ropin'

Matt grew up roping.  He was a farm and ranch boy and he learned to rope when he was young.  When he was in high school, he did high school rodeo and competed in calf roping and team roping.  He won quite often and he loved doing it. 

When we were living in Pullman,Washington going to vet school, we had some great neighbors.  One favorite family was the Holsts.  They had a little boy named Brendan.  Here he is at around 3 years old with Matt roping at the playground near our apartment.  He used to come and knock on our door and say "Can Matthew Crane play?"   Matt would then get his rope and go rope him and all the other kids that lived in our apartment complex.  They loved to get roped by Matt and Matt like the diversion from studying. 

 Here is the Holst family now.  Brendan is now 15 years old and I am sure he is a great big brother to his crew.  They still live in Washington, and one day it would be great to hook up with the Holsts again. 

 

Matt loves to rope our kids now.  These pictures were taken on a beautiful July evening.  The kids were squealing with delight and having a fantastic time.  The only problem was that Matt never missed, so they kept getting roped.  I told him he needed to let them 'win' every now and then!

Oh, Emmitt got away on that one!  Look at that smile!

So Matt came home from work last week with 3 new ropes - orange for Emmitt, green for Kelsey, and of course pink for Kendal.  Matt got his old rawhide roping steer head out, stuck it in a box, and taught Kelsey to rope.  Emmitt thought it was wonderful.  He packs that orange rope around all over the house!  Kelsey has a long time before she can reach Matt's expectations of a roper, but she loves it and wants to learn.