Mutton Bustin'

The rodeo was in town this weekend, so we decided to take my two nephews down to it on Saturday night. Jake is 7, Cole is 4 - they both wanted to sign up for the Mutton Bustin'. Now if you've never heard of Mutton Bustin', then you're in for a treat. It is a "bull riding" competition - only for little kids. They ride sheep instead of bulls, and it is hilarious. They plop the little kids down on top of the sheep, and open the "bull gate" to let the sheep out. Of course the sheep is going to take off - so the little kids basically grab on for dear life, either around the belly, the neck, or sometimes even the ears.

Now there were a million kids at the rodeo, and they only draw 15 names for the event. We didn't think either of ours would be drawn - but it was Cole's lucky day! His name was announced, and he was raring to go. My dad took him, because he had to give him a pep talk before the competition. As they were doing the event they announced the next child's name. They announced Cole, and then the announcer said, "Oh, Cole's gotta go!" As in, Cole has to go to the bathroom. Great. So now the entire arena knows my nephew's gotta pee. Oh well, they threw him on the sheep anyway and off he went! He did okay, but most kids only stay on for 5 feet anyway. He got 5th out of 15 - so not bad! He came back to our seats with a t-shirt, a patch, and a can of coke. He was smiles from ear to ear!

This is the only picture my dad got of Cole and the sheep . . . of course he's a little slow on the uptake, so the picture is after Cole has fallen off the sheep. But still quite funny!

They also had another little event for all of the children. They had all the kids under 10 go to one end of the arena, and then they released 3 calves. Now these weren't just any ordinary calves . . . they were calves with stickers all over them, so the kids had to run after these poor calves and try to get a sticker for a prize. Now this was priceless - a million little kids trying to heard 3 cows! I got a good picture of Jake running after a cow, but he failed to complete his mission. Now sticker was gotten.

Jake is the kid on the right of the picture, trying to cut off the cows - in the Green Bay Packers sweatshirt.

And that was our rodeo weekend experience. A good one for the little ones, that's for sure!