Monkey pic dump (A.K.A. i have been slackin)

A boy, his dog, and his hot cocoa on a winter day

we picked up a couple of goats

camping trip with grammy, papa, and sasquatch

he loves fishing

I have doing some travelling for work and tried a Korean BBQ place so when I got home i found one semi local and took the family, it was their first time trying it.

A monkey cooking hot dogs and mac n cheese

riding Otis

and riding Cloud

Teach them right, shooting his Christmas present

outdoor expo

his Birthday present that I built

Birthday hockey tradition, watching the Tri City Americans beat Spokane Chiefs

Eastern Washington Junior Rodeo Association (Othello June 1-2)

The EWJRA (Eastern Washington Junior Rodeo Association) put on a season opener rodeo clinic Saturday and rodeo Sunday, Levi has been wanting to mutton bust again but he is too big now and he wants to rope. So we looked around and found this rodeo clinic and decided to sign him up for a couple things so they could teach him the correct way and he could decide if he wanted to continue. We signed him up for goat flanking, dummy roping, and calf riding (the next step up from mutton bustin).

The class for goat flanking was broke up into two parts, ground work and horse back. We don't have a horse ready for him to be able to use so he only participated in the ground work and watched the horse back portion.

Then we moved onto dummy roping practice

The bucking barrel was a main gathering place for the pee wee boys all day long, they would help each other with pointers and critique and of course teasing and joking around with each other. 

The best pointers he got though was from the actual training class where one of the high school bull riders (Cameron) came over and worked one on one with Levi.

We borrowed some safety equipment and waited for his calf.... which ended up going to someone else when they shifted livestock in the chutes. So Levi ended up steer riding instead of calf riding.

By the end of the day Saturday he decided he was going to sign up for the rodeo season and become a EWJRA member, he is going to dummy rope and calf ride. We came back Sunday so he could dummy rope in the rodeo, they go by catch, distance, and then by points if there is a tie on distance. He made a couple rounds but eventually lost out, but being that he only really started roping the day before... he did pretty good and we are so proud of him. 

We decided that he didn't have to calf ride Sunday since we did not have any of the required safety gear that correctly fit him. The next rodeo he will be all outfitted and ready in Davenport, WA. 

Monkeys first WSU Cougars game

Getting ready to get on the bus.   Levi wanted to bring his WSU monkey along for the ride.

Aunt Erin sent us with strict instructions that there was to be an ESPN Game Day bus picture to be taken.  By the time we rolled into Pullman they were already done loading up the set so the bus picture took priority.

Second priority was a stop at Ferdinand's Ice Cream Shoppe at the WSU Creamery.  As we were standing in line Levi said "like Ferdinand the Bull" and was then very excited to see the story panels inside.  "It is like Ferdinand!"

The Cougar Pride bronze was in high demand and by the time we got close enough to make it clear that we were in line for a photo, we had so many people packed in behind me that I couldn't get the photo framed properly.  

A shout out to our Aunt Erin for giving us her tickets.  

She had a prior commitment so we reaped the bounty.  Levi is standing in front of the picture wall where they post the President's Award Recipients.  Maybe someday he'll be on the wall instead of in front of it.

A Monkey with his monkey inside Martin Stadium.  

Obligatory selfie.

Proof that we all can just get along.  

The WSU Cougar marching band and the Oregon Ducks 

marching band making beautiful music at half time.

My sources say 30,000 fans were on the field after the game.  Levi really wanted to go down but I wasn't sure how to get us there and back out again in time to catch the bus home.  

Shaniko and the Newberry volcanic national park lava tube

Saturday we got up headed to Hermiston and picked up my sister and got on the road for Bend, headed for the lava flow tube cave that is part of the Newberry volcanic national park just south of Bend.

Stopped along the way to stretch at the DeMoss springs memorial park. Its a nice little park along the Way.

Then of course we always have to stop at Shaniko and do the touristy thing.

My mom has a sleigh exactly like this that she is giving us.

Levi's friends were the strong silent type.

Never heard a peep out of them.

Couple of jail birds.

At least they have coffee

Then we made it to the Lava Tube, and finally found parking. The tube is free to go into, you just have to have a parking pass, sit through a 5 minute orientation, sign in, and away you go. You can rent a flashlight for $5, we brought headlamps and flashlights with us. Christa and i made the mistake years ago of not having a good light source. The cave is 1 mile long and takes on average of 1.5 hours.

The cave entrance is 155 steps in and as you get closer you can feel the temperature change. The beginning of the tube has a nice walk way and hand railing.

didnt exactly get us all in lol

Shortly into it though it gets pitch black

The height of the ceiling varied through out the tube, this was not the lowest section. the lowest section we all had to hunch over and even Levi had to duck (or hit his head which he did on the way out)

When we were done we had dinner in Bend at the Pine Tavern restaurant and bar, built in 1936 with a large Ponderosa Pine growing up through the middle of the dining area. Very good food, steaks are a little spendy but we all had pasta and there were no complaints except how were we gonna eat it all.

On our way back we stopped at the Mountain Identifier outside of Shaniko, We should have stopped in the morning when we could see the mountains better, by afternoon the sun was in our eyes and the smoke had rolled in. From this viewpoint the Cascade Range is visible from Broken top (75 miles south), 3 Sisters, MT Hood, MT Jefferson, MT Adams, mt baker, and mt Rainier (135 miles north)

In the end it was an all day trip leaving Prosser at 6AM and getting back home at Midnight and we didnt have enough time to do half of what was planned. We love this area of Oregon and there is so much to do, we need to plan a long weekend camping trip.