Cowgirls and carnies

It's time to get back on the horse, so to speak, and update the blog to share all the great times we've had over the last few months. I'm going to keep the blog dates true to the times they actually happened - so you might need to check around a bit to see what you might have missed!

Well, the Pendleton Round-Up has come and gone for another year. When we first arrived in Pendleton the first order of business was to take in the carnival and the main street events. Audrey has new found passion for the carnival ever since we took her to a local amusement park for my company picnic.

Auntie Shelle and Cousin JayCe came to the carnival as well and JayCe was kind enough to go on a few "smaller" rides with Audrey. They both had a blast. We also wandered down main street to watch some of the music that was catching Audrey's ear. Here's a little clip of Audrey's reaction.




After all that dancing we needed to take a break for Audrey's first corn dog! And then some lemonade, and some thai noodles, and finally a big giant carnie-sized elephant ear. Wow - are we breaking this kid in or what! It was a perfect night for all of it and we had a great time. It was great to be able to spend it with family.















We took Audrey to the Rodeo for the first time this year. Just for a little while since it just happens to run right across nap time. Grammy babysat through what was supposed to be the nap that day but Audrey was so excited to be with her and go to the rodeo that there was no way she was going to sleep. Grammy got her boots on her and shipped miss cranky-jeans down to mom and dad. When we were walking back to the grandstand Audrey must have repeated "I wanna see cowboys" about a hundred times from the car to our seats. Luckily we sit about 3 rows up from the bucking shoots (they pass these kinds of seats down in wills and such...) so there were plenty of cowboys to see. Audrey loved the action and tolerated the sitting part and didn't even flinch during the bull riding - which took place literally right in front of us about 10-15 feet. (There's just no explaining the rodeo scene if you've never been.) We mostly loved seeing all the native indians in there ceremonial dress. We were too in awe to remember to take pictures of that but we did manage to catch the "half time act" in full glory! We also took in the Navajo fry bread action and she went even crazier for that than she did the elephant ears, especially with the homemade huckleberry jam.

All in all the first rodeo was a smashing success. I grew up in Pendleton so I actually enjoy parts of the rodeo and use the whole experience as a reunion of sorts with friends. There used to be a whole lot more whisky involved but now I think I'd rather go to carnivals. I think Audrey will be forever just trying to get another bite of fry bread. If it's not that it will be more sneaking into my closet to find these...