Gone Country

This weekend has been our annual ward rodeo and it has been even more fun and meaningful than in years past because we know our bishopric is getting released tomorrow. Our bishop is an amazing man and he has a lot of enthusiasm and endless energy to balance out all his wisdom and spirituality, and he is the one that brought back the tradition of having a ward rodeo.

Last night was the hoe-down, which is always so much fun. I don't have any pictures of the dancing, because I was too busy do-si-doeing to take any! I'm bummed not to have photos to document the fun, but I'm glad I was part of it. Under the "Thank the Bishopric Here" sign was a table with 3 homemade scrapbooks where we could write messages to each of them.

We had an amazing sunset to accompany our night of fun.

The weekend's event list--click to enlarge.

Before the 5k with friends Oss and Jackson.

Today's events started with the 7:00am 5k run. Landon has been doing this for several years but this year he beat the bishop (seen in this picture just behind him) which means the bishop will buy him a shake and placed first in his age group and 5th overall!

Woohoo!

The bishop and Landon. (Randy took all the race photos since I was still home getting ready.)

Next up was the "parade". This involves all the primary kids who want to participate, the bishopric, the RS president and a few other cars full of people. It's rather comical because it is so short. Whitney and Madison walked with the activity day girls and their theme was "I Sing With My Heart".

The bishopric ride horses through the neighborhood.

One of my friend's had amazing, huge sunflowers growing in her garden, so of course I had to stop by for a few shots.

They served pancakes, sausage, bananas and juice to everyone for breakfast.

Poor Randy burned a couple fingers on some hot grease while helping with the cooking, he had to walk around with his two burned fingers in cold water for awhile.

It was 93 degrees today, so we were all red-faced and sweaty but Whitney still looked cute.

I love these flags!

I enjoy the rodeo ambiance, everything felt picture-worthy to me.

In between rodeo events they had performances and Randy was part of this group of guys singing a funny song. (I've got video of this, but I'm too tired to mess with trying to load it tonight.)

It was beasty hot, but it was a gorgeous day!

There was mutton busting, calf riding, a cash cow, and a cow milking contest.

I always love the colors of the flag.

They provided lunch for everybody too! After being so busy and so hot all morning the food tasted better than ever.

The kids got to cool off with a big slip-n-slide, but the adults mostly kept sweating.

Me in photo mode.

I love big, fluffy clouds like this.

They had a huge tug-o-war match with the adults verses the youth.

The youth won!

Landon and Oss made it almost to the end of the egg toss, but then the egg broke when Landon caught...ew.

The last event of the day was the hay bale jumping. It starts out with a big crowd but eventually narrows down to just the long-legged sorts.

Landon isn't quite long-legged yet.

Not like this guy! They measured the final distance between hay bales and it was almost 18 feet!

My end-of-the-day, hot, sun-burned, but headache free self-portrait! I took over 800 photos, crazy!

**Does this look like fun to you?

Do you have an affection for square dancing?

Have you ever jumped hay bales?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I was so pleased that I didn't get a headache from being out in the sun all day, but I ended up getting one around 8:00 tonight. I'm wasted.

Howdy Partner

Last Friday & Saturday were our ward's 3rd annual rodeo festivities (our Bishop is very energetic and likes big plans), which meant that Claudia was in town a 2nd time to join us.


I borrowed a couple cowboy hats and a pair of cowboy boots from Amie so that we could look more the part this year.


Whitney wore the boots and Jessica's hat, plus a plaid shirt recently gifted to us from Andrew and a bandana around her neck, so she looked cute and cowboyish.


I don't have anything in the way of cowboy gear, so I wore one of Randy's plaid shirts (that's too small for him) and put a bandana in my hair. You can see that Claudia opted to dance barefoot while wearing her cute black jacket. I don't know how she did that though, because I ended up dripping with sweat! The hoe down was originally meant to be outside, but got rained out.


I was so impressed that Landon participated in the square dancing! Now that he has moved up into Young Mens he is acting like one of them.


He was my partner for much of the dancing and we had an excellent time. Other than being super hot and having to work around my gimpy ankle I loved it! (It's surprisingly hard to promenade without a strong Achilles tendon...go figure.)


It's rather fun that we could have such a huge group dancing together. We had to change partners all the time, so that meant holding hands with all kinds of men and boys from our ward; in any other context that would have been weird, but it wasn't.


Whitney is obsessed with this baby and is always talking about him and wanting to hold him.


The rodeo festivities started again at 7:00am Saturday morning with a 1k and 5k run. Randy took Landon over to the start of the 5k and since the route went right past our house I quickly bought the Rocky theme from itunes and blasted it as the runners ran by (I'm not sure how my neighbors felt about that). Landon finished the race with a time of 27:20, not too shabby.


By 8:15 we joined a ton of the primary kids at the starting point of the ward parade. It's so funny that we do this parade every year because with so many people in it there's hardly anyone to watch it!


This rodeo is a big deal, so there is a ton of prep work ahead of time in order to make the day run smoothly.


I had to miss about 3 hours of activities because both kids had soccer games, but was able to rejoin everyone at the rodeo grounds by 1:00. Claudia and her kids had been there all morning.


All the kids love riding this horse-exerciser thing (I'm sure that's the technical term).

Whitney's legs were dragging, but it was still fun.

It cracked me up that Jorvik was wearing his pajamas under his clothes for much of the day, but it made good sense considering the cool, early morning temperature.


Alexei was one of the lucky few who got to ride a sheep (called mutton busting). Here he is fresh out of the gate.

Here is about a half a second later.

And here he is another half a second later with his dismount.

He celebrated his ride by getting two snow cones!

Next up was lunch, which meant standing in a long line in the hot sun. It's crazy that the ward provides breakfast and lunch for everyone!


I don't know why, but Randy was giving the kids a squeeze while they waited.

Pleasing picture no?

Claudia and I took a sunny self-portrait. Why do I always look red and sweaty and she looks like a movie star?


I opted not to eat any corn on the cob because I always make such a mess of myself and need to floss afterward. I didn't see any flossing stations set up, so I went without.


There were more games after lunch, including an enormous tug-of-war with this HUGE rope and an egg toss with all of these people.

Landon's hands.

The last event for the day was the hay bale jumping contest. Landon participated, but I had a raging headache by this point (probably from the sun) so I left before it was over.


This is what I looked like as I walked to the car...red, sweaty, wind blown, sun burned and super tired. If only this photo could show the throbbing of my head it would be totally accurate.

**Do you own cowboy clothes?
Are you a fan of square dancing?
What's your favorite snow cone flavor?
Would you have eaten the corn on the cob?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Collette has been helping me update my resume, which is nice yet rather slightly embarrassing. I don't look so good on paper.