A Rodeo and the Boise Music Festival

Saturday, July 23rd was a busy, fun-filled day. Ryan, the kids and I started off by attending the birthday party of Maria's 2-year-old girl, Kenley. Maria is one of my favorite friends, in case anyone wasn't aware. They decided to have the party at the Snake River Stampede's matinee. This was our first rodeo experience . Before the show began, we had yummy cupcakes out on the lawn of the Idaho Center.

Kenley with her daddy, Mike. What a darling little cowgirl! Not sure why Mike didn't wear his Wranglers...



Maria trying to get Kenley to blow out the candles.



She didn't like the flames so close to her face! =)



Half of the cupcakes had tiny plastic horses standing on them.



Soon it was time to find our seats inside the arena.

This was one of the opening numbers. It's a bunch of horses draped with different colored lights doing a "dance". It was really quite impressive. I should specify that there were people on the horses directing their every move.



They were trotting at the speed of light. (186,000 miles/second.)


Sadly, I didn't get any good pictures of the rodeo. But it was pretty fun. I think my favorite parts were the glowing horses at the beginning, and the fact that there was a cowboy named Turtle on the program. I wasn't sure if that was his given name or a nickname, but all the other names on the program seemed normal. I can't think of anybody, popular or not, who could pull off a name like 'Turtle'. =)

After the party we took the kids home, ate a late lunch, and Oliver took a nap.

It wasn't long before it was time for me to head to Maria's house. She, Renee and I had a date with the Boise Music Festival. We'd been looking forward to seeing MC Hammer and Sugar Ray since we first heard they were coming. There's nothing like a free concert- especially one that's worth seeing. MC Hammer was Maria's first concert (back when he was "too legit to quit"), so it was kind of a sentimental occasion for her to get to see him again.

We got to the park before the show began. Luckily for us, they were late starting. As we waited for it to begin, we noticed that it was SO HOT. And SO CROWDED. AND SO MOIST.

I didn't get any recognizable pictures of Sugar Ray. We weren't close enough to the stage. I always liked their three songs... I used to sing "Fly" to Oliver when he was a baby.


After Sugar Ray's set, we moved up a bit closer for Hammer Time. It wasn't easy to do, but we did it. There he is wearing a white suit. We couldn't believe he forgot his Hammer Pants! We were totally disappointed.



He strutted down through the center of the crowd, which was roped off.




This guy had some serious nipples.


Rustler butt. Man, oh maaaaan... (And some gal's bare arm and back.)


We had a really fun time at the concert, despite the warm swarms of sweaty people. When it was over, we made our way through the wad of concertgoers, exited the park and drove to Donnie Mac's Trailer Park Cuisine for some grub. None of us had ever been there, but we'd heard it was good. It was indeed enjoyable. I liked the fun decor, the attractive staff and the tasty food. I had the "special" burger, which was topped with salsa, french fries, cheese, etc. It was so good. They have the best fries I can ever recollect having. On our way back to Maria's, we stopped to get little milkshakes at Fanci Freez's drive-thru. Then we sat in the car at Maria's for a long time, talking and chuckling.

I don't know what I'd do without them.