4th of July - Country Style

Hello my friends.. did you have a good weekend?  We had a busy and fun time.  Saturday was preparing for the party and BBQ, dusting the piano and living room furniture, spreading red, white and blue table cloths, you know the drill.  Sunday began early as they close the roads out here at 9:30 am for the parade so our guest began arriving before that.  Then we went up to the top of our road and set up a shade canopy for us to sit under and watch.  Would you like to see some of the parade?  Let's begin with one of my very favorites, the white carriage pulled by two shiny black Percheron draft horses.  I want to ride in that!

The parade began with the cars - old ones, new ones, all colors.  Many of them toss candy to the kids, this is Gabriel on the left and Caleb on the right rushing to pick up sweets.

This is a 1962 Corvette convertible, isn't it a beauty?  We live a half mile down that road.

Blue Cobra.

They close off the road for the parade so our road is nice and safe while we're gone as no one is allowed up and down during the parade.  The police woman came over and chatted with us at length, she was a real character.

It got hot on the 4th.. Caleb found that our son Shawn's German Shepherd enjoyed having water squirted into her mouth.  :-)

Here come the pretty horses and ladies!

I shouted a greeting and was rewarded with waves and smiles.

Another Corvette, a Cadillac and a wonderful vintage truck.  Which one do you want?  I want the truck!

Oh I love this old Ford 1946 flatbed truck!

Don't you just love the clip clopping of horses as they go by?  We ride Western style here.. how do your riders ride and dress?

How about this old red bearded farmer and his old tractor (in need of a wash)?

This Army truck is for sale at a local auto dealership.  Can you imagine what the gas mileage would be?

Trucks and more trucks!

From the biggest to the littlest -- this little girl gamely drove her little battery operated utility cart the whole parade route.. so cute.

A beautiful shiny red fire truck.

Here is an early 1920s truck - love it!

Lots of ladies and their beloved horses.

After the parade we returned to the farm for a BBQ and lots of visiting.  Here is my sister Denise and our son Shawn cooling off in the shade of the gazebo.

Kristi stayed home from the parade and did a lot of work setting up for the BBQ.

Dayle BBQed chicken, boneless pork ribs and hotdogs on his pellet smoker/grill.  Kristi put together the orange baked beans and cooked the potatoes and eggs for the potato salad, peeled, chopped the eggs and sliced the celery - when I got home from the parade I added everything she'd prepared and the mayo, mustard, salt and pepper and mixed it up.  Everything was yummy!  (Please excuse the messy presentation.. :-) but BBQ sauce IS not neat.)

Kristi's best friend, her husband and 3 little boys joined us.  That makes for 7 little boys running around having fun! :-)

Kristi filled up a little kiddie pool for the little guys.. how cute are they?  :-)

Travis' best friend Dan and his wife Keturah stopped by for a quick visit, make that 9 little boys and 1 little girl.  :-)

Michael and Gabriel, Shawn's boys, and their two young German Shepherds, Schatzie and Meeka.

I had to show you - I ordered the alpaca from the farm and shop above Hood River on Thursday afternoon and it arrived on Friday!  Now I have it to take with me on the trip so I can work on it - if I ever have the time.  :-)

Every time I get up from my easy chair and then return, look who is there keeping it warm for me?  Oh, we're going to miss this little guy.  I'm so glad that Kristi will be taking good care of him for us.. and the chickens.. and the flowers.. and my houseplants.  :-)

Last night Travis set off some little fireworks for us and let the boys play with some sparklers.

Hayden is making circles with his sparkler. 

Caleb doing the same.  I chastised Dayle for having the 55 Chevy hood up - and told him he knows nothing about staging photos.  :-)  But I'm sure you've figured out by now that I don't do lovely polished magazine worthy photos.. but raw, real and messy.  :-)

The waning moon that I snapped the other night.. love the craters showing on the right side of it.

I play Scrabble on Facebook.. every once and a while I am Number 1!  Woohoo!  My daughter Amy is a touch competitor and puts me down to #2 and 3 often.. but not right now!  For a day or two I might be #1!  I also play Gracie and she's been beating me a lot.  What a challenging game!

I hope you've enjoyed my flotsam and jetsam of photos.. 

Today we are packing our bags for our trip.  Tomorrow we're having our car washed, vacuumed and the inside of the windows washed.  And then, Wednesday morning early (for us) we will be pulling out and driving 8 hours south to Redding, California.  Then we'll spend the night there and the next day head 4 hours up to Lake Tahoe.  Can't wait to see it again!  

I will try to blog while gone and share some of the sights.  What I won't probably have time for is leaving comments on your blogs (for those who blog).  I hope you will understand that we'll have precious little time inside as we'll be driving and sight-seeing a lot.  So.. have a great MONTH!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)