Rodeo in Roswell

Every year we celebrate July 4th with my parents, brothers, and their families. It's a good time to catch up with everyone, eat some great barbecue, ride horses, and sit around outside. This year I did a really, really bad job at taking pictures. Some years I take a million and my dad asks if I'm a yankee trying to capture life in the country. Oh, Dad.  However, I did take a couple of good ones, and also came back with a good story.

My dad has horses. His mare had a little filly in June, therefore, her name is June! As you can see, she is super cute and took a liking to Morgan.  

I have two nephews that live in West Texas. They are athletic, smart, country boys. I must admit that I could eat this guy up.  His name is Mark and he is just about one of the funniest kids I know. I tease him a lot about hugging and kissing him. You can totally tell he loves it.  Just look at his face!

Every year we have our own personal fireworks extravaganza, but if you don't live under a rock you know that wildfires have been burning up Arizona and New Mexico. Being the responsible citizens that we are, we stuck with the ground war explosives such as black cats, super thunder snappers, sparklers, and everyone's favorite, noisy boys.  Noisy boys aren't too noisy unless you light 5 or 6 at a time. Yes. We did. It was awesome! 

In place of a big beautiful night time display, my parents made a small fire in their back yard to roast marshmallows. It was a beautiful evening filled with sticky, gooey deliciousness. 

I think Kyle enjoyed the sticky gooey deliciousness a little too much. 

Esther decided it would be a fun idea to give us all a wild rodeo show. Again my dad, being the constant joker/needler that he is gave me a really hard time that I didn't have the video camera. I never video events, but this one time I wish I did.

My dad has a naughty horse named Ralph. He's not really naughty, but more of a work horse than a grandkid horse. Because one of the grandkid friendly horses just had a baby, Grandpa decided to let Esther take Ralph out for a stroll.

Grandpa gave the instructions to Esther about what to do when he crow hopped. She looked hesitantly up for the challenge. About five minutes into the ride, Ralph decided to see if he could get Esther off his back. He took off running, threw in a few crow-hops, and was just an all-around butt.  Esther instinctively (although wrong) dropped the reigns and clung to the saddle horn. She started to tip sideways, but actually held on and centered herself (which was perfect.) When it occurred to her that the bucking rodeo wasn't coming to a quick end, she started yelling, "Help me!"

Grandpa and Dad finally made it over to her to steady the horse. Being the men that they are, they wouldn't let Esther off the horse, coached her a bit, and sent her off on her way again.  This time she was quite the cowgirl, stayed with him, and made him obey. However, I cannot tell a lie and say she had fun during the second ride. As soon as she was told she could be finished, she was off that horse quicker than you can say, "Yeehaw! Ride 'em cowgirl!"

Several points of interest:

• Esther stayed on the horse and didn't get bucked off.
• Grandpa told her he was so proud of her and that she did a great job.
• We all got to watch Grandpa ride Ralph to work him a bit.  He couldn't be put up when he had practically won the match between he and Esther.  It was a real treat for the grandkids to get to watch Grandpa in action. That rarely happens! He even sang I've Got Spurs that Jingle Jangle Jingle! 
• Kyle got to ride side by side with Grandpa out in the pasture for awhile. He learned a lot and enjoyed the bonding time! 
• Esther literally had to go change her chonies. She told us she was fine until she started to yell for help and "then the pee just started."  (Told with Esther's permission.) 

All in all it was a fun visit to see the family. Next time I'll be sure to get over my lazy self and take some more pictures! 

Thanks for letting us come spend some time with you, Mom and Dad! And, thanks for taking the kids for a couple of days for the annual Cousins Camp they enjoy so much! 

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