Back in the Saddle Again...

Or almost anyway.

I think I'm finally ready to start chronicling our trip to Utah. I've let the shock wear off a little, imposed a strict travel ban on my family, and am finally unpacking the fond memories we took home. (The not-so-fond ones are not unpacked. In fact they went back in the closet with the suitcases. Hopefully we won't be seeing them again for a very long time. As long as those suitcases stay put, I mean. Thus the travel ban.)

I also neglected my journal the whole time, as well as the blog, so it's pretty much going to be a catalog of events. A "daily log", if you will Travis. Sorry if it's boring to you... I'm sure I've lost all following anyway due to my 3-week dearth. And wordy introductions like these. Now if I was smart I'd just do the whole thing in chronological order, but I was SO EXCITED about the rodeo, let's start there.

The day after Kate's birthday, we got tickets to the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days Rodeo (THANKS ERIC & WHITNEY!!!) I was excited, but no more than for any other spectator event. Little did I know... that rodeos are AWESOME!!!
Okay this is the part where I admit that I spent 10 years growing up in PRICE, UTAH and have never been to a rodeo. Furthermore, I didn't really know what a rodeo exactly was. In fact, when I was trying to get Kate all pumped up for the rodeo, I explained that we were going to see people riding horses... or wait... maybe they were cows? What was a "bucking bronco" anyway?

Both?

Well, as soon as that first crazy horse threw its rider to the ground, I nearly had a heart attack. Was he okay? Did the horse step on him? What if it gets mad and goes after him while he's lying there in pain? We have to do this again later with BULLS? Why would you get on a horse in the first place knowing you're going to fall off? Isn't there some sort of proverb about that or something? I pretty much sat there like this all night. It was all so AMAZING!!! Eric was kind enough to capture it for posterity.

(Mostly I like how everyone around me has completely placid looks.)

I don't remember what the event was called, but I was flabbergasted when a guy rode out on his horse, jumped off, grabbed a cow by the horns and threw it to the ground WITH HIS BARE HANDS! I was like, "DID YOU SEE THAT???" (Response: "Yessssss, Krista, we watch this every year.")

My girls were equally enthralled...

(She wears blue jeans with her pearls... my kind of girl!)

They were captivated the entire time, especially Brooklyn, who was kind of grouchy until the animals appeared. She LOVES animals and couldn't take her eyes off them. I've never seen her sit contentedly in my lap for that long.

It didn't take long for our fellow spectators (okay mostly family members) to figure out I was a first-timer and have a lot of fun with me. Like when they announced "Barrel Racing" and Travis convinced me it's where they bring out these barrels and the horses roll them across the stadium with their hooves. I was pretty excited to see that one, and equally disappointed to find out it was just a bunch of girls riding horses in circles around barrels. And it looked to me like it was more the horses doing the work than the girls anyway.

The highlight of the night was certainly when Travis's little niece Chloe, who is 6, competed in the "mutton bustin'!" Technically she took 2nd place, but she sure held onto that sheep like crazy! Her mom Christina pumped her up with some authentic rodeo food.

The other highlight was when Travis offered Kate some cotton candy.

She looked at it, then looked at him suspiciously and asked, "Eat it?" Even when he ate it in front of her she wouldn't buy it. If it doesn't look like candy, it must not be. It was hilarious.

Finally he squished it up into a candy-like shape and she ate it.

Anyway, that was the rodeo. I was just stunned. It was amazing! I wasn't bored for a second, unlike pretty much every other spectator event I've been to. (I mean I like baseball games, for instance, but it's the SAME THING over and over for NINE innings!) Okay I'm done exaggerating about how incredible that rodeo was. For those of you not interested in reading, here are some more rodeo pictures to look at. And that's the end.

TUNE IN TOMORROW FOR: Kate's Birthday Party!
(If I say it, I'll feel obligated to blog it.)