YeeHawing Through the Years

We've (the three Roach girls and families) been going to the Cowboy Symposium and Festival in Cartersville, Georgia for quite a while now and I started looking through all the pictures last night.  It's amazing how quickly things change!  Thought I'd share...

So here's our first year.  Somehow there was not one picture of me in the whole lot but here's everyone else that year.  

It was 2006.  Ryan and I had been married for approximately 2 weeks.  There were three kids that year: Sammy, 3, Jonah, 2, and Marci, 2.  Kara had just found this festival and thought we could all meet and hang out together since it's about a 2 hour drive for them and about 45 min for us.  We decided we would try it out and we had a great time!

Look at these carefree adults!!!

And these teeny little guys:)!

The next year we decided to try and do it again.  It was 2007 we added two more to the mix: Sammy, 4, Jonah, 3, Marci, 3, Wyatt, 10 months, and Sophi, 5 months!

Every year they have a new craft in the Kiddie Corral.  That year was our favorite to date...a beeswax candle:

Mommas and babies:

The next year Kara and John had a wedding that weekend so Ryan and I met them halfway to grab the boys and the rest of us went anyway!  It was 2008 and we had Sammy, 5, Jonah, 4, Marci, 4, Wyatt, 22 months, and Sophi, 17 months:

Here's almost everybody with Hoppalong Cassidy:

 Learning about the uses of the buffalo in the teepee:

Talking to a couple of the Native American chiefs:

Making a stuffed fish:

Surrogate parents for the day:

Sophi:)

Wyatt:)

On the way back to meet mom and dad:

In 2009 there were two more additions...Sammy, 6, Jonah, 5, Marci, 5, Wyatt, 2, Sophi, 2, Maggi, 3 months, and Molly, 6 weeks:

This is the year we started tailgating outside the festival--we got our fill of some good ol' cowboy sustenance before we even bought our wristbands.  Definitely the way to go!

The gang:

Our new little cowgirl:

Maggi with Aunt Kara:

The next year (or last year), 2010, the "new" girls were a both a year old!  Sammy was 7, Jonah and Marci, 6, Wyatt and Sophi, 3.

Molly was in cast number 4 (by the way, tomorrow is the one year anniversary of total cast removal) and was already in a horse riding position!  The A frame cast wasn't conducive to pants so I fashioned a pair of cast chaps out of some brown suede fabric to get her ready for the day.

Miss Maggi

What a sweet smile:)

 Oh, and Gertie, Molly's casted lamb, came along for the ride too!

Growing on up:

 Showing off her artwork:

The three stooges cowboys:

And this year?  Well, my, my have they all grown.  Sammy is 8, Jonah and Marci are 7, Wyatt and Sophi are 4 and the "babies"?  Well, they're both 2 now!

We started with the usual tailgate lunch of cowboy chili with all the fixins:

 A couple of pals enjoying their lunch:

A couple more pals:

Sammy:

Jonah:

Marci:

 See what I mean about the growing up fast thing?

When the cousins are together we make sure we share as many germs as possible (all while being cute of course):

Look at these hams!

 One of our favorite festival highlights is the Native American dancing.  Molly couldn't just watch though, she had to be up and moving:

 Here's Molly trying her hand at a buffalo skin drum:

 And Wyatt's shaking a gourd and turtle shell:

 And the craft this year was some cool sand art.  I drew the glue lines and Molly had a grand time spooning on the sand:

New this year was a parade (or fashion show really) that everybody but Maggi and Molly got in on.  Here's Jonah strutting his stuff with Sammy in the wings:

And then there were some pumpkins that lent themselves well to pictures and made excellent make-believe horses to ride as well.

Love this pic of Maggi!!!  And if you scroll back up to 2006 you may notice that she's wearing what Marci wore our very first year.

And of course the pony rides:

And then we headed to the museum (the whole shebang is put on by the Booth Western Art Museum) and it's a really great one.  It's large and modern and beautiful with wonderful exhibits and a fun interactive section just for kids.

Here's Molly riding in the stagecoach:

And a couple on the lone prairie:

Molly works on weaving a blanket here.  Too bad we couldn't take her masterpiece home.

Look at those big girls:

Hope you've enjoyed this walk through the years.  I can't believe we started with 3 and we've now got this crazy gang of 7:

They're a fun bunch and it's one of my favorite times of the year!  Until next time...