My Husband - The Announcer!

As you all know my husband Ben is a team roping and rodeo announcer! That is how we met - he announcing and me as a secretary at the USTRC Finals. I am quite proud of all of his accomplishments. He has announced numerous rodeos including pro rodeos, ammys and college rodeos. He also has announced the USTRC finals for many years.

Now announcing a team roping can be quite boring and even though he does his best to make it exciting - it is what it is - a team roping. But on the other hand I hope sometime you get to see him in action at a rodeo! He does an amazing job! I know this is pretty much a bragging blog but most of you that read this probably will never get to see him in action so I wanted to post a few pictures and a video of his "famous" dancing!! I hope you enjoy and just know I brag because I am So Proud of him!

Relaxing in Alpine

A couple of weeks ago I got the chance to go with Ben and his sister Brandi down to Alpine, TX. They were announcing and doing the music for the college rodeo (Sul Ross State University) and I tagged along for the ride. I had gone down there last year and absolutely loved it.

It is on the edge of the Big Bend National Park and someday I want to go on down through there. This is the only place in Texas where I have found somewhat mountains. No they are not the Rockies but they are better than the "bumps" of Stephenville. I forget how much I miss the mountains until I wake up and see the sun rise over them or watch a sunset with the mountains in the distance.

We spent 2 1/2 days down there. Along with the rodeo and just hanging out we also went and watched the Marfa lights. They are pretty neat and sure make me wonder about the whole alien theory. Noone can explain them and they are almost hypnotic to watch. If you ever get a chance to go down there make sure you check them out - they are worth the stop!

The town of Alpine is like Park City only stuck in the middle of nowhere. It is a charming town full of interesting shops. Brandi and I did a little window shopping. The only thing strange about down there is the amount of border patrol vehicles. I guess I just never get close to the border to see them that often but in Alpine they were everywhere. It is such a different way of life when you get down there with the border problems and that part I am really not very comfortable with.

Here are a couple of scenery photos. I hope you enjoy and if you are looking for an interesting place to visit put Alpine, Tx on your map! I would highly recommend it!!!

And the winners are....K Bar!!!

Yes it is that time of year again for the Odessa Ranch Rodeo. As usual Ben entered the KBar Ranch with his dad, Dane Driver, Drew Forte and Ethan Cory. They had a great time and won it again for the second year in a row!! Below are some of the pics - I was the filmer and so I didn't have as much time to take still pics but these turned out alright.

Oh by the way check out the shirts - that is courtesy of late nights trying to figure out iron transfers! You wouldn't think it would be hard to use iron on transfers on black shirts but believe me! I spent three days or should I say nights trying to get them to work. After finally figuring them out we took the shirts to the cleaners and they faded so they had that "vintage" look but they worked!!!

Ben carrying the American Flag

Drew, Ethan and Bob checking out the competition

Ben getting ready to go rope a goat!

Ben helping flank a horse

The Winners (l to r Ethan Cory, Dane Driver, Jordan Driver, Drew Forte, Bob Clements and Ben Clements)

I am proud of my husband!

Visit to Utah

I know it has been forever since I updated my blog. I have the usual excuse of being busy and I have just put it off. My mom finally said when are you going to update your blog - I keep checking and there is never anything new on it. Well that kind of lit my fire and so here goes. The summer was a busy one and so instead of trying to catch up on everything I thought I would write a little about my trip to Utah in Sept.

I was lucky enough to be able to go home to Utah for a couple of weeks in Sept and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. As usual my mom and I had a list of projects to do. So I was busy painting for her, riding my horse with Carolee and visiting with friends!

We painted Jade's room - hung window molding and pretty much gave his room a facelift. I wish I had pics but it turned out pretty cute. As with everytime I visit there just doesn't seem to be enough time to get everything done!

I also got my mare Barbie Doll in. She has been turned out for about 3 years and I keep craving to run some barrels in Texas so I decided to try her. I just want to thank Carolee for all of her help with Barb. We rode together everyday we could and Barb was working great when I left. I sent her back to Texas and I am excited to start running barrels again.

I also was able to go to dinner one night with Laurel, Steph and Saundra. Steph is having twins and so we had to get a pic together. I think she looks great in this pic because she was due at any time. Needless to say she has now had her twins - Teague and Taya! Congrats to Steph and Coby - I am so excited for you guys to start your family.

