Logger Days

This year we stayed in Montana during Logger Days. It started off with a bull riding competition on the edge of town. The kids also got to see some fancy horse back riding. The rider above helped corral the bulls after the riders came off. A couple of times the horse had to back up quickly to avoid the bull. No one was seriously hurt but a number of riders limped off the field.

Two days later there was a parade through town. There were lots of emergency vehicles, cars, horses and at the end, two trucks pulling logs for the competitions. The highlight for the kids? Candy. Every single vehicle that went by threw out several pieces of candy to the kids, it looked like Halloween.

At Logger Days my dad found a reasonably priced hat for Dylan that he liked. Here he is as we are waiting to sign up the kids for their events.
We saw some of the Logger Day events like the springboard event, women's cross cut event and choker race but mostly we were going back and forth between the kid events. Andrew and Dylan were in the 6 and under tricycle race, Andrew and Gina each did the tug of war event and Gina also entered the watermelon eating contest.

The tricycle race was harder that it looked because it was on grass and once the kids turned at the far end, they slowed down and it was difficult to get going. Andrew managed really well and came in 2nd place. For the tug of war competitions, both Andrew's and Gina's teams won. They got extra tickets for winning which were put to good use in the bounce house/slide area. There was also a drawing for a bike at the end of the day. Andrew was sure he would win but of course, he didn't. The kids all took a turn on the mechanical bull as well. Dylan and Gina seemed to enjoy it the most though neither liked falling off at the end onto the super hot tarp.

At the end of the day, they also had a sawdust pile for the kids to search for coins and toys. The littlest kids go first but Dylan didn't want to try. Then they let the 5-7 yr olds go and Andrew joined the fray. He came up with a slingshot and 2 dollar coins. Gina tried once they opened it up to all the kids but it was so crowded, she quickly gave up.

It was a fairly warm day and at one point the kids talked me into buying them each a can of soda. They were so excited to be drinking Pepsi and Dr. Pepper. I think it was the highlight of their day.