Little Dry Roping Club

This evening, the kids and I went to the last roping of the summer at the arena in beautiful downtown Cohagen.  There's a local roping club that meets there on Tuesdays and Thursdays...not EVERY Tuesday and MOST Thursdays...in the summer months.  They have round-robin ropings and kids events like goat tying, pole bending and barrel racing.

I took the Farmer's little camera and not my own Canon, which I regret, because there were hundreds of great shots that I missed; little details and wonderful roping pictures that my brain captured, but the little camera could not. 

It was a beautiful evening, in the 70's and calm, and the light was perfect. I've been missing the roping arena like crazy this summer for some reason and this was such a treat!

Here are the Green Bo-eez, and they are not going to be pleased with this photo, but that's the breaks. Maggie has called them "The Bo-eez" for just ever, and she's in love with T.J. (He's SO strong...batting of eyes, incline of head...) Poor kid. But she has good taste; you have to give her that. 

The Green Bo-eez, again.  Kendall is swinging his rope, T.J. is in the blue cap.  They are great kids and I'm trying to wrap my brain around the fact that Kendall is a Senior this year....he was 5 when the Farmer and I got married.

I love this shot, of the horse trailer, the dually pickup and saddle on the ground. 

Waiting their turn...

This is the way to watch a team roping! (See, Pop-Pops Bill? Angus has his cowboy hat! And a Red Raiders shirt, too....guns up!)

This is where I wish I'd had a faster camera with the big lens!

Kendall is going to be mortified at this photo, too. Sorry, man!

So blurry, but you can see that the heeler caught both heels and the flagger has already called the time, by the way the header is looking back and the slack in his rope.

Here are the poles for the pole bending...an event in which they don't actually physically bend the poles, but weave through them riding their horse.  I like the red-white-blue of the poles with the ropers in the distance.

There were two goats here, for the goat tying.  When they weren't "in competition", they were tied near the picnic table, where every kid in a quarter mile radius tried to throw them.  Here you see one of the little Murnion boys showing Maggie how to wrap the legs.  She took notes.

These are family evenings and there were moms, tiny babies, toddlers, preschoolers, high schoolers, dads, grandparents....it's fun to see everyone! This is taken next to the concession booth, that greyish building you see. The crow's nest is in the distance, where the timers and announcer hang out.

You are going to see some dirty, filthy, sticky, kids in the next few pictures...

The little girl in the light colored tank top, here is holding a hot dog that has been dropped a couple times in the dust. Which, really, is no worse treatment than it got in her dusty little hand. (And I hesitate to call her little top "white", because I'm not sure it ever will be again.)

Also, there's the frazzled goat...

This was one of the cleaner kids. Still, you see the remnants of popsicle on her face, the utter coating of dust.... 

Don't you just want to hug her? I just went ahead and did.

Building dust castles...

If they wanted the dust to stick together, they'd find an abandoned pop can with a little liquid left and pour it on top.  It worked.  It sure stuck. To THEM!

Here's Anne, "the Chef" as one of the kids called her.  The cool thing about this concession booth, besides the pretty cook: you can open a tab at the beginning of the roping season and pay for it at the end. Or, like we did, hand her a check and tell her to just fill it in at the end of the evening and she takes care of the books, bless her heart! So the kids go up and get food and we don't have to keep trying to come up with change. 

You could have sloppy joes, hot dogs, ham sandwiches, ice tea, pop, Icee-Pops...

it's a great way to feed the kids supper.

It was a wonderful evening!

Next time, I'm taking the big camera.  Watch out, Green Bo-eez!

In which we go to the fair, bite a new friend and lose the boy on the fairway...

*This is an inordinately long post with no pictures.  Pour a cold drink, kick off your shoes and prepare to yawn.....

That pretty much sums up the highlights of our trip to the Lewistown Fair. 

