Small Town USA - 4th of July 2016

We had a great time yesterday!  Up early, my sister Denise joined us, and up to the parade we headed.  Dayle surprised us with Uncle Sam hats and I snapped a photo of the boys under the decorated gazebo.  :-)  

The parade starts with a lot of cars, historic cars, the Mustang Club, old farm trucks, tractors and all manner of motor vehicles.

We were thrilled to get our old place back to watch the parade - the last 2 years or so someone had come early and had taken over *OUR* place at the top of Bell Road.  It's a pie shaped area between our road and the Historic Columbia River Highway.  Dayle and Travis set up our shade canopy and decorated it with the US flag and the 1st Air Cav flag - the unit he served with in Vietnam.  Kristi's friend Jody and the boys friend Ayden and Ayla joined us.

Our friend Ken in his vintage car, this is actually his daily driver!

The kids showing off how well they're doing collecting candy being thrown from the cars and floats!

I was super pleased to see this red VW bus in the parade, it's almost JUST like the one we got brand new in 1970!  I miss our so much.  I wish we'd kept it.

Then the color guard arrived, we all stood and saluted.  Next is the Corbett Volunteer Fire Department 14.

I love this car but I keep wondering if the neon orange tire rims are original to the car?

I wasn't sure what the theme of this float was - but I see cardboard surfboards and Judy from Big Bear's Market.

I love this old Chevrolet pickup.. it would be fun to have an old farm truck.

My favorite part of the parade are all the wonderful horses and the riders.

My friend Ed is in the car on the left, he and I worked on the big event at Multnomah Falls on the planning committee for almost 2 years.  

My heart melted when I saw a young mother pulling her little girl in a wagon and the little ginger haired toddler had fallen asleep.  Awwww.  :-)

Here is an 80s era Corvette.

I call this guy "the grumpy farmer".  :-)

An old beauty and a glorious 1957? Corvette.

I love this little covered wagon with the little pioneer girls.

Here are several 4-H kids and a chicken.  :-)  I was the Dairy Goat 4-H leader for 5 years for my kids and lots of their friends.  We showed the goats at the Multnomah County Fair.  Lots of great memories.  Kids in stalls of fresh straw, milking their goats there.  :-)

This car was quite different!

Girls and their horses.. such a wonderful thing for young people.

As a Volkswagen loving family, we adored this little vintage bug cutie.

This free spirit group was with the Corbett Performing Arts Club - they were promoting their next play - "A Midsummer's Night Dream"!  I was so very charmed when this little thespian came up to me and offered me a daisy.. which I put behind my ear and wore the rest of the day.  

Wasn't that sweet?

Bringing up the rear are more of the Corbett Fire Trucks.  Parade over.. another wonderful experience for us.

This is the haul of candy that both our grandson's picked up - better than Halloween!  LOL!

Then back to the farm to relax and visit.. Dayle put chicken on the pellet BBQ/Smoker and I brought out the potato salad and baked beans I made on Sunday.  Denise brought a fruit salad and a "cinnamon roll cake".  

The Hydrangea made quite the lovely floral background.  :-)

BBQ chicken.. it was delish!

The potato salad had a dozen of our own chicken's chopped eggs, celery, sweet pickles, snipped fresh chives from our garden, mayo, mustard, salt and pepper sprinkled with paprika just like Mom used to make.  For the baked beans I just added ketchup, a little mustard, molasses and 3/4s cup of frozen orange juice concentrate and let it simmer for a few hours to thicken up.  

Our entertainment through our alfresco picnic were dozens of Goldfinches feeding at our thistle seed socks.

The males are the bright yellow ones, but the females are pretty too.. 

Denise's cake was very tasty!

The boys were invited by their friend to join them on some fun boating and tubing on Saturday.. looks like fun, doesn't it?

I got a kick out of this one.. it looks like they are quite relaxed.. with Mt. Hood in the background.. on the Columbia River.

We're just relaxing today.. and will take down some of our decorations.  Tomorrow Gracie and I are heading back to Bonneville Hot Springs to swim.  I hope you are enjoying July!!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)