12 Day Road Trip: Day 1: Rod-e-O-NO!

Day 1 was all about Family and the WYO Rodeo.

Since I met Keith, 12 whole years ago, I have heard about the infamous WYO Rodeo.  From Keith, to his family to friends who have lived in Sheridan or driven through Sheridan, the WYO Rodeo was famous.  Yet... we have never been together.

As luck would have it, our 12 Day Road Trip aligned perfectly with the WYO Rodeo.

Can I get a Giddy-up and Yee-HAW?!!

First up was some time with our family.

Backing up a bit, within minutes of arriving at Nana and Papas house the night before (Day 0), Kellan was dinner for a few thirsty mosquito's.  They love him!  We noticed that he had a bite above his right eye and on Saturday morning his eye was a bit swollen.  Poor Buddy :(  

That didn't slow him down one bit though.  Once his cousins arrived, he was ready for action and Daddy snuggles with his cousin Hailey.

Oliver isn't one to miss the action, so he snuggled in too.

The kids always love exploring and searching for golf balls in Nana and Papas "wood".

Papa went out to help with the golf ball search and he came out with a couple of little shadows.

It was such a gorgeous day in Sheridan.

When we go to Sheridan in July, we like to take a family photo in Nana and Papa's gorgeous yard.  You'll see them lined up on the side of the blog from each year.

Daddy and his boys lined up for Mama's alignment shot before handing over the camera to Aunt Stephanie.

Hey, Hey, the Ham Fam's here!

They may be a bit silly and wiggly, but they are all here!

While we enjoyed the morning and the fresh Wyoming breeze, Oliver had his hat and he was ready for the Rodeo.

Oliver busted out his 12 Day Road Trip journal and made a few entries along side his cousin Lauren.

Kellan worked on his journal as well.

Oliver is already proving to be quite a detailed artist.

Kellan is still pondering what kind of artist he will be and that's perfectly fantastic.

We love enjoying Nana and Papa's patio.

Papa even got a new hat to wear with the boys at the WYO Rodeo.  He too was ready to go early.

That afternoon, we opted for some lunch at one of Keith and Brian's (Keith's brother) favorite locations, Sandfords.

They didn't have a table big enough for all of us, so the kids got their very own table.

Lauren, Kaden, Kellan, Oliver and Hailey

Kellan was quite sleepy at lunch time and even though we were supposed to go meet up with Mommy's cousin who lives in town, we decided that since we had a long night ahead of us, Kellan should lay down for a nap.  We took Kellan back to Nana and Papa's for a nap.  As we were ready to leave for the rodeo 3 hours later, I woke Kellan up to leave and found him with his eye completely swollen shut.  He didn't seem to notice, but I sure did.  Keith was at Brian's house so as I was frantically trying to call him, Stephanie was calling me.  All I could get out was that Keith had to come home RIGHT NOW!  Needless to say, I can handle a lot but I can't handle medical situations very well.

A short time later we were in the ER with this happy guy.

He didn't seem to notice that anything was wrong, but you can definitely see that something isn't right.

We sent Oliver to the rodeo with Nana and the rest of the family with instructions to buy him whatever he wanted to eat of drink.  We had promised him a smorgasbord in Charlottes Web fashion and even though we were freaking out about Kellan's eye, we didn't want him to have any less of a WYO Rodeo experience.  Nana ensured us that he would be well taken car of and off they went.

Over the next 3 hours of waiting in the ER, we received numerous texts and photos from the family that Oliver was doing A-OK!

Meanwhile, Kellan wasn't doing too bad himself.

Finally... we were seen in the ER.

Kellan is a big boy, but he looks so tiny on this big bed.

After a VERY long wait and a VERY short visit from the doctor, it was verified that he had an allergic reaction to the mosquito.  That in conjunction with the location of the bite, his eye swelled shut.  

The Dr lost me when she said "Your eye is susceptible to swelling because the skin is so thin.  You know, like when you've had a black eye, it swells really quickly."  I shook my head, no.  Apparently, I haven't fully lived as I've never had a black eye.  I don't think that I'll be adding that to my bucket list anytime soon.