It seemed like SUCH a good idea, at the time. 
Growing up, my family (Mom's side) went to the Lewistown Fair every year and it was the best time! Riding rides with the cousins, eating cotton candy, collapsing in the shade and starting all over.  Our parents would go to the rodeo and when we were little, we went too.  As we got into those "cool" teen years, we declined the rodeo and went on the rides and giggled about the cute boys/girls. (Just to clarify, I was NEVER cool.  But I was in that age group.)

My Aunt Arlene and Uncle Dick and their kids/grandkids/grandkids' friends still go every year and I wanted to take my kids so they could have that great time with thier cousins!

We were a day early, to start with.  The cousins didn't truly hit town until Saturday morning, when we were leaving. Ah, well, next year....

And the Farmer had to stay home, so I was playing zone defense instead of man-to-man.

It was HOT...incredibly hot for Lewistown, a little mountain town that usually has temps of around 78-80 degrees during the day.  We had Pay-One-Price tickets that let us ride all day, so we were determined to ride that afternoon AND that night.  Nearly got heatstroke, going from sticky ride to sticky ride...

We went to our friends' house for supper and that was a treat! Mike and Lisa Waterman graciously invited us to have fajitas and let the kids jump on the trampoline with the sprinkler. (This is where it starts getting interesting....)

They have three kids; Laura (10 yrs), Daniel (8 yrs) and Meredith (3 months).  Laura was away at camp, so Maggie and Angus converged on Daniel, his toys and the trampoline.  Bless his heart, he was very nice (or scared) and let them play with everything.  The trampoline was a big hit....so much so, that Maggie gave him a big kiss. (Maybe two. Who knows? We only witnessed the one.)

After supper, the kids were playing on the tramp again, this time without the sprinkler, and we were inside doing dishes and visiting, when Daniel came in and announced with a trembling lip that Maggie had bit him.

I went out and of course she got a big spanking, had to apologize and then go sit in the car. Alone. Forever.  (I was ready to leave her there forever, let me tell you...) We decided it was perhaps time to load up both families and go to the fair to ride more rides, since it had cooled off.

And that was a good time! Even when a cloud burst came through; we waited it out and went back for more. Until the kids decided to go through the fun house over and over and over and over....
Lisa said she'd watch them make the rounds if Mike and I wanted to go on the Zipper.

*A note here, about the Zipper.  It was the Big Ride, when I was a kid.  The ultimate, scary, test-your-tummy, double-dog-dare-ya ride at the fair.  You had officially become one of the big kids, when you could ride the Zipper. Bonus points if you could ride it back-to-back. I hadn't ridden on the Zipper since I was 18, and I desperately wanted to know if I was still one of the big kids.

So there we were, two old fogies, standing in line with all the big kids, waiting to get on the Zipper and chatting, when I saw Lisa Waterman coming toward us, Maggie crying, making questioning gestures and saying, "Did Angus come over here? We can't find him."

Is this every mother's nightmare? Well, it's certainly mine.  The fairway was FILLED with people and not all of them looked like good old country people from Grass Range who came to show their steers and eat a little corn.

We scoured that place. Mike and Lisa's friends looked.  The carnival people looked.  And finally the security people found him on the carousel, not 10 steps from the fun house.  I had looked there several times and I know Mike and Lisa had, too.  He was lost for about 30 minutes, but it seemed like longer, and I'm a couple years older, now.

Anyway, we were all frazzled, but the older kids went on a couple more rides and then we said goodbye to our friends and headed to the motel.

Saturday morning, we went to McDonalds for breakfast...a big treat for us....and met Sue Fitzgerald's cousin's wife from North Carolina.  I'm not kidding.  No matter where you are from or who you are, we Montanans will find a connection with you.  Try it sometime.  You'll be shocked.

Then we went to the park, where Maggie took up with a little Hutterite girl who is now her new best friend, I guess.  The farmer's market was being held there and the Hutterites sell lots of really good produce.

AND (this is big) I got a text message. Yeah, I did. From my cousin Beth. (Really, I think she was trying to be mean, because she knows how technologically inept I am...) But get this: I actually worked around and successfully sent one BACK! You have no idea what a big thing this is in my world.  Well, some of you do.  If you've been reading the Chronicles for a while, you'll remember the time I texted myself.

