More Festival News

Brooke and Blake had to stand by their pen of 4 steers and answer questions from the judge. Of course we had them all prepped with what they should say- what we feed them, how much, how often, which one is best, worst, etc. What did the judge ask? "Do you have a name for any of these steers?" Ugghh! Anyway, they looked good standing there! By far the cutest showmen!!





Brooke taking Stewart into the showring. He had sprained his leg the day before so he wasn't walking too well for her. That really bothered her. She was afraid, too, that he was hurting and she was making it worse. He hadn't eaten all morning so we knew he didn't feel too well. Then once he got into the showring, he was reaching over the gates to the hay feeder in the pen next to the ring! She did a fine job of showing him though.







Blake just received Reserve Grand Champion. Boy was he excited! The judge talked about all of the steers and then told us that he was going to go out and pick the Grand Champion and Reserve. He walked up to Andrew Raes' steer and slapped him on the butt and shook Andrew's hand. Then he walked over to Blake (I was about to wet my pants at this point), slapped Bullet on the butt and shook Blake's hand. Oh boy! The crowd went wild! Blake had his own cheering section of about 15 people!!!


That day was so exciting and so hard at the same time. I was so happy but my range of emotions went from smiling to crying to smiling to crying. I was so looking forward to the kids showing at the Festival. Most people work for the State Fair, but we worked for this. I wanted Dad to be there, and I wanted him to be proud of the kids and of me. He thought we were crazy in the beginning for getting into this but once we started working with them more, he got more excited, too. He was looking forward to watching them show. He didn't ever get to see that. He passed away 2 weeks before our first show in North Henderson in June. I know he was there in my heart and in spirit, but I kept wanting to look in the stands to see him sitting there. Brooke asked me what was wrong and I told her that I wanted Papa to see them show. Oh...... and poor Brooke..... while all of us were wrapped up in the excitement of Blake winning, I forgot to think of her. Then I thought to myself "Where is Brooke?". Here she came with our friend Jackie, just crying and crying. Her feelings were hurt because Blake was getting all of the attention. She was a little jealous, too, which we told her was a good thing. We also told her that one of the big reasons Blake did so well was because she had worked with Bullet and showed him all summer long. She did finally rally around and was fine within an hour or so.

Friday night we had to take Blake's steer over to the fairgrounds so he could be on display with the other winners. After we got back to the barn and got into the car, I could hear sniffles from the back seat. Blake burst into tears! He said "We worked hard all year for THIS. Now I have to do something that really hurts my feelings!" We talked for a while (and I cried too) about how they were going to be fine, that they were headed to Texas to a big feedlot for awhile. That is what we've told both the kids, and I've tried convince myself of that, too!

After the Auction on Saturday, which went really well, we headed back to the stalls. I broke down finally. I had wanted to all morning, but I did hold off until after the auction. It was hard not to when I looked over and saw Blake laying on top of Bullet. I told the kids to say goodbye (I wasn't going to though). Blake went up and hugged them. Brooke patted thier butts and said "Bye". I cried a little more and we headed to the car. I wasn't going to make them stay there and I knew I couldn't stay there any longer. Of course I still cry when people talk about it. I cry when I think of them. I will cry now if I don't stop this post.