That Famous Preston Night Rodeo and Ariel's got mad skills with a chop saw

For real, the rodeo in Preston is called that. Isn't that awesome?
So Sam's from a small town called Franklin. Population: 643, according to google. Pretty tiny. But just north of Franklin is another-small-but-slightly-larger town, called Preston. This is where Sam went to high school, where they buy their groceries, etc. etc.

Anyway, at the end of July we went up to Sam's hometown for the 'That Famous Preston Night Rodeo' event. I think it's kind of a tradition for a ton of people who were raised there to come back for it every year, and also kind of have a reunion with others. That's the impression I got, anyway. So that's exactly what we did!

Worst part, though? Totally forgot my camera at the actual rodeo. And the parade. Lameeeee.

So here's what I'll do: show pictures of what I DID capture...and then improvise the ending.

Jori has taken a serious liking to dolls. Not with my coaxing at all. It's adorable.

 Seriously! Precious!!!

 I'm somehow related to Casper Merrill...I think he was probably one of the many sons of Marriner Wood Merrill, who had eight wives. I'm a descendant from his...I don't know which number wife, but her name was Elna. ? He's my great-great-grandfather. Ok. P.S. I hate how I look trying to display things, don't judge.

 

 One of the things we did while there was work on  taking apart one of Darren's old pallets, because I had the idea to make nightstands with pallet wood. Now I'm not positive if we will or not, but still. That was the general idea.

 As my lil bro Dave (on a mish in the Phillippines) would say: like a boss!

 SO precious. Piggie tales with ribbons! (You know those lasted about five minutes.)

And now:


*Lovely photo of our good friends James, Jenna and Ella*

*Lovely photo of Jori walking around holding Sam's hands*

*Photos of the parade, especially the tractors because they made me laugh*

*Lovely photo of our other good friends, Mark and Halsey, at the rodeo*

*Photos of the rodeo*

*Photos of the old man in the row in front of us who dove three rows down and crushed people to catch a T-shirt*

*Photo of the 10 year old girl he crushed to get it, getting the T-shirt from him*



I didn't make this post to talk about this but as a side note I will: I've really liked that Sam is from a small town, because it's opened my eyes a little bit. I think I used to kind of laugh at really small towns almost-I don't know why, maybe because I just couldn't imagine living in such a tiny place. But where Sam's parents live is seriously beautiful. Like incredibly so. And they still have neighbors (just not in a block, like in Provo-they each have their own land, but it only takes 40 seconds to zip over), and it's not like they have to drive for hours to reach a grocery store. I don't know... this one's hard to explain. It's probably a conceited thing. Anyway, I don't feel that way anymore is my point. I don't think I ever meant  to but it was kind of there, but not so much with Franklin anymore.
That was random. Um. the end

Women's day out

If you don't already know, I am the only girl in my family with five brothers, four of whom are older and married. I've usually resented (sometimes willingly, other times secretly) all the 'Men only' activities my brothers and dad would take part in at different times growing up, and now as adults (with Sam included). In their defense, Men's days are not very frequent. But I envied them: I wanted a day that was just packed to the brim with entertainment! Such days usually include golfing, going out to a 'manly' action movie, and gorging themselves with too much food at a delicious restaurant like Tucanos. One such day was August 4th...

...but a week later we had a Women's day out!! Woo hoo! These are even LESS frequent, since most husbands are too busy with work the majority of the time to be able to coordinate with all of them a time when women could all get together (because it's not really a day off if we still have to take care of the kids...). But my sis-in-law Britany and her daughter Evie were in town (my brother Dan, her husband, had to spend the past seven and next two weeks in Texas because of the Army) and since they live in Virginia, we couldn't pass up the chance! So we...

Got pedicures: 

 Went out for an early dinner at P.F. Changs...

 Went bowling...(I won, barely)

...and finished off the night with a game of Last Word at my parents house. All in all, a great women's day out!!! :)

The day Sam said ta-ta, textbooks!

That's what he should have said, at least. I think "ta-ta" is an under-utilized farewell.

Sam graduated from BYU with a Bachelor's in Linguistics, Minor's in TESOL on August 10th!!! I'm so proud of him. :)

fail

Wow, 5 updates, like 80 pictures, and 0 comments. Fail blog readers, fail.