~ July 26th - Day 3 ~

 

 One of today's traditional activities for Frontier Days consists of the Pancake Breakfast at the Depot.  At yesterday's rodeo, they announced what a huge success the breakfast was on Wednesday morning in how they fed over 13,000 people in two hours.  We debated on getting up early to take part in this, but our sleep got the best of us and we decided that it would be too hard and make for too long of day if we went!  So instead of going, we ate a nice continental breakfast at the hotel and got ready for the rodeo.  We did make a quick stop to pick up more treats and the kids thought that the Willie poster at Walmart was worth stopping for, just to grab a photo with this famous guy!

 

 

 

Today, we didn't leave us much time to hang out before the rodeo started.  We did however get to stop and look at the Lane Frost statue this morning.  The kids have watched the movie '8 Seconds' several times this summer, so they were so excited to find out that they were at the same arena where Lane Frost had been and died. 

 

Today's rodeo was, once again, ever good as yesterday's performance.  One thing that did make this rodeo stand out a little more than yesterday was that the Wright brothers from Milford, Utah each rode in today's rodeo.  There is Cody Wright and Jesse Wright that have both rode Saddle Bronc at the NFR and each of them have won the world.  Then their little brother Alex Wright, also rode in today's performance.

 

After another great rodeo, we decided to get in line for the autograph party afterwards.  This gave the kids a chance to go and meet and greet the cowboys that rode in today's performance.  They were all so nice and liked to quiz each of the kids like what event they liked the best.  Trey, of course, told them that he liked to team rope and that he rope on the heeler side.

Another fun thing to do while down on the arena floor was watch them arena turn into a stage.  We all thought it was fun to see these big names of Country artists pull in their big rigs to set up for the evening entertainment.  Tonight's show was Jake Owens opening for Jason Aldean.  Last night was The Band Perry opening for Rascal Flatts.  We didn't do the concert either night, but we now know that it will be a must next trip to the Cheyenne Rodeo.

 

When we finished getting autographs, we walked back through the Old Frontier Village to wait for the 'Behind the Chutes' tour that was supposed to start at five o'clock.  We were there early enough that it gave everyone a chance to eat a treat and relax a bit.  There were volunteers going around and it was fun visiting with them about their different highlights while helping with the rodeo.  It was after five and the tour had not started, when some those volunteers were calmly going around to each group to tell them that we all needed to make our way into the Old West Museum.  I don't think the crowd was moving too fast until they finally said that there is a tornado warning moving towards this area and so we need to quickly go to the museum for cover. So with no hesitation at all, everyone quickly made it to the museum.

  

 

As we were heading into the Museum, McKenna took this picture of the possible tornado.  In real life life, the cloud did appear to be a lot darker than what this picture shows it to be!  Ten minutes after being in the museum, strong winds blew and a hail storm like we had never seen before passed by the museum.  The kids and I were pretty nervous, it was obviously nothing we had ever experienced before in our lifetime.  I was impressed with McKenna, Trey, and Ally as they each came up to me wondering what we could do and if we would be okay, I told them the only thing we can do is stay calm and say a prayer.  All three of them told me that they had already said their prayer, so I knew our Heavenly Father was watching over each of us.  Trey did put a smile on my face when we were talking, he told me, "Mom, I don't want to die, I want to be a World Champion."  He is quite the kid!

However, being stuck in the Old West Museum for over 30 minutes was pretty entertaining.  It was fun to look at some really cool painting, old horse-drawn carriages, as well as old memorabilia from past rodeos.   There was quite a bit of history in the museum, but one thing that the kids caught attention too was the Championship saddles were being displayed in the Old West Museum.  It was fun to see what the winners of each event will receive at the final rodeo on Sunday afternoon.

 

Back in the backroom of the museum is a Kid's Corner.  This gave the kids a chance to relax and get the storm off their mind.  Trey is standing by a real bull fighter barrel that was once used in the Frontier Day rodeo.  McKenna, she found the chalkboard and went to work drawing and being creative.  Ally rode the rocking horse and luckily, Lottie fell asleep so it made it easier on all of us not to worry about her getting into something that shouldn't be touched!

After about a half hour, the storm finally passed over and we were okay to go outside.  It was amazing to everyone the piles of hail stones left by the storm.  The kids, Tyler included, thought it was fun to make snowballs to through back and forth to each other.   Jeremy joked with someone that they should make snow angels!



 

After our tornado scare, we loaded the kids up and decided to head down to the Cheyenne Depot to check out more of the festivities and to see more of the Big Boots.  When we arrived, there was an old western shoot out going on, as well as a band playing for spectators.  We wandered around for some time and was able to get the kids pictures in front of five more of the Big Boots.  What a cute bunch of kids!

 

 

After we left the Depot, we headed back to Laramie.   We grabbed a quick bite to eat at a nice sandwich shop then went back to the hotel so the kids could go swimming.  McKenna and Trey went down to the pool with Tyler, Ashley, Cannon, and Tara, while Jeremy and I stayed back in the room with Lottie and Ally.  It was a fun way for them to finish up our stay.


We will miss Cheyenne, for it is a true cowboy town.