddy and older sisters and was quite disappointed when he couldn't. But his ride on the kiddie roller coaster did not meet his expectations. He was screaming and crying through the whole ride. His parents laughed too, so I don't feel so bad.
After the rides (which Eli did not want to leave), Eli got to play pretend farm and see some of the animals. Included in those were a ride on a tractor, which he wouldn't miss for the world, and petting the animals in the petting zoo. Everything wore him out because he was quickly asleep in the stroller when we were standing in line for some yummy pecan cobbler. Some of his first words upon waking when we got home were, "I want to go back to the rodeo." I think that pretty much sums it up. We had a lot of fun!
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| This is Eli watching the coon jumping. |
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| This Is the coon jumping. |
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| Can you tell he loved the flying pirate ship ride? |
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| This is when the roller coaster first began. Can you see the look of fear on his face? |
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| This is near the end of the ride. Can you see him mouth that he wants off? |
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| The rodeo would never be complete without Eli sitting on one of the tractors. |
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| The petting zoo |
