Tea Party

On April 9^th I headed down to Ft. Madison for my very first Tea Party! It was kind of funny and the joke that at the age of 23 I was finally going to my first tea party. The party is an annual event put on by the Fort Madison Soroptomist group. They do this for young girls and hold two age groups. The first one was 3 to 5 and the other group was 6 and older. The little girls had a great event set up for them. There were about 7 or 8 older girls that dressed up as the Disney princesses such as Bell, Snow White and Cinderella. The girls were greeted at the door, checked in and came and got a picture with all of us princesses and queens. Once they had their picture taken they went to stations where they could make a crown for themselves, a magic wand and face painting. After the girls checked in they were allowed in the other room to their tables. The tables and room were so wonderfully decorated with princess things. The tables had crown cookies and lemonade for the girls and their adults.

When all the girls were settled I spoke to the group about what I do as Miss Rodeo Iowa, rodeo, horses and anything else they asked me. It was so cute what some of the little girls were asking me. They asked me my horse’s name, why I wear boots and more questions like that. After I spoke they had the Fort Madison high school cheer leaders do a few routines for the girls. The girls were then open to visit with us princesses and queens, get autographs and take some pictures. Over all it was a great day and wonderful experience! I had so much fun with the girls and got to let my girly side out!

Enjoy the spring weather and let’s hope for a little more warmth!

DNCFR

DNCFR

The time has finally come, time for the Dodge National Circuit Finals rodeo in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I was so very excited for this rodeo; the DNCFR is the top two cowboys in each event from each circuit across the country. There are 12 circuits so cowboys from each end of the country were there to represent their circuit. The trip started by leaving Wednesday March 30^th. Brooke Owen (Miss Rodeo Illinois) came over to Ames to ride along with me. We loaded up my mom’s van and headed south towards Kansas City. We didn’t leave until around noon because along the way we were picking up Alyssa Morrison (Miss Rodeo Kansas) and she didn’t get done with class until later in the afternoon. Once we had Alyssa piled in we continued south towards Oklahoma. I have never been through Kansas or Oklahoma so it was very enjoyable to see those states (though it was dark when we got to Oklahoma, I knew I would see it on the way home.) Since we got a late start to the day we missed the activities for the night and decided to grab some dinner before heading to the hotel. Once we got to the hotel, we unloaded our things and got settled in our room with our other roommate Tricia (Miss Rodeo Idaho.) The four of us spent some time doing our usual chatting and catching up but were soon off to bed, for we knew we would have a long day on Thursday. 

                After getting ready in the morning and having a wonderful breakfast provided by the hotel, all the queens set off to the arena for practice. We would be figuring out details such as who was riding which horse, which flags each girl would carry and who would ride which night. Once we all had a chance to ride the horses we had the opportunity to help “light break” the horses. That got a bit interesting. Some of these horses have never been in an arena when there were a lot of lights moving around, music and even smoke.  We just knew we had to cowboy up and work with the horses.

                When the practice was done we split into groups and went to a couple different Wal-Marts to sign autographs. It is such an amazing experience and so heartwarming to see people so excited to meet you. I had a wonderful time talking to the locals about rodeo and let them know that the DNCFR was in town that weekend. We stayed at the Wal-Mart for about an hour or so and then headed to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. They served us a fabulous lunch and we had a chance to walk around and see some of the museum. Some of the girls had to leave because they would be riding in the special Military themed opening and had to practice. I was not in that group so I had a chance to tour the museum a bit. I was so intrigued by everything they had. I really want to make another visit to Oklahoma City and spend more time in the museum; such wonderful things could not be seen in just a half an hour. 

Back to the hotel we went to get ready for the rodeo. I was up to ride that night and carry flags. We had some switching around and instead of all the girls riding each night we broke it up into groups and one group would take care of all the flags for that night. I rode a wonderful roan horse named Rooster. He was a great horse, just needed a little more gas! It was so incredible carrying flags at the DNCFR! It just felt so surreal. I had watched girls do it when I was younger and always thought how cool it would be to have the chance to be part of something so great; I was there living out those thoughts! Thursday night went well and we headed back to get some rest before Friday.

Friday morning started out once again with getting ready and great breakfast at the hotel. Our activity for the day was my favorite on the trip. We were having a Shoot Out competition! A local skeet shooting range was hosting us and allowed for all the queens and any of the cowboys that wanted to, to come out and shoot guns. We started with practice before we went on to the actual competition. I have never shot at clay pigeons before so was very shocked when I got the first three in a row! After practice they broke us up into teams.

I was with Brooke and two cowboys. I thought our team looked like we would do pretty well. The rest of my team, well, they did their part! Me on the other hand, I only ended up hitting one! I did so well in practice I couldn’t believe it! I shot some more that didn’t count and I ended up getting 5 out 6! I guess the pressure must have gotten to me. But we all had so much fun. It was great to have a relaxing atmosphere and just have fun with the other queens and the cowboys. 

