Rodeo Houston

This year Jonathan and I were lucky enough to be invited to the Houston Rodeo by our dear friend Colleen! If you've never been to the Rodeo I highly recommend it. We decided to go straight from work so we could take the lightrail and not have to worry about parking. I love working in downtown! We got there around 6 so we had a little time to walk around the Livestock Show. I love seeing all the animals. We saw baby pigs, lamb, and chicks! Plus, I pet a pig and Colleen pet a steer! By the way, don't be like us make the mistake of calling a steer a cow even though look almost exactly the same. We got a little lecture on steer when we asked if we could pet their cow.

This lamb was born that morning!

Piglets!

Colleen and Christine petting a cow. At least I think it's a cow...

Colleen getting a lesson on steer

Petting the steer!

After all the animal petting we quickly washed our hands and then went to get BBQ! It was crazy crowded but of course I always love being around tons of people. After food we headed to the Rodeo! Just one little disclaimer, I really do like going to the rodeo. However, I'm always quite terrified that someone's going to get trampled by a bull and I'm usually rooting for the animals to get away when the cowboys are trying to tie them up. I know, that's not really the point of the rodeo, but what did the animals ever do to them? My favorite events are the horse races, the calf scramble, and the mutton busting! The calf scramble is where kids have to run around, catch a calf, tie a harness around it's head, and bring it to the center of the stadium floor. If they do that successfully then they get to keep the calf and raise it. For most of them, it's their first chance to raise their own animal so they're pretty invested in getting themselves a calf. The mutton busting is where kids averaging around the age of 6 have to hang on and ride a mutton/lamb and whoever hangs on the longest gets a prize. It's really adorable to watch. The winner of the competition really went above and beyond. He hung on until the mutton ran the entire distance across the race area and even as the lamb ran into the fence. The mutton then turned and kept running and the boy was still hanging on even though he was being dragged on the ground! That's determination! By the way, all the kids were heavily padded so no one was hurt or anything. Every kid was smiling afterwards so they had fun!

Tying up animals :-(

Chuck wagon races! If you notice, there's a Chevron one.

More tying up animals....

 

See I'm having fun!

So are Colleen and Christine!


After that was the big concert! We got to see Jake Owens. I knew close to nothing about this singer but he ended up being great! He walked around the entire floor of the stadium shaking everyone's hands, taking pictures with the audience using fans' cameras, and climbing up into the audience. He's quite the multitasker because he doing all this while singing at the same time lol.

He also wore a shirt that said Texas. I think he was trying to suck up a little lol.

The stage is pretty cool too because it rotates and you can even see through the screen when the stage is facing away from you. So to sum up, if you haven't been to the rodeo, go! It's like stepping into a totally different world where people ride bulls for a living and raise their own cattle. It's definitely fun to see for this city girl.

-Chelsey

A Cinderella Wedding



Wow! We're back at home finally! We had a great time in London but when Jonathan got back on Friday we immediately headed to Austin for a wedding last weekend. Jonathan's flight actually got in around 4 on Friday and we were on the road no more than an hour after he got home. He was a trooper! We stayed at a cute bed in breakfast and for the most part it was a really relaxing weekend. Jonathan did a lot of sleeping since he was still jetlagged and I read a good chunk of my book, The Son of Neptune. It's the second book in the spin off series from the Lightening Thief series which I'm pretty addicted to lol. Normally the bed and breakfast would have had a view of the lake but because of the drought 2 years ago, that side of the lake was completely dried up. It's so sad! At first we were confused by our view. We noticed some covered platforms not close to anything and eventually we realized that they used to be along the lake. Please pray for some Texas rain!!! We need it! Saturday evening we went to one of our favorite Austin hangouts, Rudy's BBQ. They have a few Rudys in Houston but they just don't have the same character as the ones in Austin. If it's your first time there they'll shout out, "We got ourselves a newbie!" and then reward you by letting you sample all of the menu before you decide what you want. For that reason, Jonathan usually wants to pretend like we've never been there before lol. You also might notice that people who have just dined at Rudy's are usually wearing a sticker that says, "I have clean hands!" That's another Rudy's tradition. They have a special hand washer that as they say, "is like a jacuzzi for your hands!" and after you wash your hands you get a sticker!

