And They Called the Thing a Rodeo (Weekend)

Car trouble notwithstanding, we made it to Preston on Thursday night in time for some parade action. As I walked up I said, "Okay, bring on the horses and dairy princesses." Then, we we got there, those were the first two things we saw - and the kids loved every minute.

The rodeo started at 8:30, and we brought all of our kids. That idea had nightmare potential, but it worked out great, the kids loved it! I feel so proud to be an American when I go Country. Also, I feel Country.

Favorite rodeo memories:
Noah would take his (baseball) hat off and wave it around and holler when something exciting happened.
I was explaining calf roping to Andrew, and ended by saying, "So, it's a contest, who do you think will be the fastest?" He gave his Andrew-grin and said, "The horses!"
There was a rodeo clown skit near the end that was amusing, but by 10:30 at night we all wanted it to pass by quickly. Then the kids next to us started belly-laughing, and Josh couldn't contain himself. He belly-laughed the rest of the way through, too.
When it was time for the bull-riding, the rodeo became a rock-concert. Lights out, fireworks, Pitbull . . .woke us all up and got us dancing. Noah was on my lap, and his excitement and smile was the best.

Fun times, and then we went to bed waaaay late, and I got some "Chew, tobbaca', chew," song stuck in my head. It's just funny.

Josh was so cute to carry all the jackets for me while we walked to our seats.  Andrew, just love him.

Gary and Andrew are ready to rodeo.

This little girl started out interested, then turned a little climby, then  almost fell asleep. She wasn't a problem at all, phew.

So awkward trying to get a close-range photo, haha!

A little entertainment for Lissy.

Noah was a into it.

The next morning most people slept in, except my kids and Tate, so as luck would have it, there was the perfect activity for us to get away and make the kids' dreams come true - the Rodeo Clown Roundup a.k.a. tiny little carnival in front of the hospital. Lissy was too little for the rides, but I think you'll see as you browse the photos that she was busy. All of the kids had a blast, and Tate was the most hilarious. He kept saying, "I can't believe this is all free!" and "And the best part is, it's free!" and later on, "I could stay here all day, because it's free!"

Lissy was just in it for the food.

I love the looks on all of their faces on this ride.

This is how Lissy plays horse shoes. She got a prize, no worries.

Noah was sooo excited to ride a horse.

Notice a theme with all of the Lissy pictures? It just cracks me up.

The kids really wanted to do this - well, obviously, it was a real bow and arrow. I waited in line for this while the kids ran around playing all kinds of little games with no line.

Turns out Noah was actually pretty good at this. The picture cracks me up, because it looks like he's working it with the ladies.

The afternoon fun was Ultimate Slip N Slide. I made the name up just now, but seriously, how fun is this? Lots, I tell you.

By the time I started taking pictures of the slip and slide fun,  Noah was out because of a puncture wound to the chest - from a sharp bone that was on the lawn. Serious.

The setting is so gorgeous and relaxing to me . . . ah.

We also made a water pillow/blob thingy. Cindy had attempted before with sad results, so we got thicker plastic and tried again. It was easy and fast to make, and the kids loved it, but sorry to those who also pinned it, it only had about 20 minutes of play involved. It was an amazing 20 minutes, though! See how amazing it looks . . .

Of course the parade was a highly anticipated event, mostly due to the candy. Noah learned to work the wave-and-smile, and all the kids valued the candy more than their lives . . . yeah, we had to literally draw a line. What magic a parade is for kids.

Waiting for the parade to begin . . .

Lissy stayed right by the candy until we hid it.

I am just amazed by these dresses.

Lissy was laying back with Gary until I got out the camera.

This is a little less than an hour after the hornet sting, and already swollen enough to shock me.

We topped off the day with a S'more cookout in the back yard. The kids all wanted scary stories, and even got Kayla to tell them some (she's a good aunt), but when Gary told a hilarious one from his mission, they wanted more and agreed they actually want funny stories. Also included in the evening was Tate's incredible wasp sting. Poor kid!

I love how burnt Noah's marshmallows are.

This is what Nate looked like at the cookout.

This was a little while after he'd had a full adult dose of Benadryl.

Tate made sure to show us how half of his face could still smile. Josh says he looked like two-face.

Such good times! (Except Tate's face, ye-ouch.)  By Saturday we were all running on very little sleep, so Gary and I went running in the rain to try to wake up. Not together, Gary is a solo-runner, he says. Anyway, we finally rolled out of town and had to stop at the mall to use some store credit I had before it expired. Gary got Lissy some sparkly pink flip-flops, and when she saw me she ran to grab them and show me the second she saw me. Ack, she's a girl!

Winco was on our way home, and we couldn't resist going even though it was late. It was Saturday night and we were out of food. So, we took our four hungry children into the store, and it actually went pretty well - for the first little bit. Then Lissy totally melted down. I grabbed the kids and a huge thing of drinkable yogurt, then we all went and picked out bagels. After we paid, I took the kids right outside and stood behind a wide rock post to eat so we would be blocked from the road. The kids tore into the food like starving people, and Josh said, "Mom, it seems like we're stealing." Haha! Hiding behind posts, voraciously tearing into the food . . .yep.

Sidenote: It's turning out to be useful to have Josh be older. He is the one who passes everything out in the back of the van, he helps with Lissy, and he can do stuff like run back into the store to give Dad his debit card. He can then run back and say, "Dad wants to know if you want steaks for 2.89 a pound." Nice.

Andrew and Noah will now demonstrate how we felt when we got home.

This is what I found when I walked up the stairs . . . yeah, that's the way I felt, too.