Then, because I was exhausted and the kids were crabby and it was hinted at that we might be pulling bulls that afternoon, we drove home.

Next year, I'm putting a muzzle on Maggie, a homing device on Angus and coordinating my schedule a little better with the cousins.  But it was a fun trip, really, and our last big hoo-rah before harvest.  

Nothing will put a little motivation in your workout like buying a new swim suit.

Which is why I've avoided purchasing one for nearly 12 years.

The OTHER reason I've been avoiding the whole scene is cost....
Have you checked the price tag on these babies, lately?  For a one piece, try $95.00-$110.00.  Yes.  For TWO pieces, such as a tankini (we'll tackle that invention later in the post) you have to buy the top separate from the bottom. Brilliant marketing strategy that they wrap up in the message of "You as a consumer have more size choices, more customizability!"  We pay more.  Each piece will run you +$50.00.   

And there's considerably less fabric than there used to be.

You know, too, how well I like spending time in dressing rooms at the mall.  I'd rather go to the dentist, (I'm NOT joking!) than to try on swim suits. 


Finally, this year, after an encouraging email from a friend that said, "You might want to go over to Land's End and look at their swimming suits.  I hear there's a sale! Here's the link."  I decided it was time to get new bathing apparel. (To her defense, she knows I've been talking about this impending occasion for three years. And to her credit, she hasn't laughed at me in the suits I HAVE been wearing.  But it was time for an intervention, bless her heart.)

I'm in the tricky age group of "Not-a-20-something-anymore-but-not-ready-for-my-mom's-style" of suit.  Here's where the tankini comes in.  For the uninformed, a tankini is basically a tank top style, with a separate bottom.  It wants to grow up to be a bikini someday, but it has self-esteem issues.  Perfect. After two kids, I can embrace that type of thinking.

I also look at cover-ups. Which are floaty sorts of tops that cover you to your knees while you're wearing whatever swim suit you finally screw the courage up to put on. Some catalogs bill them as sort of sexy.  They are not.  They are about 3 yards of cotton gauze in a boxy shape.  After consideration (translation: check the price) I decide that if I'm going to buy a suit, darn it, I'm just going to have to be brave. And find a t-shirt.

I looked at every possible style, shape enhancing, color, cut, strap width, torso length, free shipping tankini available.  It took a month. (I'm serious. You can't rush these things.) I bookmarked. I compared. I exercised. And after all that agony, I finally closed my eyes and ordered one.

The suit came yesterday.

Deep breath...

And it fit just fine.
The problem is....all the body parts that AREN'T covered by Lycra/nylon/plastic boning. 

I think we should go back to this:

The Fwog Pond Party

*This is a photo intensive blog post.  But all the kids are exceptionally cute...that should make it worth your while.

We had Angus' birthday party at the Frog Pond in Miles City; a little pool that's about 2 feet deep in the center with a big ole frog to slide down.  It's perfect, because the kids can all splash and play to their heart's content and it's CLEAN. And then we eat cake at a pinic table, eliminating all the worry about spillage and stickiness.

The Frog, of which I was speaking...

Here's Maggie and her cousin Liv.  This is a rare shot, when no one was moving 60 mph.

I hope that's not drool....

Maggie's love....she told us when she was two that she's going to marry Ben someday and hasn't backed down. 

It's a great sized pool, very quiet yesterday. On hot days, there are enough kids in the place that you could walk across on their little backs and not ever touch the water....

Aaahhhh.  He had no intention of staying for the whole party, I think, but was pressed into service. Behind this smile is a man dying to go pick up his new contacts....and go diving.

B-Allie (that's a nickname for "Baby Allie", which she is not anymore, but we can't stop) giving her man loves.  He likes it and he doesn't. 

The girls are instructing Ben on a random game that makes sense only to little girls.  He wanted to play, but the rules were ambiguous and subject to change at their whim, so he was never really sure if he was doing it right or not.

