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.

Thanks

I'm sorry for being so whiny. I'd kind of forgotten about applying the whole "endure it well" thing to my life. I have a ton of stuff to be thankful for. I have supportive people all around me. I've made it through countless challenges. I can keep doing that. I shouldn't let myself get so worked up about things. I appreciate the words of encouragement and empathy some of my "readers" offered. Sometimes I feel alone, but I know I'm really not. We're all in this together...

Losing Streak

Ya know what? My last five blog posts have received zero comments each.
Ya know what else? I honestly don't care. Yes, you read that right. I don't care. But I don't know why I don't care. That's not normal for me.

I've been experiencing a rough spot, to say the very least, in my little life. Because of that rough spot, I'm incredibly stressed and overwhelmed about things I don't feel capable of doing.
Things like raising my children. Making sure they are fed, their homework and/or practicing is done, and that they're happy.
Like maintaining some semblance of household organization.
Like having responsibilities.
It's all I can do to just get the bare minimum done. I'm burned out. I feel like I'm failing every section on a big, important test. Oh, wait. That's because I am.

I have things bringing me down, and I can't seem to focus on anything else. I float along, faking my way through each day. It's scary. I don't like it. But I don't know what to do about it. My poor, fragile feelings have taken a major blow during the past few weeks. It's nothing that can be solved, either. I just have to learn to not care about the things that inevitably crush me. But that's hard for me to do. I do care. I try to carry on, but it's not easy. I don't know what to do.

11th Anniversary.

Ryan and I had our 11th anniversary on July 22nd.

He brought me some gorgeous flowers.



Ryan arranged for the kids to go to his parents' house for the night. He took me to the Shakespeare Festival. I had never been there before, so I was excited. "Cabaret" was playing that night. It was saucy and fun! We liked it. I liked the atmosphere of the theater there. Lots of cool people there just relaxing, chowing on whatever food they brought, and enjoying the entertainment.

It was a really nice time.

Dirty Camping.

The weekend after the 4th of July, we went camping with Ryan's family and some of their friends (and their dogs).

Oliver trying out one of the 4-wheelers.

Ryan's dad trying out one of the 4-wheelers. (He must've pushed Oliver off.)



Oliver and Grandpa are good buddies.






Ryan reading while wearing swim trunks.









Love my sweet boy.


Not too shabby...









Now for the "dirty" pictures.

The dirtiest boy I've ever seen.




This campground had more thick dirt than any other place I've ever stayed at. I think that was Oliver's favorite part. He had a little truck he kept driving through the mess.


I love how he didn't hesitate to lie down in it.



He's probably trying to figure out a way to get all that dirt home with him so he can keep playing in it.



Jane fell off the back of a 4-wheeler in motion. Luckily it wasn't going very fast. She came away with some scrapes on her back and arm, but overall she was fine. After all the excitement, she spent a while relaxing and napping on a tarp with her quilt.



This must've been before he officially met the dirt.







Cora preparing to consume a tasty nectarine.


Looks like it was delicious and funny!


It was a fun little camping trip. The end.

Giraffes! Oh, and the kids...

On July 7, the kids and I went to the Boise Art Museum and the zoo with my mom and Fletcher.
The museum had a really neat shoe exhibit. There were shoes of all kinds, made of all kinds of fancy materials, by all kinds of artists. Opportunities for breakage encircled us. We found out very quickly that taking two 3-year-olds to an art exhibit where most of the pieces were so alluring and easy to reach out and touch was not such a good idea. I couldn't handle the stress of worrying that one of them might grab something and ruin it, so I ended up taking the boys outside while my mom, Cora and Jane finished looking at everything.


Fletch and Ollie lounged on the grass as we waited.


Soon, the girls and my mom came out of the museum to meet us.

We went to the zoo...

The kids always like watching the prairie dogs. I don't know what happened to the pictures of them, but I'm 99% sure these are meerkats.

Cute little fella.


I've always thought meerkats were cute.


I can never get a good picture of the lions.


Oliver's looking disoriented at the wheel.



The obligatory egg photo op.


"Cheep! Cheep!"


I wouldn't ordinarily rent a stroller, but Oliver was missing his nap to attend the zoo, so I thought it would be in everyone's best interest to just let the sleepy boy ride!




Pretty birds...


He looked at me! I wonder if I look as awesome to him as he looks to me. ;) In case anyone forgot, giraffes are my fave.


Some guy about to get scolded by a zoo worker for feeding the giraffe.




Now, if only the dang fence would get out of the way so I could get some better pictures.

I didn't take as many pictures of the animals this time. Just go to the zoo if you want to see them.

It was a nice afternoon. Next time I need to remember to get a picture of my mom. She really was there, I promise...