Typically for our family this day is spent in Harrisburg, Or attending the parade. Then rafting the McKenzie River and then back to Harrisburg for fireworks. It's a wonderful day! But this year since the 4th is on Sunday we knew we wouldn't be doing the typical things. We would be in church and spending time together at home this year on the 4th. That left Saturday the 3rd to celebrate our country's Independence. As I thought about it I realized that we had never taken our girls to a Rodeo. Can this be? I wondered. Apparently so since Heidi thought a barrel race was them pushing a barrel in front of them.
I grew up going to Rodeos. Every year at the Coos County fair we would anxiously await the Rodeo as a time to meet up with boys and try and get them to hold our hand. My girls asked me if I was ever in a Rodeo. Well, if you want to count the sheep scramble as part of that then, well, yes. That is where you take a dozen or so girls and set them loose on about 8 sheep in the arena. You run as fast as you can and try to grab onto the wool of a sheep and hold on for dear life. If you can hold on long enough for it to become yours you get to keep it. I was one of the lucky ones and got one that year. I wonder what I named it. Who knows.
The St. Paul Rodeo seemed the perfect place to be this year. It was the 75th Anniversary of this particular Rodeo and we had a great time. Lots of cowboys, cowgirls and bucking horses and bulls. And at the end of the evening they had a spectacular fireworks display, what an incredible 4th of July!
