Rodeo

Tuesday I dragged my family out for a night at the rodeo. It was a first for all of them, believe it or not. I remember loving the rodeo when I was growing up. I think the Burley Fair and Rodeo will always hold a special place in my heart. It was always the week before school started. All of the food booths were run by different wards and stakes in the area. I always thought I looked cool too because I got to wear one of my new school outfits on the night we went to the rodeo and then afterward we would get elephant ears with the best honey butter ever and corn on the cob that was dripping with butter. I always loved the clowns and loved it when the clown in the barrel got thrown up in the air by the bulls...for some reason the bulls chasing the clowns was my favorite part...is that weird? It was awesome!

So, for quite a while now I've wanted to take my family to the rodeo. But not a big fancy indoor rodeo, a po-dunk, bleacher, outdoor rodeo. We ended up at the Caldwell night rodeo, and I don't know about the rest of my family but I had a lot of fun. We went on opening night, so not the best action, and a lot of qualifying, but we still got our fair share of excitement. I even saw something I've never seen before...a horse lost it's footing while bucking and fell down with the cowboy on it. The horse hopped up and the rider stayed on the whole time! Pretty impressive riding if you ask me!
The bull riding is still my favorite, although for some reason I love the barrel racing too. The bulls didn't attack the clowns like I like to see...maybe next year. Ains and Owen liked the clowns though. I was surprised they got several of his jokes, only probably on a different level than the rest of us.

For my lover of all things sweet, I think the cotton candy was the hit of the night. Although the snowcone was probably a close second.

Ainsley's favorite part of the night was the rodeo queen. I told her about the queen before and how they got to wear a crown on their hat. That was all she could talk about, and every time the "royalty" made a ride around the arena she was paying close attention and asking all sorts of questions. After the rodeo the rodeo queen was signing autographs so we stopped and got one. Owen wanted one too, he must have thought she was pretty. I laughed when Ains was saying to me in awe, "Can you believe we met a real queen!?"

So all in all, not quite as good as the Burley rodeo, but still a lot of fun! Owen even woke up the next morning and said, "benember when we went to the rodeo?" All excited like it had happened months ago. And he asked if he could ride horses when he grew up...which might be a better opttion than a cat fighting vampire!