Chapter 110

Stevie pulled the ute up into the staging area for the rodeo competitors. They wanted to get Rufus out of the horse trailer and give him and Xander a chance to stretch out a bit. Rufus was a veteran competitor and handled the chaos of a rodeo pretty well, but he always did best when he got a chance to get acclimated to the environment before the competition.

Stevie snapped a selfie of the staging area with Rufus in the background. She texted James and said "Wish you were here!"

"Okay Mom, I've got several hours before my competition. The roping is second. We'll go after the barrel riders and before the campdrafters. That's right where I wanted to be." said Xander.

"Perfect. I'm glad you're not leading it off. Why don't you go take Rufus through your warm up and I'll get our spot set up." said Stevie.

Stevie pulled an eskie, a couple of camping chairs and an easy up canopy from the ute. She put up the canopy and set up the two chairs with the eskie in the middle, acting as a coffee table of sorts. She had done this many times at many rodeos with Xander. This was the biggest one yet. This was the first year Xander was old enough to compete in the Jr. championships. Prior to this, it was all youth level competitions. She wanted this so badly for Xander, because he wanted it so badly for himself. He had worked so hard to get there and she just wanted him to have his best ride. If he did his best and he didn't make it, then he would be okay. She just wanted him to ride his best."

Dylan pulled the trailer up to the staging area for the Demo Derby. Regan got out to register the Killarney entry and be assigned a staging spot.

"Okay, so we are over here, and best part, I got us assigned next door to the entry from Drovers Run!"

"Great. let's unload this thing and check in with Stevie about the rodeo times before we hit the fair." said Grace. She had calmed down after telling Regan about Gavin and was determined to have a fun day at the fair with her sister and brother-in-law.

"I want to play some of the games. I've got the two best looking dates at the fair. I reckon I owe them each some sort of stuffed animal." Dylan winked at his wife.

They unloaded the Croc car in their designated spot and Grace checked out the other cars. The croc definitely had the best paint job there, but the paint job didn't matter, it was all about who was left standing at the end.

They found Matt, Terry, and Russell standing there with a hot pink car.

"Hey, nice paint job. I was wondering who would be bringing the Killarney car since Stevie had the horse trailer with Rufus," said Terry.

"She recruited me, since I'm staying there, and I got Regan and Dylan to keep me company for the ride. How's it going guys? It's great to see all of you." said Grace, as they all greeted each other.

"That paint job is wicked. The croc looks awesome! Who did the paint work?" asked Matt.

"Moira, Stevie and I did the green base, but the artist is Bobby. I'm so impressed! He is really talented." said Grace.

"If there was a prize for best looking car, I reckon Killarney would have it," said Regan.

"No way, look at this beauty! It's got a jolly rodger and a unicorn," boasted Matt.

"Well we were going to check in with Stevie to get the details for Xander's competition, then we're going to check out the fair. You guys want to join us?" asked Regan.

"Swing by the pie tent. Meg's entered a pie. I'm sure she would love to see you." said Terry.

"I'm going to wait for Jodi to get here, then we'll go get Meggie and Katie and relieve Meg from babysitting duty," said Matt.

"I'm hoping to buy my wife more junk food. She woke up sick again. I thought the junk food only diet had cured the morning sickness, but not quite, I guess. At least it's much better than it was," said Russell

"Kate's Pregnant? That's wonderful Russell! Congratulations!" exclaimed Grace. "Kate will be such a great mother and I'm sure you will be an awesome dad."

"That's great news! You guys will be great parents! What a happy event for your family." said Regan as she gave Russell a hug.

"Congratulations, mate." Dylan shook Russell's hand.

"Thanks, we're really excited. It was really a longtime coming. Kate wanted to be a mother so badly, I just want all of her dreams to come true," said Russell. "And I'm thrilled to become a dad."

"I'm sure you and Kate will have made such a beautiful baby," said Regan.

"Actually, we just found out it's twins. So two beautiful babies. It was quite a surprise. Kate had to throw out all the plans she had written up," said Russell.

"Yup, that sounds like Kate, lots of written plans," laughed Grace.

"They were right behind us on the road, but they had to go on to the general car park. I reckon they'll be here in a couple minutes," said Dylan.

"We pulled over briefly to tighten the trailer hitch and they saw us and pulled over to see if we needed any help. The good news is that we didn't. It just needed to be tightened a bit more," explained Regan. "I reckon Stevie was in quite a rush this morning getting everything ready."

"But we didn't get to say much, just exchanged quick hugs," added Grace.

"Let's wait for them so we can catch up a bit," said Regan.

"Sounds good as long as I get to keep both of you lovely ladies as my dates," Dylan joked.

Jodi pulled the car into the general parking area.

"Alright girls, what's everyone's plans?" asked Tess,

"I'm going to the demo car area to meet up with Matt, then we are going to give my mom a break and take our girls to see some of the animals. She loves spending time with her granddaughters, but I know they can be a lot. Mom has been a rockstar this week."

"I'm going to let Russell buy me all of the great fried fair food. I'm thinking corn dogs, funnel cakes, those crazy spiral potatoes, I'll eat all of it. I may let Russell try to win me a stuffed animal too," said Kate

"I just got a text from Amy. She's with Jess. I was hoping to hang with them for a bit." said Claire "I'll be back to see Xander compete, but I've missed my friends from school this week."

"I guess I'm on my own then," said Tess.

'"I bet Regan, Dylan and Grace are with the guys at the demo car area. Let's see what their plan is." said Jodi

"Mom, I'm gonna go now. I'll see you at the rodeo later." Claire gave her mom a hug and was off.