Happy International Livestock Show

Our local stockshow, the Happy International Livestock Show, was yesterday. It is a time for the youth of our community to practice before our county shows. This year was the 61st annual show.

Our local show is great for several reasons. The kids compete against each other, but they also help each other out and are proud of their friends when they do well. Showmanship may be a more coveted award than Grand Champion.

The people that make sure the show goes well are another thing that makes it great. Yesterday, I looked around and saw people helping that had no kids involved. They were either Happy graduates coming back to pitch in or parents whose children are no longer showing. One man hasn't had any kids showing since I last showed. It's pretty cool that people in our community care enough about our kids to make sure they have memorable opportunities.

During awards, Sadie sits with friends of our that help with the show every year. Neither one of them has anyone showing anymore, but they still are faithful helpers.

Another cool thing about the show is we take time to let the kids that aren't old enough to show have a turn. We have "Pee Wee Showmanship" with the lambs and pigs. Everyone gets a ribbon.

My dad was a great supporter of the show. It's now named Happy International because he used to joke about calling it that when we were kids. The Hustler award is named after him. I think he'd be proud to see that not much has changed since his kids were showing. It's still all about the kids and hopefully will continue to be.

To see more pictures of the show, go to our family website, here.

Pictures I Didn't Capture

At the stock show I didn't always have my camera handy. I've learned that when the perfect moment comes, it is often ruined by digging out the camera. I missed a few pictures just because my zoom isn't strong enough. So, here are the "ones that got away", but will be etched in my mind for some time.

• Wednesday morning about 7:00am--Sadie all dressed up to show almost asleep in a chair holding Leonard's halter; he stood patiently beside her with his head in her lap and fell asleep.
• Sadie's face as she turned around to catch Robby's and Craig's eye when her lamb was being weighed.
• Robby's and Craig's faces when the judge pulled Sadie and she made it through the weigh back. (Some have said it is more fun to watch Robby and his reactions when Sadie is showing.)

Stock Show Secrets

We're back from the San Antonio Stock Show. You can go over to the family blog for updates and pictures of that. Sadie and Leonard placed 14th. We were really proud of both of them. Get ready for lots of posts about the week. Kids in the car for 8 hours, animals and being a tourist give lots of post options.

Today I'm going to share a few tips I learned at the show:

• If you don't have an exhibitors' pass or a parking permit, arrive before 7:00am. No one will be there to check. Of course, none of the exhibits are open yet, only one place is open for breakfast and the line is long (lamb, pig, and steer people have to eat) and if you aren't there to show or watch someone show you won't have anything to do for several hours. But, you'll get in free. It makes for a really long day, though. (Net savings: $18)
• The food is expensive and not that great. If you wander around long enough you'll find some free samples, though. We were treated to chuck wagon coffee and biscuits, free ice cream cones (small, but good) and various samples from H.E.B in the afternoon. If you go through the lines enough times, you can fill up. (Depending on how many people you are feeding and how many meals you are there for you can save anywhere from $10-$50 a day by sticking to the samples, however, you probably aren't doing your part for the economy if you follow this tip and the first one)
• The exhibits that are geared toward kids are terribly crowded and congested during school hours--try to wait until all of the school groups leave before checking those out.

Here's a sampling of what T.S. ate:

• Monday--1 hot dog
• Tuesday--2 hot dogs, 2-3 biscuits, 4 ice cream cones
• Wednesday--biscuit (his goal was four, but we didn't make it back over to the chuck wagon), 1 ice cream cone

More useful (or useless) stock show info to come...