No Bull

Three posts in one day...oh yeah! Things are grinding on all cylinders today and my production tallies for the day are near record breaking. Of course, by actually putting that in writing I'm probably jinxing tomorrow but it feels too good not to celebrate!!! Besides, I don't have to go to work tomorrow so I have a much lower bar to reach. So. where were we? Oh yeah, Julia had just opened her box of horses. After a couple hours of racing them all around my living room where I discovered my wing back chairs were actually 'mountains' and the carpet was 'the valley floor', I had to drag the girl off to the dreaded tub. You see we had big plans for the night!!! She had to 'dude' up to properly prepare for the festivities. Dressed the part and with binoculars in hand Julia was off to our SECOND annual professional bull riding championship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now this was not the OFFICIAL PBR but none the less we saw 30 cowboys try to stay on those bucking beasts for 8 seconds. Julia was not alone. Three of the 1997 cousins (we had a big crop that year in our family!) were allowed to come too. Okay, so technically one of the 1997 crop is a sister but Julia wouldn't mind at all if she went to live with one of the other relatives (: But of course the BFF/Cousin was in attendance too!!! Deirdre is always the first person on Julia's guest list, no matter the occasion. While the tweeners sat up in their seats and chatted/texted the pre-show time away, these two got right into the spirit of the night. They wanted to check out the entertainment up close and personal! They got to see real bulls waiting in the pens 'backstage' and tried to guess which one would inflict the most pain later in the night! They got to see real cowboys getting ready for the night's action! It was surprising how close the arena security and the event organizers let them get to these guys!! Like this close!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! His name was "Caleb something or another" as Julia told me as we scanned through Auntie Peggy's pictures....oh, you surely don't think I have this kind of luck with a camera do you?!?!? Our resident photographer MUST come to all important events if we are to ever have any recorded memories of the event!!(Though the blurred border was my doing...didn't realize that once I selected it on Shutterfly that it stayed that way!!) Caleb was loudly cheered on by his new fans and he was in the lead until the finals...when on his last bull he was thrown in less than TWO seconds...bummer ): This time the Rodeo Clown wore a microphone and was quite humorous...even after a most unfortunate slip on that barrel in which one leg went in the center and one leg went outside resulting in a man's worst nightmare! Poor guy hobbled for the next 10-15 minutes after the slip. Adorable routine with a toddler dressed as 'mini-me' which he referred to as his son but since there was no program sold we can't verify the relationship. The child was really good as he pantomimed along with the routine!!! Intermission was followed with 15 barrel racers and we've decided that they need to change the penalty time for knocking over a barrel!!!! A 5 second penalty when everyone was within a second and a half range seemed very steep to us...but then again we are just pavement pounders and not cowboys! Saw more wild rides than we could have expected based on last year's experience. One of the clowns was taken off by medics due to a bull landing on his legs and several of the cowboys wisely wore the full helmet! Like this cowboy is wearing!!! I just have to wonder how much testosterone is in play with the ones that decide to wear their cowboy hats instead???? I mean I know it's like going to a hockey game where you expect to see some violence but who really wants to see some one's brains spilling out onto to the arena floor? Lucky for us it didn't get that bad this night! Yep, no testosterone with this group! Andrew was scheduled to come but a hockey tournament ran longer than planned so it was a 'girls night out' in the end. So until next year when the THIRD annual bull riding outing is convened, we just want to wish "Happy trails to you"! P.S.-Vanessa, the Monster Trucks will be at the same arena in March!! We're thinking on it....