The Roar of a Sunday Crowd

Madison is seen above not really wanting to sneak into the wampa cave, but she's the smallest, and for some reason that makes everyone on the scavenger team think she's the best qualified to do such a thing.  Of course, a ginormous roar from the cave changes all their opinions right away, and leaves everyone wondering - how are they going to get into the cave?  And the larger question of course is what is in the cave that everyone wants so much that they're willing to risk their lives to get it?

This week we continued our story from Hoth, and it's going well.  We had just two members of the 501st with us today, and you can see Mamma Jawa there above to the left, in an official Jawa costume.  Madison is to the right, and her costume doesn't look too bad either.  The two of them were hanging out today, and of course there was a whole lot of "utinni!"  There'll be a whole lot more of the next week, when we hope to have a larger portion of the horde of jawas with us.

This morning was pretty solid though, with lots of great videos and a fantastic message about everyone getting along, based on Naboo's story, of course.  But more importantly based on the Bible, and Paul's words about all of us being a part of the body.

We got home for a bit and rested, read a comic book and played some Disney Infinity as some of the Star Wars Rebels characters.  Madison drew some, and played the piano as well.  Of course we ate lunch, and Daddy worked on the board game a little bit, although not too much.  

The big thing we did next was a something pretty fun - it was our first rodeo!

Daddy took this picture tonight.  We went over to the Cumming Fairgrounds, where we sat down to see a full rodeo with all the different competitions you would expect:  bull riding, bronc riding, barrel racing, cattle roping, steer wrestling, trick riding - and of course there were rodeo clowns around as well.  

Here's Madison all dressed up for the big event.  We said we'd go check it out, and maybe even leave early if we wanted to.  But we didn't leave early, because we were enjoying the atmosphere quite a bit, and the weather was just right too.  It was a perfect night for a rodeo.

The sun came down, and we were looking right at it as the horses and riders came in, and I thought it was going to be rough for a bit - but we took the greatest pictures with that light coming in as it did, illuminating the dust particles and the flags.

This picture, for example, has such a tone to it.  The flag there, along with the cowboy and his lasso - it all looks so posed.  This shot of the illuminated flag was great too:

To being with, the colors of the flag are brought in by riders, and the announcer explained the symbolism of each color.  Finally, the flag itself was brought in to great cheers.  You can see here ow the crowd is in shadow, and yet the light streaming in was illuminating that flag, making it look as if it were glowing.  The national anthem was played and everyone rose in respect for the men and women who fought for our country, and right around this time there was a prayer spoken over the evening, for protection of the cowboys and cowgirls and for all those who came out.  It was great to see things started out the right way.  Soon it was time for the first event:

It was bronc riding, which you can see here.  The light just made these rides even more dramatic.  Although they were pretty dramatic to begin with when you consider the power and strength of these animals, and their absolute determination to get those annoying cowboys off their backs.  Here are a few more pictures taken of the very first event of the rodeo, the bronc riders silhouetted by the sun.

These were some of my favorite pictures of the night.  Daddy brought along his camera, but there were a lot of other people with cell phones taking pictures.  The announcer asked how many of us were first time rodeo visitors, and nearly half the audience raised their hands.  We were all in for quite a treat.  There's the famous expression, "This ain't my first rodeo," but in this case for many of us, in fact it was!

This guy was one of the co-announcers, a rodeo clown sitting nearby to lend a hand from time to time, but also keep the audience involved and laughing with jokes and rodeo clown antics.  He was nearby to comment in a joking way about performances, still respectful, but also as playful as a rodeo clown can be.  

The next event was the steer wrestling, or "bulldogging," where the cowboys would leap off their horses and essentially tackle a fleeing calf.  This is done in the quickest time possible, which is pretty fast.

All the events are pretty fast here.  Of course, you probably know that the idea is to last for eight seconds riding a bull.  I think the best time for these guys was around four to five seconds.  With the girls roping team, the best time was actually 2.1 seconds!  

Here's Madison watching the events, giving us the ol' "howdy!"  She was following along the entire evening, paying attention to times, watching the techniques and learning a whole lot along the way.  It was an enjoyable evening for all of us in the Sunday crowd.  

Here's another event that had cowboys and cowgirls roping cattle as quick as possible.  The guys had to do a few steps more than the girls, leaping off the horse, tackling the calf and tying up the legs so it was immobile.  It was amazing how fast this all happened, all under ten seconds!

"It's the bulls and the blood, the dust and the mud..."  They were playing all kinds of music tonight, of  course most of it country music.  But the funny thing is that they never once played that Garth Brooks song.  Perhaps everyone in the rodeo is sick of it!

To help give athletes a rest, and to help everyone get time to set things up, there were trick riders that came out a few times to perform all kinds of equestrian tricks, like the one you see above.  

There was one particularly young trick rider here, part of a family that came out riding in all sorts of positions on the horse, seen here standing up on her horse.  But not like her daddy was standing on a horse.  

Here he is, standing on two horses, which is pretty much the most impractical way yet of riding horses.  This is called Roman Riding, although this style of riding was not developed by anyone involved in the Roman Empire.  The reason for this is because they all wore skirts.

Anyway, there were a few more competitions, including the barrel racing competition, which was very impressive to see.  A few locals were competing as well, but some of these riders were so good at turning corners that it wasn't even close.  They got so tight to the barrels, with such speed, all of it amazing to watch.

Finally, the main event itself:  bull riding.  You can see above that this activity above has anything to do with common sense.  The announcer tonight had asked us to cheer for the cowboys again, which was sort of a common thing, and it wasn't that we weren't collectively cheering all along.  It's just that what he said next was amusing:  he asked if anyone was rooting for the bulls.  And there were cheers for that, and the bulls must have heard the cheers because not one cowboy made it eight seconds on a bull tonight.  One cowboy was close - but just missed it.  It's still exciting, and there's still a whole lot of build-up to the main event.  

But all of the other events were just as great to see tonight, and you really didn't have to put the bull riding at the end to keep us around for the entire thing.  It was really a fun night, and Daddy was glad he wore his old western shirt.  Madison looked great in her western attire too - all of us all decked out for a night at the rodeo.  It was a great time, and it was easy to get home afterwards.  We'll come back again some time, and when we arrive we'll be able to say with certainty, "This ain't our first rodeo."