Little Cowgirl!

This past week we took Riley to the Stock Show.  It was her 2nd year to participate in a tradition that my Mom started when Ryan and I were little.  Each year, the Stock Show comes to town in January and each year my Mom would take us and usually a few friends to get up close and personal with livestock and explore great western stuff found only at the Stock Show.  It was an outing that created lots of great memories for me as a kid and I hope that it's something that Miss Riley enjoys just as much.

This year was made even more special because Kris and Popdaddy both took the afternoon off work to join Riley, Gigi and I at the show.  Riley loves animals and she is now at what seems to be the perfect age to enjoy checking out all of the animals big and small.  Gigi even bought her an adorable pony dress and matching tights for the occasion. The only thing she wasn't about to do was get up and ride on anything, no ponnies, longhorns or Belgian horses for this cowgirl.  Maybe next year.

 Checking out the bunnies with Daddy.  It won't be long before she'll be begging to take one home with us.

Petting a goat named Nebraska with Gigi.  She thought is was pretty funny that this goat eats animal crackers, but she left the feeding up to Gigi.

Riley and Popdaddy looking at the huge Beligian horses.

Probably the biggest his with Roo was the petting zoo.  There were baby goats, pigs, sheep and even a llama that she could pet.  She loved how the little goats would run up and give her "kisses" on her hands. 

While we probably could have spent the entire day in the petting zoo alone, we had to move along to see some other stuff too. We got to walk through the area where all of the cows are kept and groomed. She enjoyed getting to see them but didn't really want to close. She particularly liked to watch the cows that were taking a bath. We had such a great day and Riley could not stop talking about all of the animals we saw and how much fun she had.  We can't wait to go back next year!