Forget 8 seconds, I'm talking about 8 hours

It's January, and for those of us in Denver, it means just one thing: temperatures in the 60s and lots of sun!

Oh, and it also means the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo.

Yes, often we have both, and yesterday proved to be one of those days where we left our jackets at home, donned our sunglasses and large belt buckles, and headed downtown to see some amazing creatures... and the animals they ride.

We love having family and friends visit us in January so that we can expose them to the cowboy culture without even leaving our city. And we love to have an excuse to splurge a little and enjoy it ourselves.

I have to say that the rodeo is even more fun with kids. It's more work, too, as you have to be careful not only where you step as you walk up and down the rows of livestock, but also where they step. But there's nothing that can replace the wonder and awe in their eyes as they see the velvety black angus cattle, the massive and powerful clydesdale horses, or a newly shorn sheep up close for the first time.

With John's parent visiting from New York, he took the afternoon off work so we could go when there were less crowds, and our intention was to see the 2:00 pm rodeo, then see how the kids were doing afterward to determine how much time we wanted to walk the grounds and see the exhibits and animals, etc. But I suppose we looked at the online schedule wrong because yesterday was the only day that there was no afternoon rodeo. Surprise! So at 1:30, we decided to buy tickets to the 7:00 pm rodeo and make a day of it. A very long day.

All told, we were at the National Western complex for eight hours. With two kids who hadn't napped. Truly, we were amazed, pleased, and proud of how wonderfully they did, and it made for a fabulous day with lots of fun memories.

Who couldn't love this adorable lil' cowboy? Josiah gears up with daddy's hat.

Ah, yes, the photo op at the wagon wheels. Just couldn't resist.

The petting farm was one of my favorite parts of the day. These animals were so incredibly patient with some of the kids who would smack and yank on them. Both of my kids were gentle, thankfully, or I would have been really nervous. This llama was taller than Lucy when it was lying down. Joey looked like a dwarf next to it.

Lucy fed a goat from her hand, but didn't intend for this one to try to eat her hat. Wouldn't it look tasty to you, too, if you were a goat?

Here you see Joey gently patting a goat. He was very brave and obviously fascinated by each and every goat, llama, sheep, and pig. The end of his fascination came when a sheep head-butted him right in the belly. He was apparently in its way. When he started to cry, the sheep turned back to look at him and promptly sneezed in his face. There was no recovering from that.

We were so proud of Lucy as she bravely rode this pony. (And I was proud of John for splurging on it!)

It was exhausting for some more than others. Joey settled in for a very brief rest on Papa's shoulder, but he didn't sleep the whole time we were there. He did, however, have his first taste (or two or three) of Pepsi, so I'm sure the caffeine boost helped.

Our seats for the rodeo were in the third row, right behind the cattle chutes. This was Lucy's second one, but she doesn't remember the first (which was either 2 or 3 years ago -- apparently we can't remember either). She loved the mutton bustin' and the barrel racing the best, as well as watching the horse teams pull the wagons. I'm sure the cotton candy John bought helped fuel her enthusiasm, too.

We love the rodeo. John got this great shot of steer wrestling, which is one of my favorite events. Roping is one thing, but watching these guys go lunging off their horses at full speed to intentionally land on a horned animal that weighs twice as much as they do and wrestle it into the dirt is something else entirely. These poor guys don't even get their 15 seconds of fame. It's more like 4.8 or 5.6 seconds.

YEEHAW! We left at 9:30, about half-way through the bull riding, but we knew we couldn't push our luck much further. Beating the crowd out had another advantage: we hitched a ride on a bicycle taxi to our car. A fun end to a great day!