As the 2012 Calgary Stampede Centennial Royalty, we had an incredible ten days this Stampede! It was such an amazing experience to look up at the completely full grandstand and know that we were becoming a part of history! Every day we had a full schedule and my Stampede Sisters and I made the most of every day; we had so much fun and so many laughs! It is tough to summarize our experience in one blog but I will try! 

Each day of Stampede we went to many pancake breakfasts all over the city, we met tons of people and had some really great food. My favorite breakfast was definitely the Chinook Centre pancake breakfast; they put blueberries in the pancakes and topped them with chocolate chips and whipped cream!

After the breakfasts, we would usually attend sponsor luncheons for many of our different sponsors and friends of the Stampede. After lunch, or sometimes during,  the girls and I would rush off to get our horses warmed up for grand entry. 

Riding in the grand entry of the Calgary Stampede was an incredible experience! With the flames and fireworks and all the different horses and people involved, it was amazing! I loved riding around the arena and waving to the thousands of people in the audience. My Prince, my Royalty horse Snoopy, was very well behaved all through Stampede and I was very happy with him. After grand entry we visited the suits around the infield and met even more amazing people. We were even fortunate enough to be invited to the Indian Village one afternoon to observe our amazing Indian Princess Amelia partaking in her very own Tea Ceremony. That was a great honor and one of my favorite memories of Stampede.We also rode in the Happy Trails farewell almost everyday after the rodeo with the Stampede Ranch Girls which was  lots of fun as well. Afterwards, we would head  back to our hotel, our home for the Stampede, The Hyatt, to change for the evening.

One of my favorite parts of Stampede was standing on the grandstand stage before the chuckwagon races each night. It was such an amazing experience to stand in front of thousands of people who were all there because they too love the Stampede. My Stampede Sisters and I each had two nights during the ten days to greet the enormous crowd and welcome them the the Centennial Calgary Stampede. Speaking in front of that many people was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had, I will never forget that feeling!

On most nights the girls and I had to leave shortly after the grandstand speeches were over for other events, but I really enjoyed the nights we we able to stay and watch the chuckwagon races. We had the best seats in the house, standing right up against the fence, having dirt from the track flying at us as the wagons raced by.

We are so lucky and have so many amazing memories from these times during Stampede. We were even lucky enough to meet Garth Brooks!!!! He was so wonderful, very friendly and out going and we had a great time with him. He even managed to get us tickets to go to his concert!!! The concert was incredible, I even cried a little bit when Trisha Yearwood came out to sing! Such an amazing gift! 

I am still amazed by how fortunate we have been this year, we had so many people helping us to make our Stampede experience enjoyable and memorable. Our committee members and our wonderful courtesy car drivers worked very hard for us and I am so grateful to have had them with us during our very special ten days! I feel a little sad that our Stampede has come to pass, but I am very excited for future Royalty to experience their own unique ten days!! Good luck to all of my future alumni sisters!!!