Evanston Cowboy Days 2008

It's labor day weekend, and like usual we wanted to spend the weekend up at the cabin, and go to the rendezvous and rodeo. This is a once a year tradition that the kids have enjoyed for many years now. We arrived at the cabin Friday night around 8 p.m. and Grandpa had a large camp fire all ready waiting for us. As we gathered up all of the kids, Shilo, Chase, Aubrey, and of course Brandon, Grandma was putting together the "smores basket". This of course is a basket filled with Smarshmellows, chocolate, and gram crackers. We all headed down the hill in the dark to settle around the fire and pray that Shilo didn't spill the basket, Chase didn't burn himself, and Aubrey didn't fling the burning ball of marsh mellow at any ones face. It is such good times! "I need chocolate hurry!" yells Chase, running over as his marsh mellows falls off of his stick. "I just ate 4 marsh mellows how many carbs is that?"says Shilo, even though its pitch black and the writing on the bag is the size of a pin head."My tummy hurts!" moans Aubry as she shoves the 18th smore into her face. "Give me a pink one!" mimics Grandpa to tease Grandma because she bought the kids pink and white marsh mellows not thinking you could never tell them apart in the dark. These are the exciting things that take place and cause such chaos, but we will continue to do every year for the rest of our lives.

The next day Chase asks Grandma "What day is it?". "Saturday" replies Grandma, as Chase looks to the ground and moans "Ah man!" Grandma giggles and says "What day would you like it to be Chase?" "Thursday" replies Chase. Well that sure was a weird conversation. What is happening on Thursday that Chase would rather be doing? Oh well, whatever, silly kid. Just then I poke my head over the railing and state "Who's ready for the Rendezvous?" Chase got so excited and jumped up and yelled "Why is today Thursday?" Well, even though it wasn't Thursday we still decided to go to the Rendezvous. After taking hours and hours to get everyone ready and the cars all packed up, with people and all of the stuff the people needed, we headed down the mountain to Ft. Bridger where this fun filled event was going to take place. After a quick turn around, back to the cabin to get the always forgotten diabetes bag, it was back down the mountain to Ft. Bridger. We met Keena and Chandler at the bridge and spent the rest of the day walking through each tent filled with awesome treasures and stuff no ordinary person would need, but would absolutely want to buy. And then Chandler cried a little bit. After rocking, changing, and feeding him he fell fast asleep in the nifty belly contraption that took at least 3 to 4 people to hook up. As Keena would say... It takes one person to have a baby, but a village to raise one! We watched Indians dance, people play strange and exotic instruments, crazy people walk around in costumes, and stood in line for hours to get one morsel of food. But it is worth it every year.

The next day we went to the rodeo in Evanston. If you never thought that city folk couldn't hack the harshness of a rodeo, you better believe that our little family has now been baptized with the worst of conditions, and can truly be called rodeo cowboys. As we entered into the stands the wind started to pick up a little bit but nothing too bad. And just as we all got settled into our seats eating our rodeo dinners, the rain started to pour. And soon turned to hail, and back to rain, and wind. As we hid under the bleachers listening to the thunder and lightning, we patiently waited for the announcer to tell us where to go for Chase's mutin bustin. Of Course he was not first, or second, or even third, mutin bustin was listed as the sixth, yeah that's right, the sixth event. Slowly but surely the people in the stands started to dwindle down to the very few that would stick through anything for a good rodeo. After a few hours of waiting it was finally time to get Chase his number and get in line. As we stood in line the weather got worse and worse, and the mud got higher and higher. A bunch of the kids were crying telling there parents they wanted to go home, but not Chase. No way this kid came all this way to do some mutin bustin and he sure was not gonna leave, hail storm and all, without bustin some muntin. Long story short, with mud caked onto shoes, jackets, and hats, and every single inch of clothing soaked with rain, Chase braved the storm and earned himself 78 big points putting him in second place. Who says you cant be a true cowboy with brand name jeans, a bicycle helmet, a white zip up hoodie, and kedd slip on tennis shoes!