The Calgary Stampede

Howdy y'all!! Ah, just joking. There's been a bit of that country feel in the air the past 10 days, the Calgary Stampede has been going on. And let me tell you, this city goes cowboy for it! Everyday there are free pancake breakfasts all across the city and a lot of businesses host Stampede bbq's for their employees and clients. The Stampede bills itself as "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth". Maybe this year it was. Remember my post about the Royals, Will and Kate, coming to town to kick off of the Stampede? They pushed the button that opened the 99th Calgary Stampede and began the parade. And they did cowboy fashion in royal style, while donning their white hats! The white hat is the traditional gift from the city of Calgary to important visitors. Not just anyone is presented a white hat.   

photo: Phil Noble/Reuters
Not to shabby looking are they? 

This year I hadn't really planned to go to the grounds, but last week my mother in law called and said she was taking my two nephews and would buy our all day rides passes if we wanted to go too. So I changed my mind and Ms. A and I went with them on Friday, for the entire day, 11 am to 10:30 pm!! Before we went I didn't know what to expect. The weather here hadn't been very good and Ms. A had never been on a ride before. This was the first time she'd gone. I always vowed I would NEVER have a stroller down there! Way too many people to try and push through. Anyhoo, I packed up our lunch, snacks, lots of water and sunblock and we were off to the Stampede. I'm happy to report we had a blast!! It was soo much fun and the weather was perfect!! To my surprise my sweet baby girl turned out to be a ride junkie. She loved them and when we weren't at the rides she kept asking when we could go back. 

While we were there we took in a couple shows. One being Terry Stokes a well know hypnotist. He was hilarious! I suspect his adults only show would be even better.  ; )  We also saw the Superdogs. They're always good family entertainment. I think I liked them better than Ms. A did. Twenty minutes into the show she started asking if we could go back to the rides. We also saw David "The Bullet" Smith jr. shoot himself 150 feet at 80 mph out of a cannon. Yikes!! 

Yeah, my camera was too slow to get a shot of him flying out of the cannon at 80 mph. 

Shows aside there's lots to see, cows, horses, baby chicks, baby pigs, sheep, and llamas. The baby chicks and pigs were our favorite. They're just soo cute!! 

She was soo excited to got the feed the horse.  

Check out the horns on this Texas longhorn cow! 

This one's for you Janet.  ; ) 

We wanted to hold them soo bad! 

This poor mama!! The piglets were only 8 days old. Soo sweet.  

There's also lots and lots of booths for shopping. Pretty much anything you can think of you'll find down there. I bought the cutest little silver ring with two sparkly cz flowers. I'm tellin' ya, if a guy gave a girl one of these rings when he proposed she wouldn't know the difference. Gorgeous ladies!

Oh, and I can't forget the food! It being a fair and all, I had to have a $5 corn dog. Yep, $5 for one little corn dog!! We had the mini donuts too. A must when you go to the Stampede. And my trip there wouldn't be complete without a bag of sweet and salty kettle corn. LOVE that stuff!! : ) 

We had a great day! Ms. A actually declared, "it was the best day of my life!" Being 5, that's a pretty good day.  : ) We're already looking forward to going again next year. I can't wait until she's big enough to go on the good rides. I did go on two with my oldest nephew, but I'd rather be going on those rides all day than the little kid ones. Oh, and Ms. A's favorite ride, the ferris wheel. She loved being up soo high and being able to see the city. 

Sorry about the crappy nighttime pic! 

So what about you? What were you up to this weekend?