Carly goes to Nationals

 It was Carly's goal to make it to high school national finals rodeo this year. We even planned her summer job and which youth conference session she went to in hopes she would qualify for nationals, and she did! She qualified in goat tying, so we headed to Rock Springs, Wyoming.

We loaded her horse, Nashville, and we volunteered to take Allie McCollister and her horse, Willow. We stopped in Idaho Falls on the way down. Then we went to Rock Springs and got checked in.

The first night they let the goat tying girls tie down all of the goats that were going to be used at the rodeo.

We stayed with Amanda (Jensen) and Carey Larsen who live in Rock Springs really close to the fairgrounds. Austin coached Amanda in basketball at Mountain Crest 17 years ago. We went to Sacrament Meeting with them on Sunday, and they fed us a delicious Sunday dinner.

Then we watched the rodeo performances each morning and night. Carly's draw was to compete Tuesday night and Thursday morning. Her first run she was a 8.71. Her second run she was a 8.71. They were both solid runs but not as fast as she hoped. She ended up 47th overall. 

Hanna, James and Paisley came on Wednesday night so they could watch Carly's Thursday morning run. It was so fun to see them. Paisley is fun. Jill had wanted to come but decided not to since Larsen had to work and she didn't want to come on her own with two kids, especially since Charlotte doesn't take a bottle so Jill would have to stop to feed her every couple hours. They cheered Carly on from home watching on the Cowboy Channel.

On Tuesday afternoon, Carly played on the Alberta team at the volleyball tournament. They had 30 kids show up so she only got to play for a couple minutes. They beat Georgia and lost to Alabama, but it was fun.

On Wednesday afternoon, we went to Green River to play in the river. It was fun even though it rained while we were there.

On Thursday afternoon, Carly entered a rodeo triathlon where you rope a calf, barrel race and then tie a goat. It was fun to watch. She missed her calf and Nashville wasn't too sure about barrel racing, but she did good.

Some memories made:

-Austin always parked so far away wherever and would say that he didn't want to get trapped in. But I also did the same thing when I was the driver. Trucks aren't as easy to park. Then when James and Hanna came in their car, James parked in the second row at the rodeo, and their car actually got trapped in. Someone parked on both ends of their car. Luckily they still could get out.

-Carey, Sydney and Bridger Larsen (the people we stayed with) came to watch the rodeo on Tuesday night. They rode their little motorcycle with their cowboy hats and cowboy boots. When they were getting ready to come, they asked Bridger if he wanted a jacket. He said, no, cowboys don't wear jackets.

-On the way down at the US border, we had to go in to take our horse health papers. The border agent lady said she wouldn't make copies because she is not Kinko's (it used to be a store that made copies). We started driving but had to turn around because we had to have copies of the horse papers in order to check in at the rodeo. We had to tell her how sorry we were that we didn't bring more copies and thank her over and over. Just make the dang copies, please.

-Carly volunteered to pray at the start of a performance. She prayed at the Reining/Cow Horse arena on Monday morning and at the Cutting arena on Wednesday morning. After her prayer on Wednesday, the announcer asked if she was LDS. She said yes. He said do you know how I know? She said because you are too? He said, yes he had been a bishop and a seminary teacher. She did a great job.

-This is our third time at nationals. Jill went in 2016 and Hanna in 2019. Each time we loved to get lemonade from Roy's Lemonade stand. In 2019 we took a picture with Roy. So this time we did get Roy's lemonade several times, and I wanted to get a picture with him again. So we did, and we learned that he has been selling lemonade for 31 years and that he is 81 years old.

-We did some shopping while we were there. Austin needs a new school belt, but he wouldn't buy a $14 belt and said he didn't need on, but the next day he spent $430 on new ropes. Priorities.

