This is Nathan's second time doing the Mutton bustin', we did the bull-a-rama back in April.
And as I watched the first kid ride, I was a little worried about how he'd do. This time no one was going to hold him on. They had what I referred to as the bait sheep, standing in the middle of the arena, in an attempt to make the riding sheep run a beeline to the "bait" sheep I think. But once they got the kids on the backs of the sheep they turned them loose.
Most of the kids only made it about 20 feet before hitting the dust.
Nathan was the 4th one up. they got him settled on the back of this poor sheep told him to hold on tight and let the thing go!
No word of a lie. That little cowboy hung on for dear life, and made it to the half way mark of the arena. If fact I'm pretty sure the only reason he fell is because the sheep came to a dead stop when it got to the "bait" sheep.
He rode further than any of the kids there (not that I'm bragging- okay maybe a little). And when I saw the pictures afterwards he had a huge grin on his face the whole time he was riding. Of course when he fell off he apparently landed on his head (lucky they make them wear helmets) so I think he may have also cried the hardest of all the kids too!
I don't know if we'll get him back on another sheep now.
but I love this picture of him riding and the clown running along beside him in the back ground.
Even though it was rainy and grey and pretty much the worst weather for pictures I had to head over and check this out.
Apparently she stands 7 feet tall and was sculpted in Italy from Carrara Marble- and is also the only religious monument of its kind in Canada.
So we set up the tent in the backyard and even packed Greg in the picnic basket
We all had a great time can't you tell. I LOVE this picture of us all looking at each other
a Greg in a box?
mmmmm...peanut butter and banana sandwich
Nate thinks its the coolest clubhouse ever! So excited, it was such a fun adventure for him. We've left the tent up in the yard for a few days. and Nathan is dying to get back out there first thing in the morning.
Apparently the thaw is in full swing now.
And then he gets to cruise around site in this little mean machine. I'm pretty sure he called it an ARGO.
I think we should get one, for our field with all that marsh. I'm told you can take them right in the water as they float, and can cut through water pretty good too!
Dressed in his snazzy new Wrangler shirt we dumped him on a sheep and let that boy ride. He's on his way to becoming a a professional Mutton Buster.
He loved every minute of our night. He sat in the stands screaming "go Cowboy" after every ride. At one point he slipped away from his Dad and made it to the arena floor. He slid right under the bars, and his Daddy had to haul him out quick. I think he figured if he could make it into the bull pen they'd let him ride.
By the time the sheep riding (finally started-it was awfully late for little kids) he figured he knew exactly what to do. and was ready to go!!!!
And as soon as he finished his ride. He was asking to go again.
So Proud of my little Cowboy!
(still trying to upload the super cute video, but blogger isn't liking the format or something at the moment)
Nathan Had the best view of anyone for the Thomas the Train show
Thomas, the station master and the conductor putting on their songs and dance act
Nathan with the mini donuts- a must at any fair!!!
And I put him on a pony ride! I was so proud of him, he loved it and he was solid in the saddle.
At one point during the ride he noticed the horse in front of us was empty...and we had a little conversation...
We played the duck pond game
And he won "froggy"- he got to choose which one he wanted and of course chose the brightest creature of them all
Chris got his Birthday corn dog
Although he did agree to share a few bites...it was Nathan's first corn dog ever and he thought it was a pretty good deal - although he started calling it "Doggie corn" which I think grossed his Daddy out
And we did see the sesame street characters- although I wasn't impressed! I though they were putting on some type of show. Turns out it was a meet a greet, with about a 45 minute wait by the time we realized what the deal was. So this was about as close as we got...and that of course caused a melt down that we didn't get to hug Elmo!
It's always a good trip if you can get the little guy to sleep through most of it, but I loved the fact that once he was out Maggie put her head on him and was falling asleep too.
I had to take a picture of this, it's the coolest snow fort I've seen in a long time
It was in the park at the end of Dad's street, and I just love that some kids took the time to build it igloo style and layered all those snow chunks- It must have taken hours and hours
We were at West Ed mall about a month ago, and they had covered the huge skating rink in the centre of the mall with Astro turf for this tournament of sorts
They were throwing what looked like a red bone to me a lines of white "bones" with mesh and metal net in behind??? I don't know if the nets were just backstops or if it was actually for scoring somehow?
This is what the row of "bones" looked like
The whole reason we stopped is because a little monkey took an interest in the action, and insisted on climbing the spectator chairs and watching over the rail. It was really good, he was happy and actually still for over twenty minutes he was so busy watching this game
The nice thing about Lethbridge was we had a man made lake minutes from town- and spent a lot of hot summer afternoons in the lake
We had strange adventures where our destination ended up being the happenin' town of Bow Island- and had our picture taken with the giant Pinto bean in town
In June, Nathan and I took a trip to Medicine hat for the day- and had to explore the giant 
In May, a late afternoon cruise landed us at Milk River just as it was getting dark- but we still had to get out at the tourist info booth and check out the dinosaur.
And posing with the giant corn stalks in Taber!