Our next stop was lunch at Pop’s. Now when I first heard that we would be eating lunch at “Pop’s” I assumed it would be a diner, like Ma and Pop’s type of place. Well I was wrong about that! It wasn’t Pop’s like grandpa, it was Pop’s like soda pop! The restaurant was so neat. It had different kinds of glass pop bottles all over the place! And when you ordered your ‘pop’ you could add all different flavors to it. For example you could get a raspberry rootbeer if you liked. 

So we had a great lunch there and the people riding in the rodeo for that night headed off to practice and assign flags. The rest of the girls that rodeo on Thursday night split into groups to do autograph signing at different Wal-Marts again. After signing autographs we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the rodeo that night. Since I had rode in the performance Thursday night it was the other group’s turn to ride and the other girls and I got to enjoy the rodeo from the stands and do some shopping. It was great to cheer on the cowboys from the Great Lakes Circuit!

Saturday morning we got to sleep in a little bit. We had our usual morning meeting and then split into our group for the day to sign autographs. I was in the group that would be heading to the museum again. We had the chance to sign pictures for people that were visiting the museum that day and promote the rodeo for the weekend.

After the signing we went over to the rodeo. The girls that rode Friday night rode again Saturday afternoon. After the rodeo we went back to the hotel to get ready for the performance Saturday night and supper. We had supper at On the Boarder; it was a great time with all of us laughing and joking together! I was riding that night at the rodeo so once we got there and greeted people for a while we went on got on our horses. It was so great being able to carry flags again; it’s such an adrenaline rush!

Sunday morning was started with us packing up our things, our meeting and who would like to go, heading off to Cowboy Church. I was so glad I decided to go. It was put on by Susie McEntire and her husband. She looked and sounded so much like her sister Reba. They put on such a great service! I also had a chance to meet Clyde and Elsie Frost, Lane Frost’s parents. 

After Cowboy Church we headed over to get ready for the rodeo. I had a chance to ride again and carry flags on Sunday afternoon. Once the performance was over Brooke, Alyssa and I loaded up in the van for the ride home. We left that afternoon and hoped to miss the storms that we were hearing about. We made it to Olathe to drop off Alyssa and the rain started. Not long after we got out of Kansas City the rain got a lot harder and the lightening started! It was a beautiful storm; one that I would love to sit on a porch and watch but not be driving in. It slowed us down a little bit but we were still able to keep heading home. We rolled into Ames about midnight, unloaded the van and crashed for the night. It was an amazing trip to Oklahoma and it got me very excited for all of my travels this summer!

Miss Rodeo Iowa Clinic

Miss Rodeo Iowa clinic

It’s that time of year again! The Miss Rodeo Iowa Clinic was held March 12^th and 13^th in Winterset, Iowa. I went down the Friday night before to stay at Hannah Hilsabeck (Miss Teen Rodeo Iowa 2010) house so Saturday wouldn’t be such an early morning. I also had another queen stay with me, Brooke Owen Miss Rodeo Illinois. We had a nice relaxing night chatting and snacking. It was also very nice to see Judy Rogers; she is a past board member and flew in from Laramie, Wy for the clinic. I had not seen her since my coronation celebration so it was nice to catch up. The clinic was at the new junior high school in Winterset so we had a nice facility to use. There was a good turnout of girls that came to learn new things and work on skills to be a rodeo queen or cowgirl queen. We started the day with Jordanne Blair (Miss Rodeo Iowa 2010) and Judy going over interviews, applications and general etiquette of a queen. As the afternoon went on we worked on modeling, speeches, walking and pose. Brooke and I worked with the younger girls help them perfect the techniques they were being taught. As Jordanne worked with the girls, Judy and I helped the girls one on one with the short speech they had prepared. Throughout the day we had other members of our board helping and feeding us snack and made a nice meal. 

On Sunday of the clinic I could really see change in a lot of the girls. Even just after a day the girls were much more confident and comfortable being in front of an audience. Judy went through her 4 Pillars of Strength and we were able to get interactive. Judy had us on our feet doing some exercises and working on what she was teaching us. I think we were all a little sore and had a laugh watching some of the new moves we learned. The afternoon we showed off what we had been working on the past few days. The girls improved so much. I am very excited to see these girls in the future and how they will do wonderful in the queen world.

Kissimmee, Florida

Hello Rodeo Fans!

Back again to tell you about my amazing trip to Kissimmee, Florida for the Silver Spur Rodeo.

