So as I promised this post will have pictures of the Ranch Rodeo, but before that I have to tell you about our “Pet”. In a previous post in June I mentioned our friend who lives in the driver’s side mirror of my car. Butters is what Munchkin named him. He’s a friend of an eight-legged variety. Obviously, he’s been there a while if I first posted about him in June. Almost every morning he makes a web from the mirror to the car window. Sometimes there are small mosquitoes that became his morning meal.

Well….most mornings I take Munchkin to school and Butters is usually hanging out on his web or behind the mirror doing whatever it is that spiders do when they are in their homes. We get halfway to school and he crawls out and begins taking down his web. Now, I’ve never seen a spider take down their web. This spider will climb up the main lines and actually disconnect the interconnecting lines and roll them into a ball that he carries behind the mirror. He will do this no matter if I’m going 20 mph or 45 mph. I tell you he’s either crazy or a daredevil. Since he’s been living there so long and he’s now a small part of our family, I have started taking the web down if I plan on going outside the neighborhood where I would drive faster. I don’t want him falling off. He’s interesting and frankly, Munchkin likes him. I do, too. For a while there in August, I didn’t see him very often, but now that it’s getting cooler he comes out almost every day.

So here’s what he looks like.

And this is him actually taking down some of his web.

Now that I’ve given some of you the heebie jeebies, let’s move on to the Chisholm Trail Ranch Rodeo pictures. If you haven’t gone, I do suggest you go because it is a good time. And El Patron actually served wine and margaritas! I stuck with water, but they were tempting.

Mugging: Contestants wrestle a cow to the ground and tie three legs together to stay bound for 6 seconds.

Roping is a big part of every event.

The horses know their jobs.

Wild cow milking: The cowboys must catch a wild cow and milk it into a beer bottle.

The final event was roping a cow and loading it into a trailer. This was funny because after the cow was in the trailer, the cowboys had to get into the truck (2 in the bed and 2 in the cab). There was honking, and one team even squeezed all 4 teammates into the cab.

Like I said, it was fun and if you have a chance to go to a ranch rodeo, I highly recommend it.

So last weekend was a busy weekend. Saturday Munchkin and I went to the Chisholm Trail Cattle Drive. After watching the longhorns lope up and down the river bank, we headed over to the rodeo arena for the Ranch Rodeo. Quite an interesting and entertaining event, if I do say so. There was mugging, branding, wild cow milking and corralling. She laughed, I laughed. At first I suggested that our seats were not the best. (We were sitting front row just off of center arena.) I was afraid that the action would be closer to the other end of the arena. Boy was I wrong. There were cows and cowboys and horses scattering all around right in front of us. I did take pictures and will post some shortly.

The next day after work, I went to photograph a dear friend’s new granddaughter.  It was my first newborn session, so I was extremely nervous. I had everything from a space heater to a bean bag to fabric. I even made a hat and some cocoons. Little Miss A was such a sweet baby. She slept most of the time. The only time she got upset was because I didn’t let her fall deep enough back into sleep before posing her. So we took a few minutes and she drifted off. I got some great shots and had a super hard time deciding on the sneak peek for this one. Even though it’s not really a sneak because her gallery is already up. Thank you so much GG for sharing your new little diva granddaughter with me.

Here she is in all her sweetness.

In this time of low employment and hard economic times, we could all use a little hope. We all have that one person who inspires us to wake up the next morning and trudge through it all. That one person who we have seen fall, but have also seen them get back up and make the best of any situation. That one person who smiles and dusts himself off when others would crumble. That one person who embodies the word courage in a world of fear. A beacon in what seems like nothing but darkness. Now is the time to highlight the goodness of those special people. Their stories may not only inspire you, but help inspire others as well. We can all use a “feel good” story to give us hope.

There are single parents who struggle everyday. There are cancer survivors, young and old. There are selfless volunteers. These people are our best friends, old friends, new friends, husbands, wives, partners, children, co-workers, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews…anyone! Often, these people do not take time for themselves. Why not give them the give of a photosession? A chance to focus on themselves.

There is a little over a week left to make your nomination for our Time to Shine contest. Entries will be reviewed and the winner will receive their own free photosession to highlight, well,…..Them. He/she will also receive free prints from their session (Basic package). If your noiminee is selected, you are eligible for 50% off your own session fee.

Please take 5-10 minutes to head over to the submission form and let the world know how much this person means to you.