Wild Wild West...

Crazy but true, Karl is the only one who has gone to the actual Stampede this year (rodeo with his boss and colleagues), but if you live in Calgary or if you've ever visited during the 10 days of Stampede, you know there's a lot going on in the city that spins off of the "Greatest Show on Earth." I went with some friends to a free pancake breakfast at the mall on Tuesday (there are hundreds of free pancake breakfasts in the city over stampede week).Caleb loved the marching band and was surprisingly interested in the goats at the petting zoo too. [Note for those of you interested in marketing; a home builder was walking around handing out free (branded) single-use packs of sunscreen. Isn't that a great idea? Think Sonfest or Agrifair or anything outdoor... ]

I assured my crowd-hating girlfriend that the lines would be nearly gone by the time we arrived at 9:30... yeah right! But actually it wasn't too bad; about 20 mins in line... and we split up so a couple of us got food and she took her girls for pony rides and face painting. Here they are dancing to the country tunes!

One of the new foods introduced this year at the stampede... hot beef sundae. not kidding.

For a good laugh, check out a list of the other stampede foods on my friend's blog here. You'll gain weight just reading the list. Deep fried coke? eyeeee.

And today I went to the zoo with a friend of mine and her three girls... it was a good day for it: not too hot, not too cool, all the animals were out and about.The baby elephant hasn't grown as much as I would have expected it to from when I saw it last year.
There's a new baby gorilla that we got a really close look at. This is two month old "Yewande".
Call me uneducated or something, but I had no idea that hippos' legs were so short... I think they've always been in the water when I see them.

We got home just in time! The rain started pounding down shortly after we got in the door.