Let's Rodeo San Antonio (2010)

Lisa and I had been planning for a couple of weeks to take our kids to the rodeo on Thursday. Since my girls are homeschooled and she took the day off to take Jakob to the dentist we thought we'd meet up afterwards and go before all the crowds start. We made it perfect! There really wasn't alot of people until we were leaving.

Last year when we went to the rodeo CC was having a sore throat and Lena was at home with tons of fever. Both girls ended up going to Goodnight Pediatric that night and both tested positive for the flu....and both girls had gotten their vaccines, so last year wasn't a fun time for them. This year, however, we had a blast!

When we got there it was alot of auctions going on and a lot of people just sitting on bleachers and benches and then kids and older people showing their pigs and cows. The angus cows were beautiful! I have always loved angus cows... HOWEVER... the smell as you walked through the barns was simply disgusting! I nearly threw up several times..it was horrid!
I did get a photo of one little cutie laying in his pen. Up close the piggies and cows are really beautiful!

As we were walking through one of the big barns toward the shopping area and rodeo grounds I saw a girl with zebra cowboy boots. Of course I joked about it to the girls, but if I were going to wear cowboy boots I would totally wear zebra print ones!

It was nice and sunny and cool... on the edge of cold!

The tickets were so expensive...the rides were at least four or five dollars a piece.

While walking through the games section we saw a booth advertising the World's Smallest Woman. It was only a dollar a person to walk through and see her. The loud speaker was saying she will talk back to you. We all thought it must be some type of illusion.

I wished it was. What we saw made us so very, very sad. Behind this man was cube set up about waist height and sitting behind that cube, looking at that white wall, was a very small lady. I think she must have been a dwarf. Her legs were about the size of my elbow to my wrist....she was mentally normal, sane. She was dressed in modern clothes and was playing on her blackberry when we walked back to look at her. And that is what we did...look at her. It was so sad and so disgusting. A person put on display like this because of her physical deformity. She said she was from Haiti, all her family is still there, this was her first time in Texas and she was 34 years old. I didn't know what to say or how to act. How does one person pay to look at another's deformity? I felt so disgusted and sad. I put some dollars in her bucket and we all left feeling uneasy.

I think about the other people who come in there to look at her and might not have the compassion we had. I can only imagine them looking at her and laughing in her face and mocking her. No one deserves this, no matter what their physical condition is. When we spoke to her she didn't even look at us. I think she made eye contact once, maybe twice. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen and I feel so ashamed I took part in it.

Further down the way we saw a display for the World's Smallest Horse. This I don't mind looking at. It's an animal and it's not getting mocked. We all assumed it was a miniture pony.

My girlies looking at........

the miniture pony! The sign said "No pictures" but these were all taken with my iPhone, so I don't think anyone noticed!

Speaking of expensive rides... Lisa and I took the kids on the Haunted Mansion. We paid a total of $18 to sit in a miners cart and go through about 30 seconds of darkness. There were four cheap, pathetic light up spooks that skreeched went you went past them.

We wanted to ride bigger, faster rides but Jakob wasn't tall enough and I didn't want to get on a ride and leave the little ones standing their alone. That is just not safe at all... so we just walked around, ate and shopped!

My girls above and with Jakob below....

We did let the kiddos play bumper cars.... poor Lena couldn't get hers to work. It just kept going around in circles and bumping into the parked cars. But she had fun and that's all that counts!

After bumper cars we saw this attraction... Half snake, half woman... notice it says body of an ugly snake, head of a beautiful girl.....

The beautiful girl was in fact an old, wrinkled up, sounding like she'd been smoking since she was 5, fresh off the street crack head.... ugh!

This was the best photo I could get because of the light glare. It was a mirror and she was sitting under a platform and it was really dumb!

We kept seeing booths for airbrushed t-shirts, caps, hoodies and beanies. CC really, really wanted one, so I finally gave in and bought some things.

The air brush artist is making my beanie in the above photo and sealing the image with a hot iron press below.

Finished product...sprayed with glitter of course! Ta-dah! I like it. Will I ever wear it? Probably not, but it was only $3 and it's cute... who knows?

Lena got one and we made Emil one that says "Beba" but he says it's "ghetto" and wouldn't even try it on. Oh well, at least I tried!

CC picked out a really neat design at a different booth. I think it compliments her perfectly!

We were going to buy Mom a mug that changes pictures when hot liquid is put in it but CC insisted we get her the Tinkerbell air-brushed shirt. I'm glad we did. Tink is her favorite and it came out beautiful!

This artist was great! But the first time he did her shirt he spelled out "Rhonda" and not "Bonnie" so we had to have him redo it.

Lisa and I both couldn't wait to get our hands on a funnel cake. You CAN'T go to the rodeo and not eat a funnel cake. They gave the option of adding cherries or apples for a dollar but neither one of us did, I wished I would have gotten the apples!

When I was little my grandmother would make me fresh homemade funnel cakes and I loved it. That is one of my good memories of her.. that and her apple pie, her aurora borealis earrings, Coty powder, giving me bags of her old make-up..... These funnel cakes brought her back to me for a few minutes and it was nice, however, it wasn't as good as hers!

After five hours of walking around we decided to head back to the car. I have been looking for a new purse and I knew what I had in mind I just couldn't find it. The coliseum was full of vendors so we walked through there and I found exactly! what I have been looking for....

I called Emil and told him I was very sad. He asked why and I told him because I found the perfect purse and I want it so bad.... he said yes and I took it home with me! I love, love, love this purse. Inside it has the softest teal satin lining and it's so big and roomy.

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Right now as I type my girls are being so silly! One is sitting on the skateboard holding the handle of Luigi's leash and the other is holding the other end and pulling the skateboard. CRAZY!

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I'm about to head out to Taco Cabana to meet Lisa for Margarita's. After this week I definately would like to sip a nice cold strawberry margarita to just help me wind down and relax!

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I don't have much planned this weekend and I like that. I really want to rent the past few seasons of Big Love so I can catch up before I watch my DVR'd episodes from this season. That's really about it. What about you? Do you have anything special or exciting planned?