There is a PRCA rodeo about a half hour from our house, and we finally got it on the schedule and went to it this year.  We put the word out to a few of our friends and met them there, too.  It was a very fun way to spend a beautiful summer Friday night.

They had horse rides before the rodeo…

The kids got to have a nutritional dinner of hotdogs and root beer floats.  Then they got giant freezies.  Just a little bit of sugar that night. 😉

I knew a few of the rodeo contestants from my days growing up around a rodeo arena.   I competed with two of them, one of which I grew up with as our families spent a lot of time at the rodeos together.  She lives down in southern Wisconsin, so I rarely see her anymore.  I think she placed in the barrel racing competition…she had a pretty good time!

This is a bunch of drunk males competing in “Cowboy Poker”.  Basically, they sit at a table in the middle of the arena, and they let loose a bull.  Whoever is last at the table “wins!”.  The bulls weren’t very aggressive, so they had a hard time getting it done.  There were three guys left when the timer went off.  There was no carnage, so that was good.  You know…not as exciting, but good. 😉

There weren’t very many rough stock riders.  There were only two bareback riders and 4 saddlebronc riders.  There were around 6 bullriders and they had to ride twice.  It seems that it is definitely dying out, up north at least.  There weren’t a ton of riders when I was younger, but a lot more than right now.

After the rodeo was over we purchased the kids ropes!  I love to rope, so I was trying to teach the kids how to rope while we watched the barrel racing slack (extra riders after the performance is over).

The next day we hit the beach, so we brought our ropes and a bucket and they spent some time trying to learn how to rope!