We woke up to a beautiful filly out of Mil and by King on Monday. Toni and mom decided to put Mil in the round pen, because she did not like everyone visiting the foal, by everyone I mean all the other horses, especially the annoying 2- and 3-year-olds that are out there. We have a few that have some personal space issues, meaning they don’t understand the concept. Dad took bulls to Ritzville on Monday and picked one up in Sprague. The kids took some tack over to BB for Leslie and Traci to take up to Spokane, we have all the chutes, end panels, and hay in ours. Plus, most of our tack. So, we could not fit 2 of the chute floors and the grain in. Kade and Kaine had FFA practice after school, to get ready for state convention. Anna dyed her steer. Jax is ready for FFA so doesn’t need practice, I guess

On Tuesday we headed up to Spokane for the Jr Show. Before we could leave we had to run down to Mom and Dad’s to see our new foal. Our precious Gina gave us a stunning bay filly out of the Masked Gun with a big blaze and a belly spot. She is perfect. Then we loaded and took off. Leslie and Traci came up in the afternoon. We were down on the floor, as opposed to up on the side like normal, which was great, we had lots of room. We did not take all of the stuff we needed for set up, so could not do a lot before Leslie and Traci got there. We weighed in steers, and Devo the heifer. Set up the camper, etc. We had pizza for dinner, everyone did great coming off the trailer and being at a decently big show. We hear there are 66 fat steers, 120 prospects, and about 40 heifers. This may be the biggest show in WA, probably the biggest terminal show for sure. (FYI that is Toni in the video)

On Wednesday there are a lot of competitions at Jr Show, Anna, Kade and Emmett did meats judging. Jaxsen was also there with the FFA meats judging. The rest of the kids washed the steers and caught up on their homework. We get to sleep in on Wednesday, which is a good start to the week. Dad said that the buckskin mare foaled, so that meant Twist. She had a really smutty colored buckskin colt by King that is super cool looking in the picture we received.

Thursday we spent all day in the barn so we took tamales down to the tack box for lunch. Anna was in class 1 with her heifer. They were reserve champion 4H heifer, Devo is a heifer we got from RJ in South Dakota. Next we had 4H prospects, Natalie and Julian. Both were in the same class and made it back to the championship round. Then Anna, Julian, Ady and Natalie had 4H market steers. Anna, Ady and Natalie made it back to the championship round, they all did great. 20-minute break then FFA prospects, Kaine, Kade and Emmett. Kain and Kade both made it back to the final drive with Kade being 5^th prospect steer.  And Lastly, FFA market, Emmett made it back with his giant steer. Emmett had the heaviest steer at the show. The judge said the steer waddled like a duck but would bring in a big check. True. All of the kids showed great. Then Peewee, which Vanna won, team fitting which Emmett’s team won, and pen of 3 (with Gary Bye steers).   I think we finally got done around 6:30 pm? Maybe? It was a long day. We hear there were some foals born at home. All colts. Dad said the one out of CeeCee was “special” we weren’t sure what that meant but Dad confirmed that means he is awesome. We also had a super cute colt out of Gracie and Whitty.

Friday was showmanship. We no longer have any jrs, so our first class was intermediates. Natalie and Julian both got a call back for the championship round that night. Anna was our only Sr, and she also made it back to the championship round. Emmett, Kaine and Kade showed FFA Jr/So, Kaine and Kade made it back. All of the kids did a great job showing. Anna won the Sr division and got to show in the round robin at Spokane. Kaine was 5^th in his division, Natalie and Julian were 6^th and 7^th, and Kade was 8^th for his division.  Kaine and Kade washed the steers and Anna’s heifer, and send all the prospects home with Kicker. Leslie, Traci, Savannah, Kayla and I followed the round robin while the rest fed and loaded out the prospects. Anna did great, Spokane is different than the other shows. Only the Sr 4H and Jr/Sr FFA get to show in the round robin, and they show random animals, not the animals of the winners. All of the steers in the round robin were great. Most of the pigs were great, Anna had a really good pig. However, most of the sheep were crazy and the goats were a shit show. One would jump up and ram the kid holding it, one would jump up and strike the kid. But it was a great experience, and Anna was glad she got to do it.  Dad let us know that the red mare had a palomino colt, so Queenie had a colt by Tank.

Saturday was the sale, the steers always sell last. We would like to thank all to the buyers of the Footloose 4H Club and Connell FFA. Thank you, Les Schwab, for buying Anna and Kaine’s steers, L&M Truck Sales for buying Kades, Co-Energy for buying Emmetts (a home town buyer), Byes for buying Adys, Fusion Seed for buying Natalies (a long-time buyer of Natalie’s steer), and Jonel for selling Julians steer. Spokane booster did a great job and put a minimum of 2.75/lb on the steer kids and added $100. The kids all did great. Thank you everyone for your support. All our steers loaded out Saturday night except Ady’s, so he got to go up with the Pomeroy steers. The kids got to go play laser tag with the Pomeroy kids, and they had a lot of fun. Emmett and Stacy invited the boys to go and stay at their camper that night, so Kaine, Kade, Emmett and Julian. They stayed up until 10:30 playing football, until Stacy finally told them he needed to go to bed, he was worried Toni wouldn’t let the boys have a sleep over again if he had to call her to tell her he lost the boys. So he had to stay awake. They then made quesadillas and stayed up.  They had a great time. Toni’s law school roommate came over and had dinner with us while the kids were at laser tag, and it is always good to see Kellie K.

Sunday we loaded out Ady’s steer, the campers and came home. We had a lot of horses to move that had foaled while we were gone, Queenie we put down with Cleo to move the following weekend since he is a little guy. We put Gracie and Mud down with Tank, CC in with Sagebug and Twist and Mil in with MC. The boys turned Opal, Shadie and Katana out of the MC pen while we were hauling CC out, we will put them back in a month to make sure they are bred.

What a great week. We had fun at Spokane seeing our friends and family, meeting new people, and letting Anna enjoy her very last Spokane Jr. Show as a kid. We are very proud of our entire group of kids, they all showed great and did their very best. We all came home tired, but glad to have the memories made at another Spokane Jr. Show. Thanks to everyone that stayed home to do all the ranch work.