UPDATED: We Did It

BREAKING NEWS - Just received this e-mail:

Brooke-

Hello! It is clear that your daughter submitted the required entries to win. We are waiting on some final details, as well as a winning graphic to be designed so we can make an "official" Facebook announcement, but you can definitely tell her she is a winner. 

To collect your prize, just come in any time we are open and talk to the gift shop clerk. They will help you pick out a T-shirt and take your daughter's picture for her 5-year pass!

Congratulations! Please let me know if you have any questions.

~Jess Coulter

Director of Operations

A Carousel For Missoula

__________________

Dear Laney,

A few days before the deadline, we finished our goal of riding all 40 horses on the Carousel For Missoula.

We never could have pulled it off had you not decided that it was more fun to ride it all by yourself without a grown-up. Because, girl, if you had insisted I ride it with you 40 times, I would have lied and told you the carousel burned down in a freak accident.

On the last trip there before the deadline, you only had three horses left to ride. It all came down to a final horse named "Bogie," which another girl beat you to. You told the ride operator that you'd wait for the next go-round, when you'd have another chance to run and grab Bogie. You waited patiently, first in line, and when the ride operator opened the gate, he was so excited for you that he yelled, "GO GET BOGIE!!" Then (I'm convinced) we ran in dramatic slow motion until we reached your 40th and final horse. I think at that point if another kid had tried to climb on that horse in front of us, I would have shoved 'im off and told him to start running...before the carousel burned down in a freak accident.

We're still waiting for them to announce a winner, but no matter the outcome*, I want you to know how much I enjoyed all those trips to the carousel with you, looking over the list of horses left to ride and deciding which ones you wanted you ride when. I'm proud of you for sticking with it, and for riding the horses that you'd previously been scared of.

Great job, cowgirl.

Love,
Mom

* We'd better win.