Strawberry Days Rodeo

Last year Ross came home from work at Brent Brown and told me he was taking Emma and me to the rodeo. I was a little surprised by this because first of all, I didn't even know the rodeo was in town, second of all, I had never in my life been to a rodeo and had never really had that as a thing that I might be even slightly interested in, and third of all, I had no idea Ross would be so excited about a rodeo. It turned out that the reason he was so enthusiastic about it was that he got free tickets from work because Brent Brown Dodge is a sponsor of the Strawberry Days Rodeo. I was fine with that though- I am never one to turn down free fun, at least not while we are still living on a budget. I think we were both a little surprised at how much I would LOVE it. Seriously, who knew that watching grown men in way too tight pants getting thrown off of giant farm animals that are being poked and prodded behind the gates to be as angry as possible would be so entertaining? It was fantastic!

When I found out that the rodeo was back in town, I asked Ross to call Jim, his old manager at Brent Brown to see if he would give us some free tickets again this year. Jim said that he didn't have any extra, but that since the seating isn't assigned at the Strawberry Arena we could probably just flash an old Brent Brown business card and they would most likely let us in. They did, and we were thrilled! My mom was watching the girls, so we had a nice little date night complete with $5 worth of goodies that we snuck in, and a great little people watching show that kept us entertained in between events. In the row in front of us we had Cowboy Man- a very cute and rugged young man who was wearing a dashing black stetson (to most likely hide his unfortunate receding hairline) who had invited Cheerleader Girl on a date to the rodeo. We were enjoying dropping eaves on their awkward first date conversation. They were sitting next to Not So Cute Girl, and Not So Cute Girl's Friend, and those two ladies were totally SMITTEN with Cowboy Man and were flirting like mad. We noticed that every time Cowboy Man would turn to talk to Not So Cute Girl and Not So Cute Girl's Friend, Cheerleader Girl would quickly text something on her phone to somebody. About 20 minutes later, Skinny Butt Long Hair Guy, a good friend of Cheerleader Girl just happened to show up and saw Cheerleader Girl in the stands and came to join them. Keep in mind that there were thousands of people there that night and we were way up in the stands. It was pretty hard to spot people you were looking for when you knew where they were there- so just bumping in to someone was pretty far-fetched. Well, everyone on the row scooted down to make room for Skinny Butt Long Hair Guy, and he foiled any plan that Cowboy Man had of making Cheerleader Girl notice him, and believe me, he tried. He bought her strawberries, he put his hat on her and told her how cute she was in it, he got her to help him get our whole section to do the wave, but it was all to no avail. Cheerleader Girl left early with Skinny Butt Long Hair Guy, and Cowboy man drowned his sorrows in a tall 12 oz can of diet coke, and went out for ice cream with Not So Cute Girl and Not So Cute Girl's Friend. It was hilariously entertaining, and Cowboy Man, if you are reading this- you can do better! Oh, and Cheerleader Girl- so can you! For reals, the guy had no butt!

Anyway, here are some blurry, not great pictures of the events.

When they were singing the National Anthem, Miss Rodeo Utah rode around with a flag, and a little calf somehow got out and was wandering around the arena and was kind of distracting.

The Rodeo Clown was annoying, but his rope tricks were pretty awesome.

Our favorite event of the night, hands down, was the Wild Cow Milking! Ross was dying laughing. He grew up milking cows, so this was extremely funny for him to watch.