~ July 25th - Day 2 ~

 

Our game plan for this trip was to take in as much of the festivities as we possible could.  So our first day, our plan was to attend the Grand Parade.  We got up early, grabbed a quick bite to eat, then we headed off to Cheyenne.

The Grand Parade is a long time tradition of the Cheyenne Frontier Day festivities.  With over 100 parade entries, 300 plus horses, and military men and women, it is no wonder that this is something that has been carried on and on for over a century.  There are people from all over the world that take in the sights and sounds of some of the top marching bands and horse-drawn vehicles in the country.  This was purely amazing and loved by all!

 

 

After the parade, we loaded up and headed towards Frontier Park.  Since the rodeo started at noon, we had an hour to roam the park.  Trey and Jeremy were scoping out the cowboy hats at the Boot Barn when McKenna caught their attention to Patrick Smith, who was signing autographs.  We were all pretty excited to see him, get his autograph and the kids picture taken with him.  Patrick Smith is a World Champion Team Roper, he is the heeler for Trevor Brazile.  So to the kids, he is pretty important and so fun for them to see him in person!

{Trey and Patrick Smith}

{Allyson, Patrick Smith & McKenna}

 



After getting Patrick's autograph, Trey saw two guys in their twenties, roping a dummy.  Jeremy told Trey that he should to go ask them if he could rope.  You could see a little hesitation in their eyes as they looked at this punk looking kids wearing shorts, balls shoes, and flat brim hat wanting to rope.  One of the boys agreed to let Trey rope with them.  It was pretty funny how they handed the rope to him, handled it like Trey had never held a rope before.  Once Trey took control of the rope and fixed his loop, he swung a loop or two and caught the head of the dummy.  Those guys were pretty surprised, so  Jeremy told them to turn one for him, and with no hesitation,  Trey caught two heals.  Those two kids were shocked that Trey was as good as he is.  One of the boys handed his buddy his phone so he could have picture of him and this nine year old kids roping together.   They both wanted Trey to come back and rope the dummy with them once the rodeo was over.

"Now that is a good trap!"

Trey's exact words when he saw this picture!

 



It was now time for the rodeo to start.  We headed towards the opening gate, wandered past thousands of people and to our seats we went.

 

"Daddy of Em' All"

A cowboy tradition since 1897.



This is our view of the grand stands across from where we were sitting.  Quite an amazing site, the arena is huge and there are people everywhere.  We by far had the very best seats in the house, we were center so we could see the bucking shoots really good, as well as the boxes where the ropers came out from. 

There were cowboys / cowgirls riding into today's performance that we had seen at prior NFR's, cowboys like Trevor Brazile, Luke Branquino, and Wes Stevenson, to name a few. 

 

The rodeo was awesome!  It was three and half hours of pure entertainment.  However, three hours is a long time for these three little girls.  Tyler, Ashley, and I ended up at the south section of seating to let these three run loose.  It ended working great for us, this way we could watch the rodeo and let the girls run, climb, and chase each other on the bleachers without bugging anyone else. 

 

 

 

Once the rodeo was over, Trey wanted to head right to the mechanical bull that he saw outside the arena. He was so excited and anxious for his chance to ride the bull.  He rode really well, that was until he got really dizzy and decided to just fall of the bull. 

 

After Trey rode the mechanical bull, we rushed off back into the arena to catch the tail end of the autograph party.  Most of the cowboys had left the arena, but we were able to catch a lot of the Rodeo Queens that we present for the rodeo.  The autographs that they were able to get were from Miss Rodeo America, Miss Rodeo Wyoming, Miss 

 

At this point in our afternoon, everyone was tired and hungry.  We walked back to the car, found a piece of grass to sit on and ate a little picnic.  This was worth its weight in gold, everyone, especially the kids seemed to do so much better after we sat  for a while.  Because after hanging out for a while, we headed back to the Frontier Park to see the Old Frontier Town and the Indian Village. 

 

The Old Frontier Town is a step back in time to celebrate Cheyenne's western heritage.  As you walk through this town, you see merchants selling tack, home décor, and food.  Past the Old Frontier Town is the Old West Museum, here the kids spotted one of Cheyenne's Big Boots.  Cheyenne is commonly known for their nineteen big boots placed randomly throughout the town of Cheyenne.  This is the first one we spotted, so we caught some cute pictures of the kids sitting on this boot. 

 

 

Another cool thing about the Frontier Park are all the cool statues surrounding the arena.   A lot of them represent and honor those cowboys and livestock that made what the Cheyenne Rodeo is today.

 

This is a cool picture McKenna took, statue represents Lane Frost with an Air Force jet flying over.  The Air Force has a base right here in Cheyenne so they constantly had jets flying over most of the festivities.  This particular jet was flying really low, which was so awesome to see this huge jet fly above us so close, yet at the same time, it was really really loud!

Another one of Cheyenne's Frontier Days tradition is the Native American Indian Village.  We walked inside the village only to find a Native American Indians dancing, chanting, and beating drums.  We ended up strolling through the vendors set up to sell Indian decor, jewelry, and other merchandise.  The girls clued right in to the beaded necklaces with small Indian girls charms.  All the girls looked so cute showing off their fun finds.  Trey and Cannon went right to the wooden guns and knives.  Trey picked out a wooden pistol and Cannon got the sword. 

 

There was a tee pee set up for display, so the kids had a chance to walk in and around this Indian artifact.  However, they were more impressed that the other teepee's set up were the actual places that the Indians performing stayed there during the Frontier day celebration. 

 

After a little shopping, we did spend a few minutes watching the Indians and dancing.  It was fun to see the different outfits and the fancy head dresses that each Indian wore.  Trey and Allyson made a new Indian friend.  This cute little girl's name is Chloe, she was willing to let Jeremy snap this cute picture of them.  Ally was pretty impressed by her new little friend!



 

We ended up leaving the Indian Village and headed back to the car.  Rather than sticking around in Cheyenne for dinner, we headed back to Laramie for a bite to eat.  Everyone was pretty wore out after this fun day, so we called it a night and went to bed.  As usual, everyone was looking forward to our fun day tomorrow!