On a Friday Night

At this point in our summer I had reconciled myself to the fact that we wouldn't get to the beach.  It was a hard reality to face, but it's just one summer, right?  Maybe we'll get back to the ocean next year?

But I decided that we really needed to do two more things to make our summer complete.  The first was to see a rodeo, and we did it.  On a Friday night.  (I will be repeating that frequently, as the announcer at the rodeo said it no less than 5000 times through the course of the evening.  Loved it.)

Our family headed up to Heber for the Mountain Valley Stampede Rodeo on a Friday night along with my friend JoDell and her kids.  I took some really great pictures of the kids by this fence, right before we went to our seats and I discovered that my camera had no memory card in it.  Darn!  There was no way we were going to try to get six kids to go back to that spot and re-create that picture, so you'll just have to imagine it, with them all dolled up in their cowboy hats and all.  But you better believe I ran back to the car to get the memory card for the rest of the evening.  Haha.

Sunset in the beautiful Heber Valley.  On a Friday night.

Look at us.  All ready to go.  On a Friday night.

Before the rodeo started, they kicked things off with a few sky divers.
See the three specks?

They all landed right in the arena.  This is the last diver who, with the help of the first two in the arena, was able to land without the flag even touching the ground.  Pretty cool.

Here are a few of the events we saw:

Bronco Riding.  I just like this picture, even though it's a bit out of focus.

More bronco riding.  In the top photo, the horse's face makes me laugh.
In the bottom photo, the cowboy's face makes me cringe.  On a Friday night.

Chuck Wagon Races.  Started out fun.

Ended up downright impressive.  The back wheels came off toward the
beginning of the race but he finished anyway.  On a Friday night.

I think this is the best shot I have of the bull riding.  I didn't get many chances to take pictures of good riding - none of the bull riders lasted 8 seconds.

So we saw a lot of this.  Ouch.
I'm really not sure why guys do this.
On a Friday night.

Cat's favorite event: the rodeo clown routines.
He would tell his horse to do a certain thing and the horse would end up doing something different,
such as knocking the clown over when he was bent down.  The kids ate it up.  On a Friday night.

I think when they put the cowboy hats on, the big kids suddenly got much cooler.
They had so much fun together.
(Cat with her friends Patrick and Jolene)

Bonus: Fireworks!  On a Friday night.

Look at us.  One big happy Western family.
On a Friday night.

NOTE: For the record, Jack DID wear his cowboy boots.  I know Grammy is wondering.