RoundUp!

I love it when there is an stumbled upon theme in life. My Fourth of July weekend definitely had it! One of my best friends, Abbie, came to spend the holiday weekend with me in Spearfish and we celebrated in ways that would have made our founding fathers proud. Our Fourth of July including going to Belle Fourche to enjoy the parade, a carnival, a rodeo and the overall awesomeness of the town. We succeeded. We have come to the conclusion that we can make any place fun and our pending T.V. show would be titled "Finding Fun in America."

Also our Fourth of July celebrations in Belle Fourche will now become an annual thing. I have 84 more Fourth of July's in Belle to look forward to!

The parade was great and the best part was when one of the floats threw out baggies of cherries. We had been sharing our candy and popsicles with the little girls standing near us but we claimed the cherries for ourselves. As well as pens.

Belle Fourche and its fantastic parade

The festivities continued with Patriotic Red (cherry) snowcones in the park and corn dogs and the two slide rides at the carnival.

Why wouldn't Belle Fourche have the BEST snow cones??!

Nothing says America like corn dogs on the Fourth of July

This is where Belle Fourche demonstrated why it is so great... As we were walking towards the rodeo a tractor pulling a trailer asked if we wanted a ride. Hells yes we wanted a ride on a tractor to a rodeo in Belle Fourche! We enjoyed the rodeo as all rodeo-goers should, not with cowboy hats and boots but with binoculars. My mom and my aunt Jackie used to cart binoculars with them to the Black Hills Roundup Rodeo to check out the cowboy's butts. We followed suit and it was well worth it!

We were starting to get a little excited about the Rodeo...

Then came the binoculars!

Thanks for humoring me, Kyle!

Is there a better name for a bucking bronco than Lipstick 'n Whiskey?

We kept the merriment going for a couple more days. We stopped at an antique store in Spearfish where I purchased quite possibly the greatest thing ever! "Reading Roundup: Book One" is the newest addition to my future library as a lovely beginner's reader book. The inside of the front cover is inscribed with 'Beach School 1959' and the back cover has a ballerina. This purchase also put a big shiny bow on the weekend's theme of Roundup! We were on Roundup Street in Belle Fourche, went to the Black Hills Roundup Rodeo and now I own Reading Roundup. My grandpa also added that he uses Roundup in his garden which is also an important element to the theme.

On Abbie's last night here we rounded up some boys and went to Deadwood. We ate, they gambled, we rode a trolley through the entire town and danced and laid in the middle of a football field. A perfect way to end my Fourth of July weekend that went all the way to Wednesday!

Trolley Ride through Deadwood