-Austin kept telling Carly that making it to nationals was the icing on the cake, and to just go out and do your best. Then when she did her run, it wasn't quite as fast as she had hoped. So I wondered what he said when she came out. They did talk about how she could have run down a little faster and flanked a little faster. Then when they got back to the trailer, he told her to sit down. Then he said, look around, and notice what you see, what you smell, what you feel. You made it here. Take it in and enjoy it. Then he told her that he believes in her. If he didn't, he wouldn't have brought her to nationals. So believe in yourself.

WFFD - Waite Family Fun Days 2025 Island Park

We gathered from 4 states and 1 province at a cabin in Island Park for Waite Family Fun Days with 33 people, We could check into our cabin at 4 pm - guess what time my mom and dad got there: 3:15 pm and they text the group chat - the cleaning lady is still here (surprisngly since it wasn't 4 pm yet). Then 7 out of 10 cars of family arrived between 3:50 and 4:00. Waites arrive on time.

After dinner, we divided into teams of 3 and made boats out of tinfoil, sticks and leaves and then took them to the river to have a boat race at Big Springs. Rob, Hazel and Grandma had the boat that was first place.

On Monday morning, we had the first annual Tyce John Memorial Wiffle Ball Baseball game. We played two innings before we got kicked off the corner of grass where we were playing because it was part of the golf course. Jill pointed out that it was fitting for the game in honor of Tyce because Tyce often defied authority.

Then it was time to float the river. We floated this river often in my childhood. You start at Big Springs and end at Mack's Inn. Getting 30 people all set in kayaks, canoes, tubes was quite the task, but we did it. The river was really busy, but it was the perfect weather day and so much fun. Paisley slept the whole time. Charlotte hate, hate double hated her life jacket. Then she was okay but then cried for a few minutes until Larsen got her to sleep. Will loved it and changed back and forth between all the boats, squirted people with his little water gun. 

A funny quote to remember: Will was eating a bag of Cheerios that Hanna had brought for Paisley. He said, "Hanna, Paisley's fruit loops aren't good. You need to get new ones for her."

Some of us rented kayaks from a local company. They worked great, plus they delivered and picked them up. We did use my Dad's two canoes. Jeanette and Julie brought blow up kayaks - they didn't work as great. Jeanette bailed water the entire time and said she was throwing it away at the end of the river. Julie's was brand new, but Tristan said he was taking it back. The Whipples had blow up tubes from a box. Rachelle and Brylee ended up getting towed by the kayaks. But that turned out really fun for those people - they talked and laughed more than they would have without getting towed.

The river was a success!

When it was time to load the canoes back onto my dad's truck, Hanna said, I can help. My dad said to her, no you can't do it. You will scratch my truck. Little does he know Hanna...don't tell her she can't lift something. I am sure she will bring that up for the next 2 decades.

On Monday night after dinner, we had an early surprise birthday party for my mom who turns 75 in December. Rachelle brought us all 75 paper glasses to wear. Then we played a game where Rachelle asked a question about Mom/Grandma and we all wrote down an answer to the question to see if matched my mom's answer (Favorite food, sibling, song, year she got married, etc). Then we played a game where Grandma turned around and we each said hi or happy birthday and she had to guess our voice. We gave her a tree picture that we all had put our thumbprints on and ate cupcakes.

Then we had an instant talent show. I handed out papers of a talent to perform in groups of 3...line dance, magic trick, whistling, mime, etc. It was funny and everyone was a good sport to participate (well, almost everyone).

Tuesday morning we just cleaned up and headed out. We went to leave and couldn't find the keys to our car. Yesterday I had moved the car and realized it had a flat tire, and then I didn't know where I put the keys. We searched and searched. Then we stopped and said a prayer. Then Rachelle said she stopped for a minute to listen for an answer, and it was to look in the garbage. On their 3rd garbage bag, she found them. Then I remembered I had cleaned some garbage out of the car right then and obviously forgot I had keys in my hand and must have thrown them away. I was so thankful we found them.

We stopped on our way home to get our tire fixed, but we did have to wait 2.5 hours because the tire guys had to go to lunch first.

I was so thankful for everyone that made the sacrifice to come. It was a fun time. I'm thankful for great family!!!