Off to the rodeo in Tetonia

As in many places around the country, rodeo is a proud tradition that is still thriving here in Idaho. We hadn't been to one in a few years, so when our neighbor invited us to come and watch her compete in the local high school rodeo circuit up in Tetonia, we were more than happy to go!

Hmm... before I go further, I guess I should stop here to offer a fair and kindly warning to anyone visiting my blog ~ if you are easily offended by American traditions such as rodeos or hunting, you may want to skip some portions of this and future posts! ;)

With that said, Tetonia isn't far from where we live and as you can see, it is an absolutely beautiful place with incredible views of the Grand Tetons:

When we got to the rodeo grounds, our neighbors had saved us the best spot in the whole place, all the way in the back, so we had a bit of privacy as well as some pretty great views out of our camper windows from all sides.

I'm not sure which is my favorite view; the rodeo horses to the west...

Or the Tetons to the east...

Either way, it was a VERY nice spot to camp in and I'd love to go back once the trees fill in.

Before we walked over to watch the rodeo action, I took a few minutes to take some photos of nearby scenery, including this cute little dry creek bed:

And something I personally always love to see, a rusty old piece of farm equipment:

To my surprise, some fellow campers and rodeo participants nearby us had one of my all time favorite wild animals as a pet, and I got to spend time playing with him, which was awesome:

He was such a character!!

We came up later in the day, so we didn't make it in time to watch every event, but the good thing was that we didn't miss our favorite ones which included:

Bronc riding...

Barrel racing (of course we rooted for our favorite barrel racer, who did quite well I might add!)...

And my personal favorite, bull riding!! Unfortunately the pictures I took were a bit blurry due to the fast action of the bulls, but I was lucky enough to get the best ride of the night on video to share with you:

After the rodeo, we lit a campfire and a lot of the cowgirls and cowboys made their way over in our direction, and we stayed up well past midnight just enjoying the company and conversation.

Overall, it was a really good time and we are so lucky to have such great friends and neighbors to spend time with!!

Needless to say, I could SERIOUSLY get addicted to waking up to this view every morning:

Chelle B.

Happy Mother's Day To Me!!

Well it is officially spring here, and everything is in bloom and best of all, everywhere you look, there are babies of all kinds in all the fields!!

Of course, just as things are getting beautiful, I get the flu but I am finally feeling better so this week we are planning on heading out for a few days of camping and I promise I will get some pictures of the beautiful spring wildflowers, and hopefully a few shots of some wildlife, too!

Until then, I thought I would show off the newest not-so-wild life addition to my own backyard. :)

After visiting a good friend of ours and fawning over their mares and foals last year in Montana, I made an innocent comment about how nice it would be to have a baby in OUR field, and finally, last week my hubby decided to surprise me with the news that we could buy our own mare and foal.

We chose these two:

Believe me, I have never been so surprised in my life, as he has always expressed doubt about all the work involved with raising a young horse!

Lucky for me that he changed his mind, though. :)

The momma, Missy, is a 10 year old APHA (American Paint Horse Association) registered mare, and is well broke and just as sweet as can be.

We named the colt Hobo, and as you can imagine, it was love at first sight when I saw him:

He is actually very well behaved for as young as he is, but of course his original owner handled him from birth which helps a lot so he already let's us halter him and play with his feet.

We spend as much time as we can right now interacting with him to make sure we curb any bad habits that might arise and get him used to all the handling he will get once he is full grown.

Right now, 90% of our time is spent just sitting in the field, watching him do this:

Not that we mind watching him sleep, because whatever he is doing makes us all go "awwww!" right now hehe.

He comes from such great bloodlines and I can't wait to see how he turns out after he is grown and trained, but until then I am eating up every minute that I can while he is still little:

Yep, I am definitely in love!!

This was the best present I've ever gotten.

:)

Chelle B.