This weekend our 6 year old, Charlee showed her first cow at a livestock show. Showing cattle is something that Brian was raised doing. He went to college on a scholarship for judging and he has shown bulls in open shows even after we were married. We've traveled as close as Tulsa and as far as Minnesota to show. It is something that he's looked the most forward to our children doing. It's his cheerleading to me. We both understand that we are very different in those aspects but we both greatly support each other in those journeys despite it being extremely expensive and time consuming to be doing it all at once. When you have children (especially 3 plus) you commit to being busy the rest of your life. Your kids are all going to be doing different activities at different times. Some will love to play football or to cheer. Some will love 4H and ag. Some will be in band or choir or math club. There's literally hundreds of paths that your kids can take and if our kids are anything like Brian and I they will be apart of all of it which makes parenthood even crazier ha. I cheered, ran track, played basketball and softball, played the flute in band, was in drama club, ect. Brian played football and was the pitcher for the baseball team. He was in ag and 4H. He judged horses and cattle. He showed pigs and goats when he was little but settled into only showing cattle as he grew. Our children have been raised in a barn and have had cows as pets all of their lives. We made a promise to each other that we'd wait until they were 6 to let the show though simply because when you show cattle you're in the show ring with other cows. Cows are obviously big and some cows kick or jump. They aren't all dog gentle like ours are. Our kids can lead ours around by their halter/lead rope at home. They can love all over them and the only thing we have to worry about is the cow stepping on a foot by accident which has happened. All in all we know that our cattle are safe but others may not be so having your young children in the ring with others can be stressful. Brian walked with Charlee because of this. It went perfectly and the crowd was going nuts over 'that cute little girl dragging her cow around'. She was so freaking adorable out there. She won 2nd in her class. All of her grandparents were there and all of her aunts and uncles. She had so much support there to watch her. Our kids always have that with our family and I love it so much. This weekend made me so proud and ready to dive all in with livestock showing. Something that I wasn't raised around. Horses, yes. Cows being pets, no! We have decided to take our show cattle to KC and Denver to show this fall and winter after seeing how well it all went. Next year Andlee will be showing too and the following year all 3 bigs will be showing. We are just starting our adventure and it'll only grow bigger from here. At 9 years old they can do 4H and show in all Junior Shows, if they want to. I'm surprisingly excited to be living the show life. I've said this before but I couldn't wait to be a 'soccer mom' who drove a big SUV, always had coffee in her hands, and had a bunch of kids doing a bunch of different things. That's how I pictured my life all growing up. A fashionable mom running all over the planet with her babies. Matching t-shirts and hats. Stickers on the back of our vehicles. Personalized stuff with our cattle logo on it. That's what I looked forward to and I'm beyond pumped that that's my life now. It's tiring without any doubt but it's absolutely my dream come true.
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