Californ-I-yay Roday-o

Salinas has a theme song for their rodeo - I don't remember all of it but it ends with 'at the Californ-I-yay Roday-o'. Very pneumonic of them.

But it was a lot of fun!

I had noticed signs for the rodeo when I first started my job and thought it could be a fun event. I had no idea how big it is for this small/mid sized town. But when I heard they pronounce it roDAYo I was a bit worried. When I hear that pronunciation I, naturally, think of pretty woman and roDAYo drive. So I assumed salinas was trying to glam up a country event and that it wouldn't be worth attending. We were offered free 'sponsor' tickets for my birthday though, so I figured - why not?

William LOOOOOOVED it. Loved it. We had access to the hospitality tent where there were tables and chairs with free food and drinks, so Austin and I preferred to stay there. But William kept asking to go sit in the stands where he could see better so we finally obliged. He was so happy! I couldn't get a picture of his face cause he wouldn't take his eyes off the cowboys and animals.



It was at the same outdoor sports complex where the relay for life was, but the arena is much bigger than I had realized before.



And of course William loved all the tractors.



We didn't realize the timing for the events so we missed more than we'd like, but we still had a great time. After the bull riding we walked around the booths to see if we could find Austin some boots. We didn't, but we did find these!






And would you believe the salesperson said his Texas merchandise just flies off his shelves? I wasn't surprised. It's a pride unsurpassed. And who was I to break the streak? we had to support the local Texas love.

William liked trying on hats but I wasn't about to spend that money on a hat he'll soon grow out of. That's what grandparents are for, not mommies.



We tried to walk over to the kid's play area but it was already closed. We did catch the face painters though and William was pretty proud of his spider man.


Look at that proud face! He kept pointing to his unpainted cheek saying 'this is William' then pointing to his paint saying 'and this is spiderman!' For someone who has never seen spiderman he sure does live the paraphernalia!

And in the end we had a tired, conked out baby. He could barely stay away past 7:00. He had an awesome day and loved the rodeo!

And I have to say I was pleasantly surprised myself. It was pretty awesome!

- manda