WCRR 2011

We always look forward to the Ranch Rodeo finals!  2011 certainly did not disappoint. 

 I had so many pictures, so here are just a few....

My famous bro and niece and their magnificent horses, Crowfoot and Hooray. 

My Mom and her cousins sporting those good looking Sandhill Cattle tshirts!

My youngest and his cousin the Brahma breeder!

My daughter, of wait, I don't have a daughter, BUT everyone thinks she's mine and I love it.

Who knew my sister's kid would look like me!

Team Sandhill in the grand entry which is one of my favorite parts of the show!

These two punks are happier than a puppy with two tails!   

Mr Riley, Top Hand of '09 & '10 and American flag carrier, riding the bronc for Sandhill!

Team penning is a great event!  I want to team pen, oh wait I don't have a horse.  Maybe Trail would let me borrow Pink Panther ;)

Two old dudes flankin'!  =)   They don't read my blog... they'll  never see this.  I hope anyway!

Who won the whole rodeo?  Yep these guys who just happens to be Rodey Wilson's team.  He's the kind cowboy that gave Pake the buckle at Justin's Benefit.

The BIGGEST celebrity there and I do mean the biggest weighing in at a whopping 6 pounds is Whiplash, the monkey cowboy.  By the way, he's a sheep herder too!

The Bud horses are celebrities too me.... I love them!

And this cowboy.... who is he?  Oh wait that would be Mr. Pioneer Woman.... I meant Marlboro Man.  The Drummonds had a team and it was neat watching them!

And here she is, Pioneer Woman herself.  I shot this picture from across the way.  I had the opportunity to say hi, and get a picture with her... do I have that picture? NO!  The picture didn't take =(  I'm so sad, I could just cry!  All I can tell you is she's very tall and very pretty and I probably looked totally short and fat beside her, so maybe I didn't want the picture anyway!  That's what I keep telling myself.

The most famous celebrities of the whole rodeo, the most famous to me anyway, are these punks!

 WCRR, we can't wait until next year!  And PW please come back so I can get a picture with you!  Purty Please =)

4 Wheels

You never know what a typical Saturday night might be for us, but you can always guarantee it'll involve 4 wheels.  See the irony is I grew up on 4 hooves..... but now it's all about the 4 wheels.

It might be 4 tractor wheels, 4 ATV wheels, or 4 hot rod wheels, but it'll be 4 wheels.

We went to the Mini Sprint Car Championship in Amarillo.  The other irony is this was the weekend of the fall Nascar race in Texas!  Well we missed that, but we went racing anyway!

We took a crew of boys as always.  I love seeing the excitement in their eyes.  They love everything to do with racing and action.  It was fun!  This was just a typical 4 wheel hot rod racing Saturday night!

Fall Sports

Fall sports are over.... We had fun though! 

Building Modules

My oldest is all grown up.  He's been working on the cotton harvest crew. 

Kinda makes me sad... sniff, sniff

He runs the module builder all by himself... well except for his little helper. 

He's not too fond of little brother helping though... he says he doesn't need his help or want it.

These big ole deeres strip the cotton that my punk packs into a module. 

In fact, he was called to the field on our way home, and that's where he is as we speak....

In the meantime, Tater and I are off to his last soccer game. 

Hornet Homecoming

Last week was homecoming in hornet land! 

The homecoming queens rode in a convertible.  My niece was a candidate!

 

The court was beautiful and they decided to go barefoot.

So we put their shoes under their chairs.

Did I mention my niece, Marli, was a candidate?

Did I mention my niece was crowned THS Homecoming queen? 

Did I mention Tate had a date?

Pake did too!

Then, we played some hornet football and the hornets fought hard.  Unfortunately our little team has already been plagued with major injuries. However, I bet these kids will always remember their homecoming!

Note:  I antiqued these photos. Y'all like?  Dislike? 

Justin Bradley's Benefit Ranch Rodeo

Last night we honored an outstanding man and he just happened to be a cowboy.  A cowboy that we sure are missing.  Everytime I see his paint horse it hits me that he really is gone.  Everyone came together this weekend to celebrate Justin's life and donate to his wife and baby Pecos who we all can't wait to meet.  It always amazes me how so many people come together and do awesome things at times like these.  Thanks to everyone that donated and helped with the rodeo and silent auction.

There are so many people to recognize but Nicki Sturgess, I just want to say you did an awesome job with the silent auction!

And thanks to all the cowboys too!  There were 26 teams! 

The Happy Toy Maker is always a hit with the kids.  Yes Tate won a set of panels in the silent auction.  He had more fun bidding and watching the bid to make sure he still had it. 

KD helped Keith cook.  Thanks Keith for all your hardwork.

Tripp entered Sandhill. Thank you Sandhill, Tripp, Riley and Red and the other guys on the team! 

 Sandhill was second and they donated their winnings back to Brittany and Pecos.  I can't thank you guys enough.  I also want to thank Bonnie Concho for donating a cap to the silent auction.

Another awesome thing happened last night, Tripp's friend Rodey from the winning team gave his buckle to Pake..... it's the sweetest thing I've ever experienced in my life.  Brings a tear to my eye.

Pake is one happy kid. 

Rodey Wilson thank you for doing something so special for my boy.

  I wish I had a picture of Rodey and Pake.... maybe we can get one at the finals in November.

I wanted to share this picture of Kerry Don, Tate, Alan Sturgess,

JoeByrd, Jim Cope, Justin and Pake a few years ago after working calves.

Justin will always be remembered by our family, especially everytime we work cattle. 

Pake's First Big Hunt

Pake shot his first antelope at the ranch last weekend. 

I think he's hooked.

Now he wants to shoot

a deer,

an aoudad,

an elk,

a moose,

a BEAR...

lol

not really I just know that he was one happy fellar!

Football y Futbol

It's fall y'all and with fall comes football and in our case futbol (aka soccer) too!

Pake's a big bad 7th grader and he's playing "real" football for the Tulia Dobbers.

He's been playing defensive corner.

The Dobbers are 2 for 2.

Tater is playing futbol on the Magic team.  By the way, that's cousin Jerzi on the opposing team.

Tater Jack has scored a few goals.  Team Magic is 3-1.

Then after soccer we head over for football practice. 

Tater is also playing 3rd & 4th grade tackle football for the Hornets.  I've always said there's no way we'd do two sports at once, but see Tater has lots of energy and we're trying to keep him busy.

It's the first year for these guys to play tackle football, but they're learning and having a blast. 

The ole Excursion has a few more miles on it.... but it's been fun!