JULY 4TH, YAHOO, BUCKAROO

Our friends, the Iversons, invited us to The St. Paul Rodeo on July 4th. They have box seats and we were sitting right on the edge of the arena. They also invited the Carliles. It was so much fun and that ain't no bull . . .

. . . well actually, these ARE bulls.

At the beginning there was a really neat tribute to all the veterans and about our freedoms. It was very touching.

Then the fun began

This is what happens to the calf, when the cowboy remembers his rope.





And what happens when the cowboy forgets his rope.





This is on a replay screen, because I missed it on my camera. The bull got the better of this cowboy, OUCH!!





Young cowboy, young bull.





This was hilarious! The guys in the car have to get a pig, put it in their car and race around the track. They have to do it 3 times, each time with a new pig. It's hard to see, the guys are holding the pig with one arm and driving with the other. Some pigs are better passengers than others.

At the end of each event the 2 girls ride as fast as they can and the winner of that event tries to catch up. Only one winner did.

This was GREAT FUN! Hope your 4th was full of fun, freedom, family, fireworks and good memories.

OUR HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA CELEBRATION

Kelly and Crystal rode up together on July 1st. They helped me so much for our party, I don't know what I would have done without them. The first thing the grand kids wanted to do was go for a tractor ride. The girl next to Addy is her friend, Victoria. Alex is missing, he came the next day with his dad.

July 2nd, Party Day--first things first, dress in red, white and blue.

We had about 50 guests --- family and

Siblings and

friends came to the party.

Can you think of a better place to eat a popsicle?

We had all kinds of deeeelicious food. This is the neatest Independence Day cake and the cake maker, my friend, Lynn.

mmmmm more food

We had lots of fun things to do. Alex brought his dirt bike.

Quad cruisin'

Shotgun shooting. Crystal, Addy, and Victoria all shot for the first time and I think they each got at least 1 pigeon. Kelly shot before and did good also.

At the end of the day, Rub a dub dub, 3 kiddies in a tub, a Payton, an "O" man and a dirty "D" boy.

2nd of July fireworks, with Alex, Crystal and me.

Loaded up and ready to drive home on July 4th.

Thanks soooo much for coming and for all your wonderful help!!!!!

JUNE VISITS

Kelly and Crystal's families came 2 weekends ago. They overlapped on the weekend. Dylan got his first tractor ride. He loved moving the bucket up and down. I couldn't get this program to upload videos, so no video on this post--bummer.

Chris had to stay home and work, but the rest of the gang came.

Crystal and Ryan's family came over for lunch, then dinner the next night. Darla and Chris came too.

Alex and grandpa lit up a burn pile. After dinner, we all walked over and stood around the fire and visited, then walked back up to the house for dessert---strawberry shortcake, mmmm.

On Friday, Kelly's family, Jim and I went to Newport. There was just enough wind for Jim to fly his kite, but not too breezy to play on the beach. We walked in the surf and for the first time ever, the water was luke warm. It's always brrr freezing cold. If someone told me the Oregon ocean was warm, I wouldn't believe them until I felt it myself.

I love to watch and hear the sea lions on the docks, cute mama and baby. The girls can get up to 250 pounds and the boys up to 1.000 pounds.

Next stop, Aunt Belinda's candy store. THE BEST salt water taffy on the Oregon coast.

This boat is filled with salt water taffy, sooooo many choices, so little time.
Dylan's got his candy and he's on the go.

Lunch at the Sand Dollar on Nye Beach.

Dylan, not sure at first about the sand and sea.

Then he fell in love with it and played and played.

On this tide pool, Dylan and Addy and Sophia touch the open sea anemone. They are sticky and fun to watch curling back up. There was little crabs. mussels and other creatures. I don't have any pictures of Kelly feeding the seagulls, but it so funny. There were 3 seagulls that she threw food out to. Then within a split second, she was swooped upon by about 20 seagulls all at once. The shock on her face was so funny, just as she was saying, "I wonder if they will like this food?"

Picture perfect pose.

We had to leave our "presence" on the beach.

At the day's end, the beach left it's "presents" to us----drunken by the sun, the constant flow of the waves, the discovery of new things and the time spent together gives us all inner peace, relaxation, and the memories to cherish.

JUNE PROJECTS

I actually got some quilting done in May and June. Crystal wanted me to make some table runners for her. These are 2 of them.

Got some weeding done. In the foreground there are strawberries and blueberries (weeded). Beyond that are raspberries (unweeded and almost unseen)

Planted the garden in May and it's growing, hooray.

Kevin did a TON of tree trimming and blackberry chopping over the winter. We've lived here 6 years and can finally walk in areas we've never been able to walk on because of the massive overgrowth. We took his piles and burned them. Jim told me I "overlit" this pile. Guess he was right. You can see how tall the flames went in relation to Jim's height, he's on the right side of the pile.

There's more work and lots of tractor work for Jim, but just about the time things begin to dry up another rain storm comes in. Rain rain go away, come again. . . . . . . . in about 6 months.