Saturday, July 19, 2008

Fort Worth Stockyards




This post is a week late, but last Saturday we went to the stockyards with Mom, Dad, Brittany, Trey, and Trey's parents, Rick and Debbie. Even though we've lived here 2.5 years, Phil and I had never been to the stockyards before. It was so much fun!

We got there at 4:00 just in time to see "the herd". Actually, only Mom and I got a chance to see it. What cute, sweet longhorns... as I was taking these pictures, I started feeling uneasy about eating dinner at a steakhouse later that night! 

Later we wandered around through some stores. I decided against buying a $1400 pair of cowgirl boots... ha! Then we had dinner at Cattlemen's. It was pretty good, albeit no Nick & Sam's! ;)

Finally we got to the best part of the evening, the rodeo! I had been to one other rodeo before an Alan Jackson concert at the AA center. I didn't really pay much attention to it because our seats were kind of far away from the action. 

THIS rodeo was so fun! Our seats were really close and I could see all the action. I felt a little bit like an ancient Roman watching the gladiators. During the bull riding, one guy got his arm stuck and was being flopped all over the place by a crazy bull. And there was another guy who got bucked off and then trampled a little bit. I kept covering my eyes during those parts, but then I'd peek a little out of fascination! 

I felt really sorry for the little calves who had to get roped. That looks painful to get lassoed around your neck, flipped on your back, and have three legs tied together. I'm sure they just want their mommies... so I cheered whenever a calf got away!  :)

The other fun thing that happened at the rodeo was that we met some people from Dusseldorf - what a small world! I was sitting next to Phil, and on Phil's other side was a little boy maybe 7 or 8 years old. Phil tried to make small talk but the boy never responded, and finally his mother leaned over with a smile and explained that he only spoke German. After a little conversation Phil learned that they were from Dusseldorf, so I made Phil pull out his iPhone so that I could bring up Kristen and David's blog. I told her I'd been there and showed her the pictures of the apartment they were living in when I visited last fall. She didn't recognize the area (it's not exactly a small town, I guess...) but it was still a very fun connection to make, particularly at a rodeo in Fort Worth, Texas! 

By the way, speaking of Kristen and David, I have added a link to their blog on the left. Kristen is my cousin; she and her husband David are serving in Germany as missionaries. In case you have not been reading my blog for very long, I had a chance to visit them last fall on my way home from India and there are pictures if you navigate back to November 2007 in the blog archives. Please keep them in your prayers!


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