Of course I have to post a pic of my favorite niece. She loves to wear everyone's shoes around and so here she is in my moms Sunday shoes. Check out those blue eyes!!! She has her Grandpa's eyes!

For all of you that I was able to see - it was great to catch up and those of you I missed - hopefully I will see you next time because you know me I can only take Texas for a couple of months before I am ready to head back to Utah for a few days and catch up with my family and friends and breath that sweet mountain air!!!

Before I end this I have to tell you that the trip back to Texas was horrible!!! We took off from SLC on time but since there has been monsoon weather in Texas they closed DFW and we had to land at Wichita Falls and hang out there for about 5 hours until they reopened DFW! It was a long ride home! For the first week of being back to Texas it did nothing but rain - if you can believe this we measured over 12 1/2 inches of rain in one week!! Now that is crazy! Everything is so green now because either the grass is green or the mold is green hard to tell the difference sometimes! LOL

I will try to be a little better on blogging so stay tuned and I will post more in a few days!!

Happy 4th of July!

Well I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July! We are truly blessed to live in such a great nation and have the freedoms that we have. I was going through my pics, trying to find one to post that fit the holiday and the best I could come up with is one Lex took at Yankee stadium when he was in New York. I mean come on what's more American than the New York Yankees.

These pics were taken a couple of years ago when Lisa was pregnant with Tess!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!

Charlee's Antics

I wanted to post a few pics of Ben and I and our dog Charlee. She has been so fun to have. She just keeps growing - every time I look at her I swear she grows 2 more inches. Ben's mom Melinda says she has size Large paws but we love her anyway. Every morning she is Ben's companion to go feed and although her and the goats still don't love each other, they are starting to feel mutual respect. This might be because she is almost big enough to look them straight in the eye.

She continually makes us laugh. Last weekend we bought her a pool because it has started to get pretty hot. Well you should see her jump in! It's like a polar bear doing a belly flop. There is no fear. I tried to sneak and take a couple of pics so you could enjoy.

This spring I always plant flowers and since this spring we put in an actual garden I couldn't wait to fill the flower beds around our house with various flowers. Well I forgot I have a puppy and what a Digger Dog she is. So needless to say I gave up on most of the flowers and my dog has a great time digging holes. Hopefully by next year she will have outgrown this phase!

Now isn't that the face of a little angel...more like trouble. I will keep you posted on more of Charlee's stories - I am sure she will just keep on entertaining us!

Destination - Destin, Florida

Well it was that time of year again and Ben and I were off to the Florida Panhandle Championships (Team Roping) in Marianna. Again this year we went a couple of days early to enjoy the beach and just hang out. We had a great time.

Ben - On the phone as usual...

We flew in early Wed. morning to Pensacola and then headed down the beach to our favorite place - Destin Beach and the Holiday Inn. This is our favorite hotel there - it has beach access along with a great pool, sauna's, hot tubs ect. As soon as we got there we put on our bathing suits and headed down to the guy that rents the beach umbrellas and chairs and claimed our spot on the white sandy beach. It was so nice to just chill - we basically swam in the ocean, took a nap, read a book and swam some more! It was AWESOME! That night we went to a restaurant a friend suggested - AJ's! It was great! Ben of course had fried shrimp and I had some kind of amazing white fish stuffed with crab - yes I could have foundered on it!

Enjoying the Umbrella Chairs!

AJ's - What a place!

Look close and you can see the dolphin fin - no it isn't a shark!

As some of you know since you got our text messages - outside the restaurant was a air brush tatoo place and so we decided to see how we would look with tats - I don't think they are me but it was fun to see and they were gone by Thurs night.

My Tat!

The next day we hit the beach again and then that afternoon headed to Marianna. We stopped by our favorite place in Panama City - Sharky's for a little salad and to watch the sun set. The same singer was there from last year and he was still fun to listen to.

On to the roping - we finally made it to Marianna late Thurs night and enjoyed working with Jeff and Gwen Motes and family for the Florida Panhandle Classic. It was a great roping - Ben even roped a little but didn't end up getting anything done. Sunday afternoon rolled around and the roping was over so we headed back to Destin Beach for one last swim before flying out the next morning.

Ben Soaking up the last of the Sun and Sand before we head home!

All in all it was a great trip - Ben and I definetly have plans for someday having a condo on Destin Beach (if we ever hit the lottery :)). Thanks so much for everyone taking care of our animals we appreciate it so much! It was a much needed mini-vacation!