National Western Stockshow

After we got back from Utah, we asked Sam who he wanted to see now that we were home. Don and I were both fully expecting Sam to list off his favorite friends and preschool buddies: Josh, Adam, and Elsie. The only people he asked for, though, were Cami and Zach. That shouldn't have come as much of a surprise. They love and spoil Sam like crazy. 

And once again, when they came over, they spoiled Sam silly with an awesome Christmas gift - a ceramic rocket ship that he got to paint. Sam painted it with Cam a few weeks later when she came over to babysit him. He is such a lucky boy to have Cam and Zach who love him and take such good care of him.

Best picture ever. See how much Sam loves Cami? So cute.

On Monday, January 16th, we went to the National Western Stock Show in Denver with our friends, the Jenkins. It was expensive ($12 per person and $15 for parking!!) but we had a good time. 

Sam wasn't feeling very well so he wasn't his usual chipper self but he thought the horses and cows were pretty cool. I think his favorite thing was the turkeys, though. He was fascinated with them. 

We saw this pretty horse getting warmed up for some kind of competition.

My favorite part of the stock show was watching the farmers groom and prep their cattle for competition. They would fluff the hair in areas where the animal was missing muscle or smooth the hair down where the animal was too bulky. The best part, though, was the faux-hawk ridge that the farmers so carefully coiffed above the tails of all the animals. I had never known that cattle competitions involved so much hairdressing. 

Getting a shampoo before being dried and styled...

Working on making the faux-hawk above the tail absolutely perfect and even.

The poof balls at the end of the tails were amazing! There was a lot of hairspraying going on. The fumes were strong. Well, that and the manure fumes. Not a good combination.

I still can't tell these cows apart. How they judge one superior over the other is beyond me and totally fascinating. We watched the competition between these cattle and the judge would talk about flank muscle and shoulder muscle and testicular development. They all looked the same to me!

It was a danger zone walking through the aisles. Farmers would bring their freshly groomed, combed, and coiffed cows down the aisles and they'd poop and pee all over. Then the farmer would have to wipe the cow up in time for competition; we'd have to keep a constant eye on where we were walking. 

 I had brought a piece of pizza for Sam to eat for lunch and when I tried to open the tupperware while we were watching the cattle competition, I kept struggling with the lid. It was stuck on there pretty tight.  When I finally managed to yank it off, the piece of pizza went flying across several rows of people and disappeared. I kept looking around expecting someone to scream when a piece of cold pizza landed on their head but no one did. Sam was very sad about losing his lunch. Poor guy. I was sad too.

The Jenkins! Neil, Elsie, Candee, and Evan.

Sam and the turkey! He liked to gobble gobble at the turkey in response to his gobble gobbling. 

Seeing a turkey that the owner was showing off.

Sam and Elsie had so much fun together.

We went to a rodeo clown show that was actually pretty disturbing. The guy seemed really drunk and kept pulling little animals (bunnies, ferrets, etc.) out of suitcases and other small spaces and then shoving them into other small cases. It was so awkward and not funny at all; more just really painful and sad. We finally snuck out. I felt bad for the people who stayed. We could hear their awkward laughter as we snuck around the back of the tent. 

And the craziest part of the stock show? The petting zoo. There were so many people shoved in the petting zoo; the poor animals were completely surrounded and could hardly move to get away from overeager little kids. I felt bad for them but Sam enjoyed petting the sheep and the little piglet.

And that was our adventure at the stock show. Definitely worth seeing once but I'm not sure I'd pay the money (particularly the parking money!) again.