Mom and Pops were here last week from Wednesday afternoon to Friday afternoon. We, as per usual, had a great time. On Wednesday we grilled out at home and then went downtown to ride the McKinney Ave Trolley, which was fun, and then on Thursday we went to one of Joey’s classes with him for an hour. (We’ll see what kind of grade he gets…we were kind of rowdy in the back.)

After hanging out with Joey at DTS, Mom, Pops and I decided we wanted an adventure. So we drove out to Ft. Worth to go to the Stockyards – something I have been begging to do for the last year and a half. (You know, I like cows and whatnot…)

We arrived in one piece, without getting lost, and stopped at a Walgreens first thing because I had forgotten my sunblock and we all know what happens to Jenna when she doesn’t apply sunblock. (Or applies expired sunblock, for that matter…)

We found a place to park, which was easy as can be, and then Mom and I forced Pops to change into shorts so he wouldn’t overheat, because then we’d have a replay of that one time in the Paris Airport — I’d really rather not go there again. It took all three of us to figure out how to pay the parking meter, but once that was done, we were ready for some adventure.

First stop: Visitor’s Center.

Pops immediately zeroed in on the old-timey photographs and had the guy at the Visitor’s Center dispensing Stockyards trivia like it was his job. (Well, actually, it probably is.) We then noticed that there was a 12 minute video we could watch, so we got in line for that. After, that is, Pops paid for the three of us to have a 45 minute tour of the place.

We watched the video and then our tour guide came and fetched us. We were the only people on the tour (it was wicked hot that afternoon) and so for the next hour and a half she guided us around, taking us behind the scenes to where they keep the herd. She even let us pet and feed them. (There are signs posted that say not to, but that wouldn’t have kept me from doing it anyway.)

Here I am feeding my very first Longhorn. Mom took this picture because there was no way on God’s green earth she was going to get anywhere near that cow, especially since it had horns. She was standing very far away from the fence.

We also saw sleepy Longhorns, who are city employees of Ft. Worth, laying around and soaking up the sun. I didn’t see them getting any sunburns, lucky ducks.

Mom was particularly fond of the black and white one you see in the middle. “That one has very interesting coloring,” she said. His name is Duramax and I tried to get her to feed him, but she said no way.

This one with the curly horns was particularly cool, I thought.

We had a little bit of time before the cattle drive down Main Street, so after our tour guide left us, we went over to the branding station and checked out how it would have worked. As you can see, Pops decided to climb on the fence to get a better look at things.

After we’d had about as much heat and sweat as we could stand, we stood in the shade and watched the Longhorns get driven down Main Street. The cows appeared bored but I didn’t really blame them.

All in all, I felt like a good little tourist. I’d say Mom, Pops and I had about as much fun as is legal. We even made it home in good time, without getting into any wrecks.