Day 247 - Friday August 17, 2012

Kind of the highlight of the summer for us has been the Northwest Montana Fair, which is held every August around the 15th.  When we lived in Kalispell we all had the opportunity to work at the church's Boy Scout booth, located inside the grandstands.  There were actually two booths, one that made hamburgers, french fries, etc and a second booth that sold cotton candy etc.  Additionally the scouts walked the grandstands selling pop.  We all have many memories of those days at the fair, working in the booths.  When the kids were young we also went to the carnival.  Occasionally we went to the rodeo. As the kids got older, we skipped the carnival but always went to the rodeo.  So, it's a tradition for us.  We all got tickets to the fair this year--we take Scott, Jaclyn and Weston too (and would take Jenn's family if they were here).  This year is the first year Tyler wasn't with us, as he is still in Africa.  Earlier in the week Bridgett said she didn't want to walk around and look at the animals but today she said let's go look at the animals.  Mark dropped us off close to the animals, went and parked and then caught up to us at the draft horses barn.  We had already walked past the llamas and the miniature horses.  By that time everyone voted to go find something to eat and so off we headed.  Mark, Bridgett and Steph got hamburgers and Arri and I got Island noodles (soba noodles with veggies).  Bridgett wanted to go sit in our seats in the grandstands and we found our seats and relaxed, ate and waited for the rodeo to start.  Initially Bridgett was doing pretty well although her neck was bothering her. She said it felt better to be sitting down.  We brought something that Mark had called a lounge lizard that is a kind of seat with a back that is padded so that it would be more comfortable for Bridgett and it seemed to really help.  I worried that things would be too loud for her and she didn't complain at first.  I offered her the ear plugs and after the loud speaker started up she took me up on the offer.  Later she said they didn't help much and so we tried the ipod ear phones, not hooked up so no music, and they worked better.  Overall she enjoyed the rodeo as did the rest of us, but by 9:00 her neck was hurting and she wanted to get up and walk.  Mark got up once before that and they went and got cotton candy but otherwise she was pretty comfortable until 9:00.  I walked with her for quite a while and she finally sat down for the last five to ten minutes of the bull riding, just before 10:00. Overall we all had a great time. We walked to the car and headed home.  I had given her a Lortab before the rodeo and I gave her another on by the time we got home.  We had picked up the muscle relaxant but I didn't want to give her a new prescription before bed just so I could make sure that she was OK.  We'll see how things are tomorrow.