Day 1,728 - Zoos and Rodeos

Over the past week, Ethan and I have found ourselves having several opportunities to get out of the house and go on little adventures together. The two biggest though probably occurred on Tuesday and Friday as we hit the Zoo for his class field trip and the American Royal Youth Rodeo on Friday for a little Daddy – Ethan outing together.

Now, it probably comes as no big surprise that I had been looking forward to Ethan’s class trip to the Zoo for quite some time. The idea of getting to see him interacting with his classmates in a setting like that was certainly exciting to me. Honestly, on the way to the Zoo, I found myself fairly concerned that we were going to be late due to the multitude of traffic jams we encountered along our way. However, we ended up making it with time to spare.

Once we arrived, Ethan and I found his teacher among the mass of humanity at the gate and formally checked in. After checking in, we hung out with the rest of the group until it was time to formally enter the Zoo at 9:30.

While I had expected the class to remain together as we explored the Zoo, I was more than a little dismayed to discover that the entire group went their own way as soon as we reached the Polar Bear exhibit. Seriously, I looked around and there was no one left from Ethan’s class anywhere in sight. So, with that, a very disappointed little boy and I began roaming the Zoo together.

As you can see, Ethan certainly had quite the mix of emotions.

It wasn’t all bad though as we did meet up with several friends from church that also attend Ethan’s school at the aquarium, followed by us eating lunch with them. Following that though, I decided to take Ethan to the carousel before we headed home for the day. Honestly, I’m glad that I did because almost as soon as we were in line, Ethan’s best friend from school, Joe Ryan, walked up behind us. The amount of excitement that both boys had at finally finding each other was off the charts. While Ethan had been asking me the entire day if I thought Joe Ryan was at the Zoo, apparently Joe Ryan had been asking his mom the exact same question about Ethan. Even though their reunion was ultimately less than 15 minutes, it was still fun to see Ethan happily interacting with his peers and helped make our trip worthwhile.

Fast forward to Friday and our trip to the American Royal Youth Rodeo. This actually marked Ethan’s first ever trip to a rodeo. He’s been around farm animals plenty of times throughout his life but has never taken in a rodeo. While we left home with plenty of time to spare which I hoped would give us time to walk around and see some animals in their pens, the traffic we encountered on the way downtown kept that from happening. Instead, we wandered in to Hale Arena with only about ten minutes to spare before the Rodeo would begin.

After purchasing our tickets, we then wandered through the seating area until we found a nice pair of seats in an otherwise unoccupied area. As we sat there, Ethan anxiously asked several times when the Rodeo would begin. It was obvious that he was excited for a new experience. Soon enough though, all of the lights in the arena when dark and a single rider on horseback approached the center of the ring with an American flag for the national anthem. This was a chance for me to teach Ethan for maybe the first time that one should always cover their heart with their hand during the national anthem.

Finally, the anthem ended, the lights came back up, and the rodeo began. The first event was bucking bronco riding which Ethan watched very intently. In fact, he laughed slightly every time a rider flew through the air. After that, it was time for calf roping. Ethan asked me several times just how they were able to rope the calf to which I could only reply “Lots and lots of practice.” His favorite event though was probably team calf roping all because one of the pairs inadvertently roped a calf’s tail. I’ve been to my fair share of rodeos and I can honestly say that I had never seen that happen before Friday. For the record, neither had the arena announcer and I can guarantee that he’s seen a lot of rodeos, too!

Near the end of the rodeo, Ethan definitely started getting fussy as he was beginning to get tired. In fact, I didn’t know that we were going to get through the closing event of bull riding. However, despite his crankiness, he was able to tell Bethany all about bull riding and the trick rider who rode her horse not long before that in painstaking detail when we got home.

There's that fussy face again...

Outings like these are sometimes kind of hard for me when Ethan gets tired. I inevitably find myself wondering if he’s even having fun and feeling bad if I think he’s not. Those feelings are heightened when he’s showing signs of being tired, hungry, or bored. However, those moments when he’s more well-rested where he recites the highlights of his day to his mom in painstaking detail lets me know that he is indeed having a good experience.

#DaddyWrite