"Lo, Children Are An Heritage of the LORD: and the Fruit of the Womb is His Reward" - Psalm 127:3

Monday, July 11, 2011

Rendezvous!

Saturday was a beautiful day, so we loaded up the kids and headed to the Rendezvous parade.

The baby got the deluxe Jeep stroller. The two year old wasn't thrilled with that until...

He found out he got to ride in the bike trailer. This is one of his favorite things to do :) His sister rode the bike (and did all the work).

The seven year old also got to ride his bike. Mom and Dad walked. Mom's not up to riding bikes yet, and besides, we don't have that many bikes...

Bugga and Papa had reserved a nice place for us to watch the parade, which the two year old thought was perfect because there was a lot of dirt and sand to play in (and the bonus was we were up against a building that provided shade for the adults). He was more into the dirt than the parade. He doesn't like candy, and he scares easily, so this really wasn't his thing. But everyone else enjoyed it.

I thought this was a cute Shriner's vehicle - as opposed to the little cars they always do figure eights with. This was a set of those horses you can put a quarter into and get a little ride, followed by a chariot the driver sat in. He was passing out popsicles.

These are real Native American Indians - dressed in authentic outfits. They did a program after the parade of their dances, but we didn't get to attend. I was trying not to over-do it. In case you don't know what Rendezvous is, every year our little town holds a festival to honor the history of the mountain men and Indians that used to come together and trade goods. The event was really just a big drunken mess - and the town stays true to that aspect, unfortunately, so we limit what we participate in. Anyway the mountain men would bring in all their furs and such and trade for the goods they would need to survive the winter. There was much drinking and carousing too. The Indians would come to trade as well. So each year our town streets are lined with vendors selling all sorts of stuff - sort of a huge street fair that runs from Thursday through Sunday. If you're a local, you usually try to get out of town for the weekend - ha. Otherwise you run uptown for a funnel cake and browse all the goods. Anyway, all that to explain why we have authentic Native American Indians in full dress in our parade.

These kids on unicycles are friends of ours - see the one way up high?? Yikes!

I took this picture because my seven year old (wearing the green on the left) loves the color orange. Pretty cool car! There were a bunch of them (old cars, that is).

The baby slept through the whole parade - sirens and all. I know there's nothing wrong with his hearing. He passed his screening, and he does startle when he's not so sound asleep. He was just in a very deep sleep, enjoying the fresh air.

The two year old was happy because he got a couple toys - the clapper thing he's holding, and a car that's on his brother in the stroller. I think we got two or three cars, so everyone ought to be happy.

Then Saturday night we went to the Rendezvous Rodeo. This was the final night (they had them Thursday and Friday too). Can you tell it was rainy? We sat in the car for a bit - well, Bugga, the two year old, the baby and I sat in the car for a bit.

Despite the rain, it really was a pretty nice evening.

Again, the baby slept through most of the rodeo. He was pretty fussy and hungry, but wouldn't nurse in the car. So he slept instead and nursed when we got home.

This is Blaine, my husband's cousin's son - he's the same one who won the Jackson Hole Hill Climb on a snowmobile this past winter. He's quite talented. The man behind the chute to the right of him - wearing black - is my husband's uncle. Blaine has been riding in rodeos since he was really little - starting in Little Buckaroo rodeos and so on, at least since he was four or five. He's fearless. It pays off though. He won the three night average in the ranch saddle bronc category, and split the win for the evening ride with his cousin, who is 14. Blaine is 18, and graduated from high school this year.

The two year old had more fun running around playing with dirt. Hmm. Seems to be the theme of the day. Oh yeah, he enjoyed his hot dog very much as well. :)

The sky was beautiful. I tried to get a good picture of it, but would have had to get up and walk around and by then I was pretty exhausted, so you'll just have to trust me when I say it was gorgeous.

The seven year old's favorite part of the rodeo is always the calf scramble. He tried his best to get one of the ribbons off the calves they turned loose (you get ice cream if you catch one) but there is always such a hoard of kids that it's next to impossible to get a ribbon. This year they even had a special ribbon that would win you a "free horseback adventure." Can you tell he's disappointed he didn't win?

Now these idiots... er... contestants, are insane. This event is called "Bull Poker." Can you guess what that means. These guys are sitting on barrels (they got tired of having too many chairs destroyed and finally over the years have switched to barrels) and there is a card table in the middle. The contestants have to keep their butt on the barrel and their hands on the table, or they are eliminated from the competition. No problem... until they turn out the bull they've been poking and prodding in the chute. Last man at the table wins the cash.

Yeah. All that for a measly $200. Or a ride in the ambulance, which is NOT free. Or both. No thanks!

After the rodeo, we had a great view of the fireworks. We were further away from them than the other night, so the noise wasn't as bad for the two year old.

Most people were in a rush to get out of the rodeo grounds so they didn't watch the fireworks. We figured it would be better to let the crowd thin out and enjoy the fireworks instead.

The two year old still wasn't thrilled with them, but at least he wasn't having a panic attack like he did on the Fourth of July. I'm sure it's all a matter of how loud it was. At least we're making progress. With less panic over the fireworks, and progress on baths, who knows, maybe we'll be able to convince him to sit on the potty chair without panicking next!?! Yeah. One battle at a time.

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