Cactus, Cattle & Cowboys (Oh My!)

Good morning! I hope you all had an excellent Saturday and didn't miss me too much. I spent the entire day at the Cactus, Cattle & Cowboys festival helping to promote our therapeutic riding centre followed by a chill birthday celebrating for Megan at The Jelly Bean Exchange.

We woke up bright and early at 5:00am to get the horses ready and to the festival on time. I needed a little something to help me wake up, so I ordered a medium iced coffee made with milk from Tim Horton's on the way out to the barn.

Our horses, Juno and Glory, arrived safe and sound! They loved all of the attention and the nice grass they got to munch on throughout the day.

Everyone got right to work setting up our "booth" in front of the horses' stalls.

We had a little bit of down time before our first presentation of the day started, so I whipped out my breakfast to finally drink. I made a protein smoothie by blending together half a cup of frozen mixed berries, a handful of frozen baby spinach, one scoop of Bodylogix vanilla protein powder, half a cup of strawberry soy milk and half a cup of water.

Soon it was time to get ready for our first presentation. We got the horses ready and headed over to the presentation ring.

The first presentation went well despite having a small audience. It was still pretty early in the day, so we were counting on our second presentation in the afternoon to draw a larger crowd.

Around mid-morning, I whipped out a snack to tide me over. I had a container of watermelon...

...and some of my trail mix, which included cranberries, almonds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, pecans and pistachios.

Around noon, it was time to get ready for the big parade. We saddled up the horses and two of our staff members hopped on to ride in the parade.

After the parade, I wandered off to find myself some lunch. I found a vendor selling back bacon on a bun and decided to give it a try.

I wasn't exactly sure what to put on back bacon, so I decided to throw it all on. The sandwich was alright, but I'm not sure if it entirely lived up to my expectations as a first time back bacon eater.

The afternoon flew by with one more presentation and lots of lounging around with the horses.

Overall, the festival was a success and I had a great time hanging out with the gang!

When I got home from Cactus, Cattle & Cowboys, it was time for dinner. I made a quick grocery store run to pick up some food for our completely empty fridge and came home with two deli salads--thai chicken and lentil vinaigrette. They were both delicious, but a little too much to eat as an entire meal. I ate about half of everything on the plate and gave the rest to Casey.

The Thai chicken salad was my favourite, but it was super spicy and the noodles were a bit too much. I wish they would have included more vegetables or even more chicken instead of so many noodles.

After dinner, Casey and I headed over to our friends Janine and Scott's apartment to celebrate Megan's birthday. We chatted it up, had lots of yummy snacks, and ended the night with a funny game of Things. It was the perfect way to end a long and busy day!

Questions:
How do you like spending your birthday?
Do you prefer to stay in or go out with friends?
Do you enjoy playing games? Which game is your favourite?