We Attend A Local Rodeo!

Friday night, we attended a local rodeo -- a fun family outing!

Looking at the program before it begins...

How grateful I am for my family!

Art

More art

The before-rodeo parade -- the empty saddle stands for someone dear who had passed away

Horses!

A cute tyke!

These two showed up, too!

Cowboy hats blossomed abundantly :)

Like this horse! This is one of the "pick up riders" -- there to keep the cowboys safe

Good try, but you're coming off... ;)

Freedom... :)

1.

2.

And 3!

This guy in the steer wrestling  failed to get the steer down first try, and then spent half a minute wrestling perseveringly with the beast until he finally got it down! ;)

Horses making friends while their masters wait...

The barrel racing is always such fun -- and what a treat to see a powerful horse going full blast!

 

A great evening together! We go to rodeos "once in a blue moon," and it was fun to go to this one!

 Katelyn came over to write notes, and Deborah works on some of her own. :) It's fun having Katelyn around! :)

 Stephen decided to have a lemonade stand at the shop. Here Mom & he walk over to set it up. :)

 Not much water in our pond, huh?

 I tried Dutch braids for the first time (also known as "inside-out French braids") and liked the result!

 It was very good lemonade!

 Deborah smirks as she "secretly" reads some varied potential chapters for a possible new book of mine...

 This large beetle is really strange-looking!

 Ah, the love of reading...

Stephen's caught the bug, too. :)

Art Talk

Of course this is rose-colored, but I love the happiness depicted here. Even shopping outings can be fun when viewed with the right attitude! Do we really make an effort to enjoy and savor each moment of our day, or do we just "endure?" 

Of course, there will be "non-fun" things in life that we would be silly/seriously foolish to try to make happy ("There's a time for laughter, and a time for crying..."), but I'm talking about the things that we can change with our attitude. 

Never cared for ironing? Maybe next time you can sing hymns while you do it, or play an uplifting CD, or think about how grateful you are to have electricity, and an iron, and clean clothes to iron (there are thousands of people all over the world who don't have any of those things!)...

Thoughts or comments? I'd love to hear them!

Working on Kate's computer...

Comparing aircraft speeds, acceleration, and suchlike... :)

Stephen finds something funny ;)

On one of my walks to NandK's house, I just had to stop and take photos of the summer beauties...

Only a few flowers hang on in the summer heat -- these light purple cuties are among the few!

Nathaniel and Katelyn's new place!

Before they left, Mrs. E and Kandace helped Katelyn set up her kitchen...

Patient little guy