Welcome to the world of women, sweetheart. Get used to it.

Sizzle! Angus promptly soaked his towel in the pool, so had to resort to warming up and drying off in the sun like a "wazy wizard". (Lazy lizard)

I love the little foot prints...

Squooshy balls that hold water.

They make a great SPLAT when you throw them at someone, and it's fun to suck the water out.

Yes, I tried to stop them, but it was pointless.

Dad, having a man to man talk with the boy. Probably about the girl games....

They came up with this pose all on their own.

B-Allie and Mags....they are such good friends.

Secrets!

The rare pictures of Angus and I....

Ready for cake!!!

They were smelling the cake.

I put coconut flavoring in the frosting and when we pulled the plastic wrap off, everyone leaned in. It smelled wonderful!

Black icing is a wretched medium to try to come up with. It took a whole vial of food color to get it that tone.  We all had grey teeth after eating it.

Singing the birthday song! There was a little breeze, so I was trying to keep the candles from blowing out.  That would've been a never-ending cycle of lighting.

The only time they were quiet.

It takes great concentration, to eat ice cream.

Maggie got some late presents along with Angus.

It's not really a party without blowie-outie thingies.

(What do you call those?)

The Farmer had very strict guidelines for this photo....above the chest, far enough away to reduce wrinkles and blemishes, close enough to see the smiles, good light....

He did alright!

LtoR: Traci Lee (Country Wife, Country Life blog), The Farmer's Wife and Jennifer (Farmer's Wife's sister)

It was a great day.

Happy Birthday, Little Man...

It's Angus Remington's 4th birthday today! (Although, if you ask him how old he is, he will respond by holding up three fingers and saying, "Fourteen" or "Forty".  Think big. )

Four years ago, I had been in labor a week already....nothing serious, but not false labor, either.  I was in labor for my school board meeting and we had a plan of action.  If something "desperate" happened,  Mike G. was to drive me to meet the Farmer, who would've been alerted by my chairman by phone as we left, and the teacher would take over the minutes. 

So we have a contingency plan by our board for emergency birth, but no such thing as maternity leave. I was at the next meeting, too.

Anyway, the day Angus was born, I called my doctor because the Farmer and his dad had taken Maggie for the morning so I could rest and I was unable to...and mad.

The doctor had his nurse tell me not to fuss and just relax.  Then, about 20 minutes later she called back and said, "How soon can you get to Billings? We have a spot for you at the hospital if you can be there in three hours."

We could and were.

BUT, you could tell this was a second baby, because the bassinet wasn't set up, we didn't have any little outfits to bring the child home in....nothing. Traci G. graciously went shopping while we worked on having this little bean.

Angus was born in the middle of the night, not my best time of day, and he was beautiful of course, but had his eyes squinched tightly shut.  As tight as he could.  He was not impressed.

Right from the beginning, he wanted to sleep WITH someone.  In the hospital, he didn't settle down until I tucked him in next to me in bed.  He's still that way....if he wakes up in the night, alone, he goes looking for company. 

We caught a lot of flack, for naming him Angus.  It evoked strong emotions and comments...people either loved it, because it was strong and unique, or they hated it, thinking we had named him after the cows we raised. (Which we did, but aren't they beautiful?)

My brother calls him Hereford Winchester.

So you see, it could've been WORSE.

He's a great little man, full of funny little stories and faces.  And he's very, very strong willed.  There's no negotiating or reasoning with the child.  He will stand in the middle of his wading pool, teeth chattering from the cold and insist that the water is hot.

He's very tender hearted and the pets allow him to come close and lay on them, where they run when Maggie approaches. 

He A-D-O-R-E-S sweets.  Candy, cookies, chocolate milk, ice cream....ugh.

He has the PopPops...both Cowboy and Vern....right where he wants them.  We hope to use that power for good and not evil....

The last four years have gone remarkably fast, but I can't wait to see how this boy turns out! Every age is a delight, you know? Well, every age except three.  That's a special torture all on its own.

Love you, baby!