I flew out early morning February 16^th for Des Moines. I had a couple flights to catch before I could land in Orlando Florida. First I flew from Des Moines to Chicago. From there I head to Charlotte and then finally on to Orlando. The weather was absolutely beautiful when I landed! It was so nice to see palm trees and green grass when I had left a wet brown Iowa. I was picked up from the airport by Heather Hall’s (Miss Rodeo Florida 2010) mom. She loaded me and Lorissa (Miss Rodeo Montana) up and we were on our way to meet up with the other girls. I was very excited to see the other girls. I didn’t get a chance to see any of them in Denver so this would be my first real weekend with them. After meeting up with everyone else we headed to the arena to get a lay out of the area and work on what we would be doing for the grand entries of the rodeo performances. From there we were on to the event for the evening… We were going hog hunting! 

Some of the girls getting ready to get a hog

                We had some locals be generous enough to take about 15 excited rodeo queens out into the swamp/back woods to see if we could find ourselves a hog. We worked our way with a couple trucks and dogs into the swamps. After we got the dogs all ready to go we released them and set out on foot to see what we could find. At one point we thought we had found a hog and took off after it. Other girls and I stopped when the water was almost to the top of our boots. There were some troopers that followed our guides and kept running, waist deep into the swampy waters!!! When they returned with no hog in hand, we started to head back about to give up. Just at the point we heard the dogs in a frenzy and heard the noise we had been waiting for; the very loud hog squeal. We split into two groups when we realized there were two hogs and ran to help the dogs. Once the hog was captured and ‘hog tied’, we took it out of the woods and into the back of the truck. It was a very exciting night for all of us and so much fun. We had heard stories from past queens to not expect to get a hog; something about getting 15 queens together makes us not a quiet group. We did get some though and were ecstatic about it. When all was said and done, we got loaded up and headed home for bed.

                Thursday morning we started the day with school visits. All of us girls went to the same school and split up into the different grades. We talked to the students about the sport of rodeo, our horses and the rodeo in town that weekend. It is so great talking to children school age. They are so enthusiastic and ask such great questions. When we left the school we went to the county sheriff office where we had the opportunity to see a canine demonstration. The first dog was a very well trained and seasoned dog. He was able to show us how he would go after an attacker. We also were shown the new tools the officer can use such as a remote to open the car door. If an officer was in a situation where they needed their dog they could just push a button, the door will open and the dog can help save the officer.  

                Our Thursday afternoon activity was one of my favorites. We had the opportunity to go on a fan boat through the swamps! It was a beautiful afternoon with sunshine and warm temperatures. Our large group split up into two boats and set out to see the local scenery and try to find some gators! We had great luck! We saw quite a few gators in the water either swimming or just hanging out with their heads above the water.We even found a large gator soaking up the sun on some vegetation and were able to get within 20 feet of it! They are such beautiful animals but I was fine keeping my distance.  When the boat ride was done we all headed to have dinner together with our host family. 

The restaurant was called the Catfish Place and was delicious! The girls and I wanted to try new things so we ordered turtle, alligator, catfish and frog legs. It was all very good but I think I enjoyed the turtle the most. Being able to eat, relax and chat with all the queens and the family was a great way to end such a pleasant day. 

The next morning we woke to take advantage of some really Florida scenery, the beach! We drove about an hour away to spend the day soaking up the rays. The weather was perfect; about 80 degrees and sunny. We spent the day splashing in the water, enjoying the sun, digging in the sand like little kids and a few girls even were given some surfing lessons. 

With cold weather back in Iowa, I was so happy to be laying on the beach. After the beach we headed home to get ready for the rodeo. Friday night was Tough Enough To Wear Pink night so all of us girls got our beautiful breast cancer awareness colors on and set out to ride in the grand entry. We were each given a horse to ride, introduced and did a queens run. It was a very neat sight to see so many state queens representing in Florida. When we were done with the grand entry we visited some of the VIP rooms to thank sponsors and walked around signing autographs. I was even able to catch the end of Wade Sundell’s ride; so exciting to see an Iowa cowboy riding down in Florida. 

              Saturday we split into groups and did our own thing. Some girls went to Universal Studios, some went on a dune buggy ride in the woods and we had a low key relaxing day. I was fighting off a terrible sinus infection so I was ok with just relaxing and getting a few extra hours of sleep. Saturday night was the rodeo again. Before the rodeo Tricia (Miss Rodeo Idaho) and I were able to squeeze in some shopping and even get a camel ride! 

We rode in the grand entry and signed autographs again after. My parents had flown down for a week vacation so they were able to see me at the rodeo. After the rodeo I went with my parents and all my bags to fly out on a very early flight back to Iowa the next day. I left Kissimmee with some amazing memories and great times with the other state queens. It left me feeling so excited for the upcoming year and all the wonderful opportunities the title of Miss Rodeo Iowa was providing for me. Until next time, stay well and happy trails!