Sunday, July 27, 2008

On Sunday morning we went on a different adventure. We packed the car and headed to Cheyenne Wyoming! It is only 1 1/2 hours from Denver and we could not pass up the chance to visit another state, a capital city and....the country's largest outdoor rodeo called "Frontier Days." It was a new experience for all of us. If you have ever been to a county or state fair you have experienced something like this. But unless you have spent much time in cowboy country like Wyoming, you probably have not seen as many people in jeans, boots, long-sleeved checkered shirts with metal buttons and cowboy hats. Did I mention that it was 95+ degrees? Mommy and Daddy did not fit in with their beige shorts and short-sleeved tops. Luckily, I fit in no matter what I wear. And I even wore my hat for a little while because it was so hot and sunny. No, it was not a cowboy hat.

We opted not to enjoy the full turkey leg but we did have some fine barbeque and baked beans (that tasted more like chili which Daddy does not like). We figured the "baked beans" were left over from the chili cook off from the day before. We were sitting right by the "mechanical bull," a cow-looking toy that moved in all directions. I had such a good time watching boys in cowboy hats (and a little girl who was a bit bigger than me) ride it and then fall off, then everyone cheered. It made me question the toy horses we see at the grocery store though, no one cheers and no one falls off of those. I will have to look more closely next time we go shopping. After we watched this interesting "fall off" toy, we walked through the mass of cowboy hats, long-sleeved shirts and jeans. On the way out we posed for a funny picture behind some bars in a wall. Mommy and Daddy called it a "jail." I wonder if jail is a fun place because they thought it was neat for us to go in and take a picture.

By that time I was pretty tired! I did not fall asleep in the car right away so we stopped in Fort Collins to see Colorado State. It was a pretty quiet town on a Sunday, maybe this is why it is listed as one of the best small towns to live in one of Daddy's magazines. Anyway, it was much different than the Frontier Days we had just visited. Before we found our way to the cool historic downtown area (like the one in Boulder), I said I had enough so we drove back. You will have that sometimes, won't you.

You'll never guess what we did when we got back to the hotel! I went swimming for the very first time. Mommy walked right in the pool with me and I loved it. I loved it so much that I did not want to get out. There was another family in the pool with a 4 year old and a 6 month old. They were moving from Chicago to live here (not in the hotel, in a house near here). Of course Mommy started talking to them and found out that their mommy (Jen Riser) grew up in Dayton and knew our friends Kristy and Mollie. How fun that we were in a whole new state (Colorado) and met someone from our state (Ohio, if you did not remember). We all splashed and played in the pool while Daddy made steaks on the grill. Oh yeah, Daddy and Mommy decided that because it is not very fun for me to eat out that we would eat in as much as possible, so tonight they had steaks. They had corn on the cob and we all shared cheesy broccoli too. They drank their special wine that Daddy bought at the real alcohol store too. Like they always do, they talked about what a fine meal they had and how much it would cost if they ate out. And since I don't like to eat out that much, now they talk about how much more they can enjoy the meal.

It was a very good day, including a new state and a new experience of swimming!