Thursday morning after breakfast we went out to do a session with my sister and her family. It will make it’s grand debut here on the blog soon. I think this was the longest day of my entire trip. My body was 2 hours ahead of the clock and I hadn’t slept much the night before… but the evening finally arrived and we headed back into town and it was my turn to ride. :) I grew up on horseback but it’d been 14 months since I’d straddled a saddle let alone rode the horse as fast as I could push it to go. The Gymkhana is an annual event at the Kimball County Fair and I couldn’t have been more excited to participate. I ran the barrels, poles, did a flag race, and competed in the musical chairs. My trust steed DJ helped me to win and set a all time record in the flag race of 18 seconds and we even placed 3rd in the poles with a sub 25 second time! Phew. That’s a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time.. I’m definitely glad I was IN the saddle and the roles weren’t reversed!
Here’s a picture of me going through the pole pattern the second time. (check out that form!) I’ll share more pictures on this night soon.
Thursday night my sister’s family in-law (Brenda and Greg) were kind enough to let me stay with my sister and her family in their basement… my first bed of the week and I couldn’t have asked for much more! Friday morning had already arrived and I was due another 3 hours Northwest for dinner (aka lunch) with my grandparents so we quickly snapped a few more pics of the kids playing at their grandma’s.
Denalli is SO cute! They say “I’m going to get your smiles” and she goes from a full faced grin to ever so cutely covering her face giggling and laughing with the biggest grin under her little hands… guarding her smiles.
Dallie Jo wasn’t a fan of Maggie’s kisses.
After saying goodbye and filling the car up with gas I headed out to the boonies. Now these are the sticks like you may not even know exist! My grandparents live on the same ranch I spent the first 14 years of my life on. It’s where most of my childhood memories took place. They are 30 miles from the post office, get mail every other day and on the occasion you run out of milk you can call the little grocery shop in town and ask them to have it delivered via the mail lady. It’s 65 miles from the grocery store and doctor and 2 and a half hours (without traffic) from the nearest major hospital. They are 3 miles from their nearest neighbor and if someone happens to drive by chances are they are a neighbor and will greet you with a friendly wave. :) It’s another life but it’s some of the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen.
My Aunt lives about 30 minutes from my grandparents and it was there I met my cousin and his fiancee’ Courtney for their engagement session Friday afternoon. I’d had my fingers crossed for a beautiful afternoon and prayed for a sunset… and I have to say those prayers were answered abundantly. :)
This is one of my favorites.
So CUTE!
See what I mean!?
After the sun went down Stetson and Courtney cooked dinner for us (it was me, a neighbor and friend Kari and her husband) and we had a chance to hang out and watch a movie. Good times.
I rolled back into my grandparents late that night and the next thing I knew I had a knock on the door WAY too early from my Grandpa saying breakfast was ready. Did he not remember it was Saturday? (He’s always been a morning person!) After breakfast and before dinner we went out to capture a few pictures of them. I’m working hard to document the history of my grandparents and their time they’ve spent on the ranch (50 years and counting!). I’ll share more of their story in their own post. If you’ve never heard of sod houses and hitching posts you’ll definitely want to check back for that!
This is pretty typical when you go to catch your horse.. they can be wild as stallions until they have their halter is fastened.
How stinkin’ cute are my grandparents?
Seriously!
This is a view of their valley: Hidden Valley Ranch.
After lunch and some amazing fresh cucumbers from the garden I headed out. I had to capture a couple of pictures for my Aunt and Uncle and wanted to see my other two cousins that happened to be in town. I’d share their pictures but they are top secret until they choose their Christmas card image. :)
Back on the road I headed back to Kimball (3 hours) for the PRCA rodeo. I dropped by my house to see my family and see my husband who had come in a couple of hours earlier from Georgia. It was SO great to see him.. and minutes later we were in the car and off to Kimball for the rodeo. We arrived just in time to see the Mutton Bustin’ (where little kids ride sheep for as long as they can hold on!)
This was the last brave soul to ride and he took a different approach to riding.. and it won him a brand new pair of Justin Boots!
Yea- I think I’d have the same face if I were on top of a buckin’ bronc.
In all the rodeos I’ve seen over the years I’ve never seen a clown be brave enough to ride a bronc. I didn’t think he was serious until he climbed on. This was a real bronc out of the chute- a real PRCA bronc. He rode the full 8 second and then some..
The Pickup men came by to help him off and the guy kinda missed so he took a tumble to the ground and nearly lost his HEAD to the other guy traveling at full speed right behind his partner. “Clown survives the bronc but falls to the pickup man” was nearly in the headlines Saturday morning. Phew!
We traveled to Scottsbluff after the rodeo to find a hotel and booked one of the last rooms available in the panhandle (thanks to the big Sturgis Bike Rally). Minutes after we walked into the room we realized why the room was such a great deal as a train passed by blowing it’s horn. Yep- this was going to be another very restful night! ;)
Sunday morning I went out to an old house to capture images for my sister, Tashonna’s senior pictures. It’s a pretty sweet location and I’m sure carries a lot of history. The house was most likely from the early to mid 1900′s. It’ll fall to the ground soon but for now provided such a sweet backdrop for some amazing images. She’s beautiful!
I love this next picture. She was walking back to the car with her saddle and I happen to catch her readjusting her hat.
Beautiful.
Sunday afternoon we headed to Chadron (2.5 hours north) to meet Megan and do a senior session for her. I’m so excited to share her pictures with you tomorrow. Another beautiful girl!
Here’s a teaser of so many more to come…
3 comments