Giddy Up and Rodeo

As I may have mentioned, the boys both competed in the Greeley Stampede Rodeo yesterday. Adam was in the stick horse rodeo which consisted of roping a calf, barrel racing, and the best 8 second ride. The competition was slightly tweaked so the kids could understand and not lose focus. Here are Adam's rodeo pics:

Adam did awesome!! In my opinon, he was the best overall cowboy and put up a challenge for the other 29 competitors... He won a "Bucky" bobble head as a trophy for having the quickest barrel race.

Casey competed in the mutton bustin during the regular rodeo. There were 10 kids in his competition, with only one winner for the longest ride. Casey unfortunately did not take the glory in this event, but did his best and now has a "Justin Mutton Bustin" buckle to show for it.

After the rodeo, the boys went on some carnival rides, then off to supper and bed. The cowboys rested up from the long day and we'll recover until the next ride. Happy Trails!

North Dakota or Bust!

We headed to Rapid City, SD last Wednesday to get an early start on our adventure. The boys were pretty excited that we saw buffalo, deer, antelope, and wild donkeys and 5 mountain goats on the cliff. After supper, we headed to bed and then had an amazing front door experience of a lightening/thunderstorm for a couple of hours. Of course, we chose the room with a view, which meant being higher up than average and upclose and personal with the storm. The next day, we stopped at Dinasour Park in Rapid City for a quick visit before hitting the highway again.

Next, we stopped at Wall Drug(the famous one w/ billboards everywhere in Wall, SD) for a visit and yummy malt for a morning snack. Pretty cool place, lots to see & be sure to bring a camera--we didn't--so you'll have to imagine.

Once we got to Fargo, ND we did a lot of visiting with family, swimming in the pool, and we began the wedding countdown. My cousin, Marci Smith was getting hitched and Adam is the ringbear. It was a fun mini-vacation (If that is what you call going to North Dakota)and we put a little under 1,000 miles on the Red Wagon. Everything went great, even though Adam walked into a lightpost the day before the wedding. We tried to hide it under his cowboy hat and had him wear it a lot to protect him from doing that again. He did a super job and took it very seriously. The flower girl was the goddaughter of the groom, Jacob Erbele. Both boys were able to ride in the stretch Hummer to the reception, they thought that was pretty cool.


Here are some additional photos of the Manion family...

the "grand" girls 5 of the 6 kids Grandpa Dan w/ silly boys

Daddy with his boys after a long day