October-Bull-Country Fest

Outside of our home there is a small town... we live in a small town. It's bigger than some towns, but it's smaller than most. I mean we have a Wal-Mart but we don't have a movie theater or anything fancy like that...

We do have garage sales though, and so Kyle and I woke up last Saturday morning ready to go garage sale-hunting. By "ready to go" I mean, I wanted to stay in bed longer...

...until I heard a marching band playing.

Not kidding. Growing up I lived next to a high school for 12 years, the band practiced a lot! I love to hear a marching band, it reminds me of home, and I can hear one from a mile away (but I guess anyone can, it's a marching band). I was in bed on a Saturday and I was definitely hearing a marching band perform, not just practice.

Then I heard sirens. And I knew there was a PARADE! I told Kyle, I got really excited and I was up out of bed in no time to find the parade. I had no idea why there would be one, it wasn't homecoming, it wasn't Christmas, it was not Fourth of July.  But I just knew, I told Kyle to follow the music and we drove to the only main road in town.

There it was! A PARADE!!

Kyle parked the car. I (wishing I had thought to bring my camera) grabbed his cell phone and ran. I saw giant mascot-character people and kids and candy and floats and I ran!

It's a Blizzard! A walking, dancing, giant DQ Blizzard! What more could a girl ask for?

And the Shriner's! Love 'em. I jumped up and down and said, "Kyle look! they're riding their little tiny cars!!"

I think Kyle enjoyed watching me more than watching the parade. He had no idea how much I loved parades and people in giant ice cream and dog costumes. I'm from Louisiana, of course we love parades.

Who knew? We asked people why there was a parade and they said "Octoberfest" and then they said "Country Fest" and then they said "Bull Fest."  I googled it, but that didn't help much. It's a small town, lol.

Fun day. Kyle headed out of town and well I understood why they called it Bull Fest. Some friends of ours heard about the bull riding competition at the Lindale Arena (probably like we heard about the parade) and so we headed out to see some good 'ole Texas fun.

These were the sheep later to be used for the mutton busting, or muttin'bustin' as people say around here. If you don't know what mutton busting is, you should look it up. It's quite hilarious.

I don't know these people. They just looked so perfect and country-like. And I figured their faces aren't in the picture, so even if they're in the witness protection program they should be safe...

These are our friends Lauren and Curtis. They told us about the Bull Fest, aren't they cute :)

And the bulls of course. I'm no professional bull photographer or anything... but those guys didn't stay on the bulls too long either, lol... although much, much longer than I would ever stay on a bull...

Quite entertaining. I yelled a lot. I was scared for those poor guys, thinking someone was going to get their head smashed in by a bull before the night was over (wear a helmet please!). But no one died and it was all a lot of fun.

Small town living at its finest, but we never did make it to a garage sale...

Happy October-Bull-Country Fest... whichever it is :)