Movin' On

Nephew Joe, with flag in air is the judge for the roping; brother Ron is expounding eloquent on something and there sure were a sea of horses waiting to run.

We finally got everything nipped up; rearranged; stored; amended and checked out. The 4th Annual Elks Team Roping on Oct 25 & 26 was a great hit. It was held in East Pavillion at CAM-PLEX in Gillette, WY. In the connecting building was the annual charity Chili Cookoff.

SIL Bev and Ken waiting for customers.

We had the same slot last year and knew we would probably sell concessions and beverages to them. The teams for the team roping doubled from last year. The Concessions skyrocketed also. I worked in the concession stand Saturday to give Carla, the secretary, a chance to understand roping bookkeeping. Saturday night we had a calcutta and a steak feed.

We left for Casper Monday at noon to finish up work and celebrate an early birthday with KaCe who turns 3 in early November. He is all about Thomas the train so that is the theme this year of everyting including Halloween. We had the boys stay home with us Tuesday so we could spoil'em up good!KaCe and Kiley who is 3 months younger. Little brother is grinning in the background!

Wednesday we headed out to Cheyenne where I toured the Herschler Tunnel where we are going to have lunch for the Legislators in February and met the head of the Wyoming Cultural Division as well as the ED of the Wyoming Cultural Trust. With the details sewed up; Ken and I headed to Colorado Springs - a nice little 4 hours drive. When we got here I went to get a birthday card and some bottled water and got lost. I sure do know the housing development between Academy Road and I-25! LOL fifty times!

We visited with our daughter Lucky and toured the shop she co-owns with two other ladies. It is in Old Colorado City, in the heart of shopping and is an attractive shop. She is turning 40 this monthe so we had to give her a bad time. We leave for Las Vegas, NM early in the morning (about 10ish :) )

2008 Elks Roping

We waited to "go south" until the Elks Roping was over.  By doing this we got into the dreaded word SNOW!!  We got snowed on out at Keith and Jeannette's so came to town and went to the campground across from CAM-PLEX.  Nobody needs us mucking around when the weather is like it is.  It was a LOT of work; but all in all things went well.

Joyce's kitchen crew made some stupendous food.

Lottie - Carla's sister

Some of the bookkeeping crew

Carla, Joyce and company

The beer/liquor sellers are busy.

Heat; Snow; Heat.....................

Whew! What a whirlwind the last few weeks have been. We had been in Casper trying to crawl out from under a "boatload of lemons" that got dumped on us. It took several weeks but we are slowly turning the lemons into lemonade. Too bad the sugar is so expensive though!! :) During the work hiatus we got to spend time with the little grandsons KaCe and Ethan. It is the first time we have been able to just be grandparents. We have one of those blended families where 2nd batch of children are/were younger than some of their nieces/nephews. Anyway, we spoiled them; then sent them inside to the folks. I'm beginning to have a problem with being gone over the Christmas Holidays. Hmmmmmm! Will see where this ends up.

We learned lesson #122 about tank dumping. We were dumping at Casper's Flying J. They don't have water there. Hmmmmmmm! - Yup we realized that it wasn't getting totally empty. Hmmmmm! Exciting was not quite it; but we went to stay at the KOA to get them cleaned good. Hmmmmmmmm! Dear, should the "stuff" be coming out around the pipes??? Hmmmmmm! Gadfly, let's move over the the other dump where there is cement we can hose it down. Quick! Quick! Ahhhhhhhhhh the short little move got it dislodged and we had very little spillage. The lesson is we WON"T be dumping at Flying J any more.

We moved to Gillette the 22nd of September. We went out to our friends the Graves. They are out of town 8 miles. Since we saw them last they have accumulated 5 horses, 3 geese and who know how many chickens.

Jeanette is a County Animal Control Officer, Keith is in methane gas industry, Kayla is a junior in high school and Kyle is in England in the Air Force. Kyle and K.C. were good friends and Kyle has been so kind in keeping up with us. I can't believe that K.C. would have been 20 this year. It has been some blind-siding moments.

It was cool to watch the horses and the antelope wander around the place. There are 13 does and 1 buck. The buck spends his days keeping the gals rounded and chasing the "no account young" buck away. He managed to gather another 10 does around the first of October. Too bad he couldn't manage to keep them. He played "King of the Hill" a lot. Being out that far was so good as I had to plod right along to get everything printed, gathered, collated, etc for the conference in Torrington. Several reams of paper and numerous ink cartridges later I left for Torrington on October 2nd. I motored down the road fat, dumb and happy listening to my books on MP3.

Then I got the call. Ken thought I should go straight to Casper on Sunday, park the pkp and get the license for it. @!#@#! Great! I was running around with no license. Oh well, nothing to do but keep on keeping on. All was well and I made it back to the MH all licensed up.

Went back to Casper on the 9th to deal with more "lemonade" making and to celebrate Ethan's first birthday. Whit had the cake made from cupcakes in a Winnie the Poo theme. Ethan, KaCe and Kiley sure did like those cupcakes. Travis' nephews came over so there were 8 kids there. It snowed Friday night and we managed to get through the roads and back to the MH by 5:30 Saturday night. It blew and snowed until about noon on the 12th.

We moved into Gillette the 13th. We didn't want to be in the way of the builders that came 5 days early to construct some sheds/barns at the Graves'. Next weekend is the Elks Roping (the reason we are STILL in Wyoming) and we need to get ready for it.

YIPPEE!!! Erick and Vanessa are having a girl! Our first Great-grandchild. We will be stopping off and seeing them on our way to New Mexico. Grandma Lori is already buying girls stuff.

Cold, snow and now we had the air conditioner on this afternoon. We must still be in Wyoming. :)