Cowboy Christmas

Vegas turns into cowboy country about this time of year, with hundreds if not thousands of pick-up trucks taking over the city for NFR and other rodeo events. My friend Sophie has come to visit for the past five years at least, and it is always a treat to see her. She is a real cowgirl, not a rodeo queen cowgirl. She works on her parent's ranch and can be up in the mountains for weeks at a time with their cows.


It was nice to give my kids a chance to do something new, like watching the roping competition, riding a mechanical horse used for training purposes (we didn't turn it on though), and feeding and petting a horse. We got to see Diamond ride in a steer roping competition - Claire was a bit nervous at first around Diamond, but Miles went right in and touched his face and petted his neck. On Day 2, Claire got brave and touched the horse, and helped feed him his nightly hay. Aside from a huge allergy attack (I know this happens every time I am around horses and dust but I always forget allergy medicine since it's only once a year), we had a great time. Sophie told Claire to try to count all the cowboy hats we saw at the SouthPointe, and after awhile she just yelled out, "Look at all these cowboy hats!!" and got a few funny looks from the aforementioned cowboy hat wearers.


Claire said today, "Who is your friend again?" I said, do you mean Sophie? She said, "Oh yeah, Sophie. That's right." I said do you remember her horse's name? Without missing a beat, she said, "Diamond!" So, sorry Sophie, the horse was the most popular this time. Thanks for showing us around and letting us be part of the cowboy scene for a few days.