Busy, Fun Weekend

Today the Boat Club hosted a kids' fishing derby. The fish were planted yesterday by the Wyoming Game and Fish ... 150 of them. They clipped some of the fins, and depending on which fin was clipped, the kids could win between $20 and $150. My 6 year old did really well, catching 5 fish, but wouldn't you know it, none of them had clipped fins. He did win a door prize though, and now has his very own tackle box, which came with a few goodies inside - hooks, bobbers, sinkers, a stringer, and power bait. Not a bad haul. There was no entry fee because we are already boat club members. If I remember to take my camera next weekend, I'll show you my personal favorite benefit of being a member of the boat club ... the annual picnic. The picnic is a feast of crab legs, fresh salmon cooked on an outdoor grill, peel and eat shrimp, corn on the cob, steamed artichokes, salad, and cake.


Here he is with his new tackle box. It looks pretty pink in the picture but it's really a purplish maroon color.

Here he is catching one of his 5 fish.

Last night, my 17 year old daughter, six year old son and I went to the rodeo. Our little one has a bad cold and my husband was exhausted from going to work every day at 6 this week and working late each night, so he was ready to rest. They stayed home and went to bed early. My 6 year old's favorite rodeo event is the calf scramble.

Here are the unfortunate calves with ribbons tied onto their tails.

And here is the crowd of kids taking off to grab a ribbon. All for the reward of ice cream. He didn't win, but came pretty close.

This rodeo had an event I'd never heard of before, though we love rodeos and have been to several. It was called Team Doctoring. It was mayhem, which made it very exciting. They started with 4 local ranches represented. Each ranch had three cowboys, all with ropes. They released four of the biggest steers out into the arena, then ran them to the opposite end of the arena from the cowboys. When the signal was given, all 12 cowboys raced down to the other end, with the goal of roping a steer. It was a free-for-all, and each ranch had to pay attention to their teammates. Once one member of the ranch team had a steer roped, then the next goal was for another team member to rope the hind feet. Once that was accomplished, the third cowboy had to jump off his horse, wrestle the steer to the ground, remove the rope from the head and use it to rope the two front feet together. Then he had to make sure both back feet were in the rope at the back. He then raced back onto his horse. The time ended when the final cowboy was back on his horse. It was crazy and a lot of fun.

Today, after the fishing derby, we took a drive out to see my mother in law's home place. It was really interesting and a fun afternoon, but I have too many pictures to put them all in this post, so I'll save that for tomorrow.