Rodeo-ing

Ever go rodeo-ing?  Pretty Prairie has the largest night rodeo in Kansas.  Allen grew up outside of Pretty Prairie and attended school there all his growing up years.  When we can, we like to go "home" to watch the rodeo.  This year we took along our granddaughters, Hannah and Sophia and also some Japanese friends, Keiko and Toshi, and a co-worker of his, Aki.  They had never been to a rodeo before and neither had Sophia. 
 

We stopped at the farm first to pick up our tickets.  Since Al's brother and wife work at the rodeo, they get free tickets and they graciously gave them to us to use!

The girls were excited to meet the new tame kitty, Roscoe.

Here is the highschool Allen and I graduated from.  I attended here my junior and senior years when my parents took a short furlough from working in Japan.  Dad pastored the Mennonite church in the country for a few years before they returned to Japan.

The girls got to have rides on horses.  If you brought canned goods for charity, the rides were free.  Luckily my sister-in-law told us about that so we came prepared! 

Hannah rode Magic.

Sophia rode Cocoa.

It was stinkin' HOT!!!!  See how Keiko-san is wiping her face?  I wished I had had a handkerchief too.  The sweat just dripped.  In Japan, we call this "mushi-atsui" - sultry and muggy.  This is the typical weather where we lived in Japan during the months of July and August.

What a cute little cow-poke!

The Pretty Prairie saddle club rides around at the opening.

How very cool that our sister-in-law, Gayle and the Cousins Four sang the national anthem!!!  That was a surprise to us as she didn't tell us ahead of time.  Beautiful harmony!!

And the rodeo competition begins!

I don't know what happened to the color of this picture, but I thought it was hilarious!  Had to include it.  The horses head and the guy's mouth - funny!

It has been dry - very dry (as in drought) here in Kansas, but with the 107 temps this week, there were several pop up thunderstorms in the afternoon.  Short lived, but it POURED here.  Around 3 inches.  And the rodeo grounds were muddy!!  Look at the mud on this guys' back!

We like to sit on the east side.  Although we face the sun for a little while, we feel like we get a better view of the action.  I was so happy when the sun went down.  I thought it would begin to cool down.  But it didn't.  We continued to sweat the rest of the evening.

There was the mutton bustin competition where little kids rode out on sheep.  They all got belt buckles for participating and one lucky kid got new cowboy boots!  I hope their moms brought them a change of clothes!

One person gets to try to win $100.  The money is put in an envelope.  The guy is blindfolded and the crowd cheers him on to let him know when he is getting hot.  The clown put the envelope in the mud.  Gross.  But it could be worse.  He could have put it in a cow pattie.   Of course, there probably is a good share of that in the mud.  And yes, he did find the money!

The bulls at the end are the best! I was taking Sophie to the bathroom so I missed the best part. Al says a clown was thrown up into the air by a bull! (he wasn't hurt)

The rodeo finished around 10:30.   And it was midnight before we got the little girlies back home!!!  We told the girls to sleep in and to be cheerful and not grumpy the next day or their parents might not let us take them next year!  Ha ha!