Golf, Fishing, Nature, Fireworks & a Rodeo in 1 Weekend?

(I will post more pictures later on FlickR, I have a lot!)

Only with Joe do you do all this in one weekend. Here is the recap...we left Thursday night for Fish Lake packed tight in the truck with JP, Stephani, Joe, Ozzy and me inside the cab of the truck. In the truck bed you found: Bailey & Molly in one kennel, 2 sets of golf clubs, a cooler loaded with food, several containers full of linens for the cabin, 4 fridge packs of Diet Cokes, Gatorade...you are getting the idea. It looked as if we were staying for the summer instead of a 3 day weekend.

Joe, JP & Charlie went fishing for the evening after we unpacked.

The morning of the 4th, the boys headed to golf at Richfield with Charlie. We stayed behind, relaxed and walked the dogs with Joyce.

Then when they returned all 6 of us piled into the truck and headed to the parade in Salina. We got there as the parade started and watched it in front of Mom's Cafe on the corner of State and Main. After JP had his fill of candy and the parade ended, we went into Mom's for dinner. The two most important things to do when eating there are to #1 come hungry, #2 order a scone.

After dinner, we fit a lot tighter in the backseat (4 of us since the front has 2 bucket seats). We drove around the town to where Charlie went dove hunting this last year and to the elk farm.

We went to the Salina Rodeo. It wasn't my first rodeo...it had just been a while since I had been to one. I forgot a few things like: wearing my cowboy hat and really just how amusing they are to watch if you can forget how inhumane the whole thing is. It literally looked like everyone made it from Sevier County. I wish I had taken a picture of the hillside after everyone arrived. In the middle of the rodeo, there was a guy behind us who caught a little snake. Stephani and I were very happy that he caught it before it got to our bench. We were all VERY happy that it wasn't a rattler.

After the rodeo there were the best fireworks I think I have ever seen for the 4th or 24th. They were right above us, huge and went on and on! Our necks were hurting from craning up for so long.

Saturday morning we all slept in, it was delightful! We loaded up the truck with what looked like a weekend camping trip, food, chairs, all 3 dogs, then all 6 of us inside. We went for a hike until an afternoon rain storm pushed us back to the truck. We drove around exploring and looking for big game. We saw a lot of deer and then elk (I missed getting pictures of the elk).

The rain stopped, Joe and Charlie decided we would set up our dinner camp with a great view. The boys got a fire going and we got out the hot dog sticks and the spread for a fabulous evening dinner. We had an after dinner game drive home.

Sunday morning the boys went fishing again, Stephani and I slept in then relaxed (are you getting the pattern?).

An all around American dream weekend. We are so fortunate for what we have. Thank you to all who serve our country. We are so grateful.