~ National Finals Rodeo 2012 ~

{Jeremy and Marlo}

Next to Christmas, the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas is one of Jeremy and I's favorite time of year.  

In the fourteen years of marriage, we have only missed two years of not being there.  

We missed 2003, the year Trey was born and 2011 when we were in the middle of building our house.  

This year we were able to go down the first three nights of the rodeo.  Luckily for me, one of the nights was my 36th birthday, which made for a great way to finish out a fun day. 

On Thursday, December 6th, we left Gunnison and met Rod and JoAnn for lunch at Red Lobster in St. George, then drove to Vegas where we checked in our room and then headed to the Rodeo.  Afterwards we went back to the casino where we played roulette and ate some ice cream.  Friday morning, we got up and ate breakfast at Einsteins and then JoAnn and I went shopping and Rod and Jeremy went and hit most of the Cowboy Christmas'.  I was able to get a lot of shopping done that day, hit some good sales and bought some really cute clothes for the kids.  Later that day, we met up with Jeremy and Rod and went to Macaroni Grill for my birthday dinner.   We had a fun time at the Rodeo, afterwards, we went to Cold Stone for some delicious ice cream.  Saturday morning, Jeremy and I got up and went to the Cowboy Christmas at the MGM Grand and then the one at the Hilton.  I was excited when we went to the Hilton, we timed it just right to get Trevor Brazile's autograph.   Trey has idolized Trevor Brazile for the last while, so to meet up with him and get his autograph for the kids was pretty cool.  This year Trevor Brazile won his 9th year in a row as the All Around World Champion, a title that Trey dreams of holding someday too!   Later on that day, we went to Applebee's for dinner and then back to our final night of the Rodeo.  

{Trevor Brazile signing autographs.}

{Marlo, Trevor Brazile, and Jeremy}

This year the NFR has been so fun to watch.  There are several cowboys from Utah, namely Jake, Jesse, and Cody Wright, that are fun to cheer for.  Plus, I like Fred Whitfield, and since this is his last year calf roping, it was fun to watch him rope.  It is crazy that Jeremy and I look forward to going to the NFR for months prior to going and then once we are there, those three nights just seem to fly bye.  Even when we are home, we end up watching the remaining last seven nights.  We do love the NFR!