Cohagen Chronicles

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Cohagen High School Rodeo, 2012

Mostly photos, but they're worth a million of my words!

Hot, sticky, blowing his $2 as fast as he can on liquid sugar...

This is about all the rodeo Maggie saw. She gave a token ten minute glance, then it was off to...

...the DIRT PILE!!!

There was a goat tying clinic put on by a very competent, handsome young cowboy who was concerned that my kids didn't know the first thing about the event.

He had a pretty good time on that run, but then the goat didn't offer a whole heck of a lot of resistance...

She had sort of a crush on my boy....

I could hardly STAND how adorable this child was!

You'll see more of her later.

It was all I could do not to smooch those grubby little cheeks every time I saw her.

Here's the older sister of the goat-tier and little girl with the crush, running the poles.

I was too close, so you don't really SEE the run very well, but then it wasn't her best so maybe that's alright. The horse was fun to photograph!

Here's the pole bender with her granddad and friends...

Can't believe she turned around just when I was taking the picture!

(Incidentally, my introduction to this girl was when she was about a week old and her mom said to me, "Want to see the world's cutest baby?"

She's just gotten even prettier as she's grown...)

Love all the hats! Black is the new trend and I think it's pretty classy.

Remember this little hat? I was in the cookshack, visiting with my friends who immediately put me to work pouring pop and fetching chips, when I turned around to see this little miss standing on a cinder block to be tall enough to get her nose up to the counter. She got some candy in a hurry and headed off to make sure there was a nice layer of dirt to cover the tell-tale sticky spots on her face...

The Gang, swapping candy and making elaborate plans...
Rodeos are a rockin' good time for the whole family, but those under the age of 10 seem to REALLY get the most fun out of the whole experience.

More cuties...
I really didn't see a lot of the rodeo, because I was very busy photographing dirty faced kids.

This is probably my favorite photo of the day.

The bull watching the kids at the chute getting ready for their bull rides.

Announcer and timers...man, what a long day for those folks!

And we have the first bull ride of the day!

According to THESE judges, it wasn't a qualified ride. But it was deliciously dangerous and exciting!

More spectators...

I like the dog!

Little boots captivate me...

Downtown Cohagen, MT:

Everyday population, 4-6;

High school rodeo weekend population, 250.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

So We Run

Remember the Montana Women's Run that my sister talked me into doing?

It was this Saturday before Mother's Day!

There was an option to run either the 5 mile or the 2 mile and of course, we went for the 5. Two miles is such a piddly little distance and if we're going to run, we're going to REALLY run.

Cari Mae, our sister (step, but we forget that most of the time) also signed up to run the 5 miles and Karen Leah (step mom, but we forget that most of the time) signed up to walk the 2 miles with her friend Kay. It was a family affair! Also, 8,700 other women signed up for the event. Yes, you read that right. I'm sure most of the Chronicles readers didn't think there were even that many women in the state, but it's true! And they were all shapes, sizes, colors, ages, hair styles....amazing.

Now, before I talk about the race experience, I need to tell you that in our family each one of us kids is Dad and Karen's favorite. We'll call and say, "It's your favorite daughter!" and they say, "You sure are!". (We all know B.J. and Barry THINK they're the TRUE favorites and we let them because it would bruise their fragile egos to think that they aren't.) So it was three of the Favorites running! Our own little team in a way, and next year we're going to get our own tee shirts proclaiming that.

I won't get into a mile-by-mile report, but I will tell you the highlights.

In BULLET POINTS, TOASTBA!

(That should make you happy.)

When we five-milers lined up for the race, (all 3,000 of us) the announcer said, "Anyone who runs slower than a 5 minute mile needs to move back from the front." And the entire crowd laughed heartily. Except for the 6 women in front who actually DID run a 5 minute mile; they were quite serious about the run.
I looked down during the line up and was just FASCINATED by all the different shoes! Brand new, old scruffs, big ones, small ones, what-in-the-world-is-THAT ones, every color imaginable...crazy.
I learned I'm a really, really slow runner. Especially when I don't know the course in order to pace myself...who knew when mile 3 was going to end?! I ran a 10 minute mile through the whole thing except for the last block. I really wish I'd pushed myself harder.
Speaking of the finish line...my sisters are faster than me by 3-5 minutes and they'd run together most of the way. When I got there, they immediately met me and we hugged...we lived! Then Cari asked me if I'd had fun. "No! I did NOT HAVE FUN. This was NOT fun, Cari. Nothing about this was FUN, do you hear me?!" Later, I realized it really HAD been fun but we all learned the important lesson: never ask a runner who has just crossed the finish line if they had fun. It won't be a pretty response.
My only goal was to run the whole thing without walking at all; goal accomplished.
When we were trying to get Karen's attention at HER starting line up, we hollered, "MOM!" and all these heads turned around to see if it was THEIR kids. That was funny! She told us to look for a pink hat and a purple race tee shirt; I'm not exaggerating when I say there were probably 60 women with pink hats and purple race tee shirts. We called quite a few of them Mom, but they didn't seem to mind.
I was ridiculously hungry after running, but not really tired or sore, which was wonderful! My sisters were exhausted, almost too much to eat. After the race, I had half a sweet roll...bless Perkins' heart for donating them....then at the pizza joint took on a largish salad, half a Thai Pie, a beer and bunches of water. Followed by a bunch of Milk Duds on the ride home. Appalling amounts of food.
I don't think I'm a great racer. And I'm certainly not a great racer with that many people involved. If it was a race with 5 friends, I'd run until bloody to beat them but I don't really care when there's 8,000 or so. But I'm glad I did it.
My sister is NOW training for a half-marathon. I told her I'd send her flowers. My next thing will be a series of 5 and 10Ks for fun...especially if they have groovy tee shirts.

Pictures to follow!