Ranch rodeo and a visit to the local dairies

So we had a few days before all my brother's wedding festivities began to play a little.  The first night we were in Idaho my Dad was super excited for us to join him for a "Ranch Rodeo".  We had no clue what this was or what we were in for!  The line-up for the night is not "professional" ropers, bull riders, etc. but rather the local ranch's cowboys!!  Yes, it's true, remember our ranch cowboy, Chester (he can no longer tell that a cattle auction has a very distinct smell and laughed hysterically that Tyler was struggling to breath!!)?  Well he was in this rodeo and we were all about cheering him on!!  The kids wanted their picture taken with him afterwards, they thought he was famous!!  Matthew loved all the horses and cows and didn't leave Grandpa's side.  In fact, he spent most of the night with his arm around his neck, so cute!

The events included team doctoring, ranch team sorting, bull loading, and the favorite...bronc riding!

We stopped on the way home at our favorite "greasy spoon" to get ice cream and a coke shake, always a favorite!

Another fun thing we did was to tour a few of the local dairies.  It had been a few years since we did this and my youngest three couldn't remember. 

The first dairy we visited loads the cattle up onto a circular, rotating milking system.  Although there were three workers (well paid, highly desired jobs in the area, especially for the migrant workers) the milking is all done by machine. One worker sprayed off the cows, another applied a disinfecting solution to the utters, and another hooked them to the milking tubes.  It really is quite interesting.

The next dairy was also modern in it's design and specifics, but did not rotate the cows.  However, at this dairy the cows have a computer chip (of sorts?) that hooks up to the milker so as to measure their milk content and quality.  Note the guy in the lower right corner, supervising...on his phone?!?