Independence Day

I'm sure that when our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, they were thinking that 200-something years later, that day would be celebrated by people sitting around eating watermelon, cooking dead animal flesh in the back yard, throwing a week's worth of pay at things that light on fire and go "boom" and a bunch of folks getting together with their horses and having a little thing called a Rodeo.

Well, they may not have been quite that visionary, but that's the way it happened, just the same.

It was a big rodeo week for my family. Trump ended her reign as Miss Rodeo, and was busy being the hostess with the mostest to this year's contestants who were running for her spot. And so that means Mom was busy too. You know, doing the Queen Mom things. And then taking care of the rest of the family at the rodeo.

While Husband and I aren't really the rodeo type (probably the understatement of the year), I thought Chickster should get to experience just a taste of the life.

He's not big enough to enjoy the parade yet, so we didn't even bother with that. One day we'll sit on the side of the road and watch a long string of cars, horses, and all manner of creature trod ever so slowly by in the blistering sun. But I'm putting that off for as long as possible.

So we went up to the arena for the Horsemanship competition for the prospective Rodeo Queens and did all sorts of fun things. We watched from the stands as Trump set the pattern for the other girls, and that was about all our attention spans could handle.
So Papa Duke took Chickster to see the animals. Lots of them. They checked out the calves for the calf roping, the pick-up horses, the steers, and bulls. And the sheep. Chickster even got to pet one of the sheep, though he wasn't quite sure what it was since it looked and felt nothing like a dog.


And then on the 4th, we went back and hung out with the fam for a bit. Between the parade and the rodeo, they cook out and pass the time swatting at flies under a tarp strung up between two horse trailers. Undoubtedly some of the finest accommodations at the rodeo grounds.

Chickster got to meet Mic, our long lost pony that Curly found and brought home to her house. Chickster thought Mic was pretty cool, and even reached for his lead rope and started yanking. That boy knows where the power is.

The rest of Chickster's time there was spent wallering (is that a word?) around on Aunt Fidget and Uncle NLB and playing with Papa Duke and someone's half-empty water bottle. Good times.

And that night he slept through the neighbors lighting their life savings on fire in the street. It makes a Mama proud to have a boy that sleeps so soundly. When he sleeps.