Day of Rodeo Fun

Since we've moved to Calgary and saw the sign "Home of the Calgary Stampede," I've been thinking we should go. We should experience it, at least once. Calista even knows what it is, because in her ABCs of Canada book, letter C is "for Calgary Stampede, days of rodeo fun." So this year we went.

Waiting for the train.

We took the train, and then walked the rest of the way when the train was way too full to fit a stroller. While on our walk, Craig fell asleep. Poor kiddo, he's folded in half!

Good thing he's strapped in!

When we got inside, the first thing we found was the stage show: My Little Ponies: Equestria Girls. Calista (who hates if I sing, "My little pony, funny bologna.....") wanted to watch it, so we let her join the gaggle of girls standing enthralled at the edge of the stage.

Following the show, the girl who played the lead (Twilight Sparkle, for those keeping track at home), gave little "pony ears" and got her picture taken with every little girl who stood in line.

Including Calista, obviously.

Craig got to try them on, too, once he woke up from his nap.

Next up, lunch on the lawn followed by a trip to the Agricultural Building.

And dressed up as a fire fighter, because we can.

We spent nearly all the afternoon in this section of things, seeing all sorts of animals, including horses,

These ones drove around the hearse from the 1870's

cows, sheep,

chickens, dogs herding ducks, and a llama.

It was actually really cool. I took this picture of Calista with the llama, and then the llama's handler said, "Come here," picked her up, and let me take a picture of her right next to the llama.

So awesome.

Craig's favorites were the horses ("horseys!") but he liked all the animals.

And dancing. Always dancing.

Also, just for my sister,

This is a picture of Kaillie Humphries, a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist in bobsleigh, being taught how to blacksmith by her sister, who is actually a blacksmith.

Then we headed across the grounds a bit to see Little Ray's Reptile show. It was awesome.

The animals are all former pets who got too big for their owners. I'm not sure who would want a crocodile as a pet, but...

Fiona (the Caiman) sure is pretty.

When we went to leave the reptile show, we realized we'd missed out on a pretty decent summer storm.

Hail and massive amounts of rain left little rivers running through the Stampede grounds and caused weather delays on a couple of events.
We missed it, though, and grabbed some food and headed back to the Agricultural side.

We caught the end of the Heavy Horse Show and then watched as much of the Stock Dog World Championships as our kids would let us.

Calista and Craig were fascinated with it for a while, Craig happily pointing out the sheep ("Animals!") and Calista hoping with the rest of the audience that those stinkin' sheep would just get into that dang pen already! ("Yay! That dog did it! Yay!" or "Oh no, he's going to run out of time!")

After an hour and a half of stock dogs, our kiddos were about done and we headed home, and the kiddos went straight to bed. It was a long and fun day!