Rodeo Reflections

Yes, Emily went with us which is why we have all of these great pictures. I snapped this one early to prove it.

Kathlena overlooking the Houston skyline

You cannot live in Houston for long before you must go to the Houston Livestock and Rodeo. I remember as a kid growing up in a rural community that was big into 4H and FFA an hearing about the Houston Rodeo each year. I went for the first time myself only a few years ago and loved it. It reminded me (only much bigger) of the days when I was a kid growing up in New Braunfels, TX an going to the Comal County Fair. The fair was something I always looked forward to going to every year.
Here a some pics from our night at the Rodeo.



Emily did a great job of capturing some difficult pictures from our seats. Fast action!!

Andrew loved his first rodeo. His favorite part was the ice cream, calf roping and the bull riding. He also liked the sheep riding that the little kids did and wished he could have rode also! This was so funny. They had sheep for the kids 4-6 (pre-selected) to ride the sheep like the bull riders. Trying to hang on for the full 7secs. It was quite hilarious. Andrew with his blood hound nose immediately picked up on the "smells" of the rodeo asking with his wrinkled up nose "what is that smell?"



Andrew and Kathlena sharing popcorn.




I wanna be a cowboy!!

The lights were turned low for the Alan Jackson concert and Kathlena looked ready for "night, night"

Andrew loved the fireworks at the end. But he said it was
too loud though.

The long ride home. We took the bus so once the concert was over us and everyone else headed for the shuttles. The wait wasn't too long and we found a way to have fun anyway.


Kathlena loved the popcorn, ice cream, cotton candy and watching the cowboys ride. She also liked the music...a country girl. Emily has been coaching her on some of her favorite country music like Alan Jackson and Randy Travis.
Emily loves it all, but especially the calf roping and bull riding. J.Michael wanted to do the sheep riding too we all got a good laugh out of this event. He also liked the bull riding and calf scramble. Daddy's favorites are always the bull riding and the calf scramble, but he too had to add the sheep riding or "Mutton Busting" to his favorites.
Mom, well her favorite was watching her kids enjoy the rodeo so much. I also exercised my "early pregnancy cravings" trump card and had some great rodeo food. Big pretzel with mustard, cotton candy and a few bites of ice cream from the kids. So sweet as they were willing to share with their little sister/brother in uterine. It was a great family night.

1st Trip to the Zoo

The girls are enjoying their buck sticks from Daddy's deer for
lunch. When we arrived we had our picnic lunch at Herman
Park first then set out to spend the afternoon at the zoo.

Where are the prairie dogs...apparently this exhibit is under
construction but they had fun playing "prairie dog".

Black bear taking it easy and allowing onlookers a chance

for photo ops.

A recently acquired leopard. Notice the extra skin...

they have put him on a diet as he was apparently getting to
fat...only in America!

We got a rare glimpse of the tiger moving around and getting

a drink of water. They are such beautiful and graceful animals.

Andrew runs up to this fence and goes yummy cows...we

like to eat the cows! These were called Ankoloes I think?

I think Andrew is right these would probably be good eating.

A margay getting his goat's milk lunch.

Look at those paws!

*remember to turn off music to listen to video it is in the sidebar of the blog, click pause on the playlist.

The ocelot does not like to be squirted in the mouth with

the goat's milk but prefers to lick it off of the stump.

A beautiful cat.

A fussa...I don't think I have ever seen or heard of this

animal before. This is where we met Richard the zoo keeper.

The cheetahs stretching. The Houston Zoo has a large variety

of wild cats which is wonderful for our family as we love them.

"What stinks?" Ahh! yes, the new elephant

exhibit. Even a new mansion doesn't keep

these animals from smelling!

Swimming with the piranhas...yikes!

Playing in the mangrove roots. The new rain forest

exhibit is very nice.

"We found Nemo, and another one too!" "Dorey also"

Andrew was so cute when he saw the clown fish in the

aquarium in the Rain forest exhibit.

A rare glimpse of Lou the hedgehog as she has been retired

and only "lives" at the zoo. We were told that she is old and

has done "her time" so she is no longer on exhibit just living

her days out in a roomy cage behind closed doors. The zoo

keeper brings her out on occasion to let the kids pet her and

see a real hedgehog.

Kathlena and I petting the spiky hedgehog from Madagascar.

Andrew taking a turn to pet Lou.

A Shiflet tradition is to collect smashed pennies from the souvenir penny machines. It is a great inexpensive and fun souvenir for kids to collect. When we were traveling to Russia we actually found one in Germany. We found a website off of this one and it tells the locations of them from all over the world. From this website we found out that there was one in Russia...bummer would've been neat to have some from there.

We waited out the rain as long as possible and finally set out to the Houston Zoo on Thursday, Nov. 13. It was still overcast and a little cool in shade which made for a great day to stroll through the zoo. Andrew and Kathlena had never been to a Zoo before and it was so fun to try and explain this whole concept to them. At first Andrew was a little nervous as he didn't like the idea of "seeing" wild animals. Once he understood that they were in cages and could not get out he began to get excited at the thought of seeing some the animals he has only heard about in books.

It has been a while since the rest of us have been to the Houston Zoo too and much has changed. I must say it has definitely changed for the better! The zoo has recently acquired grizzly bears and new leopards. We had a great opportunity to see a Fussa, Margay and Ocelot as Richard the zoo keeper was out feeding them and Andrew got to ask him lots of questions to which Richard was more than happy to share about the animals he takes care of. The Houston Zoo has also recently built a huge Asian Elephant exhibit (to which no $$$ was spared at $5 million) Sadly, one of the newest born in captivity elephants, Mac at 18 months had just died the previous weekend from a virus. There were still 4-5 elephants in the exhibit though. Our trip was great fun. I have missed going to the zoo and glad to have such a nice zoo close by. I am sure we will be going again soon.