So, after a shot of steroids, they sent us on our way, but not until we had comedy hour while we waited to be discharged.

The youngest Ham Fam member is never short on the "Ham".

Daddy is always willing to dish out the Ham too.

Daddy may dish out the Ham, but Mommy dishes out the snuggles...

...and a few tickles.

The event, according to Kellan.

After Kellan was discharged, we decided that someone should go to be with Oliver.  Since Keith has been many times and I have yet to say that I've even been once, I went to the Rodeo with Oliver.

Keith and Kellan, they headed for Nana and Papa's house where they had a PB&J picnic and then hit the hay.  Our littlest Ham Fam member was one very tired boy.  It was really heartbreaking that he missed the rodeo.  He was so looking forward to it.  He even asked if he could go and just close his eyes to sleep when he got there.  We decided that the rodeo probably wasn't in his cards this year.

Corn dogs, funnel cake and fun with Oliver was definitely in my cards!

Nothing like a grand 'ol smorgasbord.

As stated on sheridanwyorodeo.com:

2014 will mark the 84th celebrated year of the Sheridan WYO Rodeo. The WYO is a major stop on the rodeo trail for top cowboys and cowgirls from all over the world. We’re excited to continue as a one of the elite rodeos on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) and the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) circuits.

We liked seeing the Ham Fam careers represented, kind of.

Coors Beer and Hammer (um... ok... that was a stretch but Keith's new company is Hammer Sales Group, so it's close)

Oliver was SO happy to see his Mama.  The Hamilton and Billings family took great care of him, but he was quite worried about Kellan.  Once he found out that his little brother was going to be A-OK, he was ready to Party WYO Rodeo Style!

Cotton Candy, anyone?

Lauren, Kaden and Oliver working on a royal belly ache.

Such a handsome cotton candy kid with a WYO Rodeo sunset.

Oliver takes competition very serious, even when it's the rodeo.

Oliver and his date for the night.

As the story goes, Tammy had adopted Oliver as a stand in for her husband Jim who was home ill.  I'm not sure that he treated her to any cotton candy, but he was definitely up for taking a photo.

As we went out for another round of treats, I made the "big kids" stop for a photo with the carnival.

Oliver, Lauren and Kaden

What are older cousins for?  Introducing you to everything that your Mom and Dad have avoided, like Dr Pepper.

He L-O-V-E-D IT!

He wondered where it had been all of his life?

He wondered how he could get his hands on MORE?!

Then, it was time for a pretzel and popcorn.

Then... he found the limit of his stomach.

This is about all of his pretzel and popcorn that he ate before he said, "I can't eat anymore".  I didn't think that it was possible, but we filled it up.  We then passed his pretzel and popcorn to Nolan, who is in the prime of his teen years and still eats like he is a bottomless pit.  The pretzel and popcorn found a loving home.

The rodeo rocked on and we had a fantastic time.  Knowing that Kellan was going to be ok, we were able to make the most of it and show Oliver a great time at the WYO Rodeo.

It didn't take much convincing from the "big kids" to go to the carnival.  What would a rodeo be without taking on the carnival too.

Oliver was a true gentleman and took his cousin Hailey on a helicopter ride.

He tapped into his inner rock star.

He also dared to go on the spinning bear with Lauren, Kaden and Hailey.  It took some serious convincing to get Hailey and Oliver on this ride and even though they looked horrified the entire time, when it was over they declared it a success.

As a grand finale at half past midnight, Kaden and Oliver took one last spin on the merry-go-round and we called it a day.

Whew!  Day 1 was packed full of fun and adventures that we didn't anticipate.  That's the great part about a Ham Fam vacation, there is always something unexpected and we have learned to roll with it.  Unfortunately, there is often and ER visit.  We were glad to have it out of the way with a minor incident and we hoped that an ER tour of the Pacific Northwest was not in our future.

Tomorrow, we'll be up early to take on Big Sky Country.