Never A Dull Moment

Finally the week was over (phew!) and Saturday was waiting for us. Devon & Avery joined Ed & Kate for some fishing at Battle Ground Lake (remnant of a Maar volcano) on Saturday morning. Avery told me that she caught the bottom of the lake, and I don't think anyone else did any better.Then it was off to the Washington County Fair & Rodeo in Hillsboro, Oregon on Saturday evening. Avery & I wandered around to see all of the "amimals," milk the pretend cow (and watch the real cows being really milked, too), and eat junk food for dinner (I'm not proud of this, but Avery did eat 1-1/2 bags of cotton candy for dinner, and that's all. Devon had a caramel apple, and I had a slice of cheese pizza and the other half of the cotton candy -- YIKES). Oh well, we only have 2 more fairs/rodeos planned for the rest of the summer . . . . Consequently, when the rodeo was on, Avery was going bananas on a sugar high. I wanted the calf ropers to rope & tie her, for longer than 6 seconds! But she seemed to enjoy the rodeo. She liked the horses in particular, and wasn't all that impressed with the clown -- and neither were we. Or the bull riders -- none made it 8 seconds for a score (but they all paid $100 for the honor of being bucked off so quickly, ouch).

Getting started at the rodeo, the drill team presents the flags (of the sponsors)

Hmmmm, 8 seconds on a horse or bull doesn't sound like very much, thought the rodeo rookies. . . .

Yikes, that's gotta hurt, and that only took about 4 seconds

Here's some Barrel Racing, the ladies' sport (along with the relatively new one, Breakaway Roping). These horses are going fast, and Avery loved them. So fast, my pathetic camera phone couldn't even capture the rider on the white horse's back, and could hardly capture the brown horses at all. I won't forget the real camera next time (it was still packed away with the fishing gear). Team Roping -- one gets the horns, the second gets the back feet -- pretty trickyHere come the drill team ladies again, presenting the draught horse "half-time" show. Avery like the buckskin horse the best

I just liked the look of this picture, taken during the final event -- bull riding. None of the riders made it to 8 seconds last night. Oh well, maybe we'll see some scores at the next one, in Pend Oreille County, Washington.

The sugar high had passed, and the kiddo passed out!

Today we hit the ground running -- at about 10:00am for me (ahhhhh, sleeping in). Devon & Avery got up earlier and built a new (big) shelf in Devon's office, then we all cleaned up and rearranged Avery's room, sorted things out in the duck barn again (still in chaos from the carpenter ant kill at the end of May), and Devon mowed the lawn & cleaned up the yard. Then went over to nana Noma's to help her out a bit. Her new apple tree needed staked, new curtains needed hung, and Avery joined me on the roof to clean out the gutters. She liked being on the roof, climbed the ladder herself (with mom at the top & dad at the bottom), and really only wanted to spray Devon with the hose while she was up there. Finally I had to reclaim the hose and keep going on the gutters, so she decided it was time to head back down to the ground and go rollerskating in nana Noma's garage.

This one was overexposed so I decided to play with it a little bit. Jordan was scoring some snuggles with nana Noma while Avery & I were busy outside

So, we're suitably pooped for a Sunday night, and I haven't even touched a paintbrush for almost a week (although I still have lots to do!) Maybe next weekend, after the duck barn roof is de-mossed. . . .