To the right is where the lake used to be. It was still a pretty view though!

The deck behind our B&B.

The general area with a pool table, TV, and books.

....and by worst they mean best!

We have clean hands! And we're jetlagged lol....

The wedding was of our close friends, Katie and Todd. I love weddings. It makes me want to go back to our wedding day! I'm so glad we have the video so we can relive our big day! If you remember, I helped throw Katie's bridal shower and you can read about it here. Since Jonathan works with Katie and we had just gone through wedding planning ourselves, we helped them out with wedding planning quite a bit. I was so excited to see how it all came together. It was a beautiful wedding. It was an outdoor ceremony overlooking the lake. We were really worried that it was going to be a rainy day. Their wedding was on Sunday and there was a 75% chance of rain. Luckily, it only stormed early in the morning and after that the sun came out and it was a clear and absolutely beautiful day! You really couldn't ask for better. The ceremony was really sweet. They wrote their own vows to each other and dedicated part of the ceremony to their parents, including Todd's dad who passed away a few months ago. The reception was inside but there were windows everywhere so we still had a gorgeous view of the lake. Instead of a guest book they asked us to write our best wishes to the couple and hang it on a pretty tree for them to keep in their home. It was a very unique idea for a guest book and a great momento for their home. Their wedding lunch was really good BBQ! We definitely got our BBQ fill on this trip. Todd wanted to give his relatives from California a chance to try some Texan food while they were there.

Look at that blue sky!

The bride! She looked gorgeous!

Getting married!

  

Their first dance!



Instead of the cake they had cupcakes and a cheesecake for the groom's cake!

It was a beautiful wedding and we had so much fun seeing these two finally get married! I think that will be it for awhile with all of our trips! I'm hoping to get back to some sort of normalcy here haha. We always have something going on of course so check back to read all about it!

-Chelsey

We're in Reading!

I know this title doesn't sound nearly as exciting as the last post but bear with me lol. Yesterday Jonathan and I headed to the Reading area since sadly he had to go back to work today. I mean his work is the reason we were here in the first place so I really can't complain. We had a driver drive us here because we're all fancy and such! In case you didn't know, Reading is about an hour west of London. It's pronounced the past tense of read plus ing, is that makes sense. It's pretty much a suburb of London where a lot of businesses are located. It seems to be a pretty convenient place to live where you can actually buy your own house but still go to London quite frequently. However, technically our hotel isn't in Reading, it's in a small town called Winnersh. A tiny town where there's pretty much nothing but a hotel, a few companies, and some neighborhoods. Luckily there's a really convenient train that I can take into Reading. They seriously have trains everywhere in this country! It's only 2 stops away so I'm heading into town on my last day in GB (that's the cool way to say Great Britain here if you're in the know.) Fortunate for me, I get to spend my last day shopping. That's pretty much what Reading is known for. They seem to have several malls along with lots of cute shops. I don't really know how they fit so much into such a small town but it's been a lot of fun wandering around. They also have the ruins of an old Abbey. It's almost 1000 years old! That's unheard of in the states so it's pretty awesome. Of course Westminster Abbey is older I think so I've pretty much been in awe the entire time we've been here. There's so many old buildings here that most people don't even take notice lol! Anyways, some historical facts about the Abbey: It was changed from a religious church to a royal palace during the time of Queen Victoria's rule. Jane Austen went to school there. How cool is that??? I got to wall where Jane Austen walked! Unfortunately the Abbey is unsafe to visit so I couldn't see much or get very good pictures but they're in the process of restoring it so that you can actually tour it!

It's been really fun being in a less touristy area and seeing how residents actually live. It looks exactly how I imagined it to look. Rows and rows of super old houses that all look like adorable cottages. I am spending  the day shopping and having pub food for the bajillionth time (yes that is a word and no I'm not exaggerating.) I'm a little bummed to head home without Jonathan but he's heading home on Friday so we'll only be apart for a few days.

And as always, enjoy some pictures!

-Chelsey