The Adventures of Garrett Squared: July 4th 2011

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

July 4th 2011

The shopping was done, the prizes ready. The decorations were up and the campground was packed.

It was July 3, 2011--the day of the big July 4th celebration at the Kampground.

The kids started off the day with patriotic kites and paint.

They painted and decorated the kites for a contest in age groups.

They got to show their kites off while "My Johnnie" judged them on their creativity.

This is the older age kids showing off their kites.

Many of the kids had never put a kite together or flown one.

This is the middle age group.

They thought it was great!

They were judged on who could get it the highest in their age groups.

Most of them continued to fly their kites and enjoy the thrill.

This took us to lunch time.

The golf cart parade was going to be at 4:30. The carts were all decorated and the grand marshalls had arrived. There were signs to put on each of the grand marshalls carts.

Then, about 3:00 pm, a strong storm front came through.

The sun was blocked out and it looked like 8:00 at night! The wind came blowing through and mom was in Little Blue resting while we were in the Mother Ship. The Mother Ship doesn't really do more than shiver slightly (unless hit by a canoe!), but I wondered how mom was doing in Little Blue.

She later told us that Blue was really noisy when the winds came, but didn't rock and knock her out of bed. Good to know.

The roads in the Kampground turned into a river and the ground, already saturated, became a swamp.

We got the call that the parade was moved to 5:30.

At 5:30 I got the call that the grand marshall's cart was no longer decorated as the decorations had been blown off in the storm. It was still raining, but we got word that we would be having the cookout and potluck up at the office and on the porch because blue sky could be seen and it was starting to clear.

At this point, my dad (the parade marshall) found out that my brother, niece and her children and nephew and his wife and child were about 30 minutes away and he decided to go to my other brother's house right away so that he and mom could spend time with them at their cookout.

Gman loaded them up and delivered them and their potluck dishes to my brother's house while I headed up to the office for the Kampground cookout.

The prizes were awarded for the kids.
This is the winner of the preschool through k group. He got a bug collecting kit. Can you see the frog on the front? I mean, the Kampground is "all about the frog" you know...

All the kids got those glow in the dark bracelets too. The parents lined up for those as well...

We all gathered inside to get our goodies. It was packed with friends new and old and lots of wonderful food!!!!

Everyone was sitting wherever they could and all enjoyed it.

Gman made it back. He is on the left. He is talking to Harvey while he is waiting for He Who to cook more burgers and dogs so he could eat.

Harvey helps He Who with the mowing and odd jobs around the Kampground and lives in a camper here. He is also a dandy carpenter. Does wonderful work!!!

This is Patrick. He's such an angel...See his Halo?

This is Patrick's wife, Julie. Can you dig the great earrings and necklace????

Just in case you missed them on my previous blog, I was also decked out for the holiday!!!!

The weather didn't bother Jeff and Julie who won the site of the month. They were on their deck (that looks like a dock) that was all festooned with bunting and bows.

One thing that was good, the heat was gone and with the ground nice and wet, it was a perfect evening for the fireworks display.

This year it was accompanied by patriotic music. I borrowed a set of CD's from my brother which I played on the stereo in my durango. I popped them in, opened all of the doors and the rear and hit the volume.

I was told that people could even hear the music INSIDE of their campers!!!!

As the first CD was finishing, I thought it would just go back to the beginning.

All of a sudden, Michael Buble' started belting out Hollywood. Hey! He's Canadian!!!!

We got back to American Patriotic music and just enjoyed the rest of the show.

Gman and I both agreed that it was as good as the ones that they always had in our hometown.

I was impressed!

Happy 4th all...hope you enjoyed the fireworks and day with us!!!

Now to get ready for the Harvest Festival and Chili, Soup and Dessert contest with jack o lanterns, costumes and fun in October!!!!

4 comments:

Julie RangelJuly 20, 2011 at 12:08 PM
Looks like it was a fun time - even with the crazy weather! I wish I could've seen the parade with Grandma and Grandpa as the Grand Marshalls! I thought about our celebration last year - fun times! We had a celebration here with all the gringos. Mom was here to help me after having the baby and we made chili dogs and the others brought all the fixings and chips, etc... Carlo and Sophie helped me make patriotic wind socs and decorate the table with "paper fireworks" and flags stuck in a collection of blue and clear bottles. It was a good time! Oh, the my favorite part was the drink - I made ice cubes with red koolaid and blue gatorade and we dropped them in Sprite. It looked so patriotic and flavored the sprite too! Anyway, by the end of the night I was done in, but happy. - Julie Rangel
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LeahJuly 21, 2011 at 10:29 PM
Thanks for visiting my little piece in the country - it looks like you had a wonderful July 4th - our heat finally broke and we have had some comfortable days - we are in MN.
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AiringMyLaundryJuly 22, 2011 at 4:28 PM
Looks like so much fun.

That Harvest Festival sounds exciting too.
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labbie1July 24, 2011 at 5:58 PM
Julie--We didn't get to have the parade because of the rain. I would have loved to have seen them in the parade too. :) Sounds like the kiddos had fun with grandma and I think your drinks sound wonderful!!!! I think I may have to borrow that idea!!!
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Country Girl--I really enjoy your piece in the country. Anyone who has a horse names Rusty Wallace is OK. Nothing better than combining my two favorite things--horses and NASCAR. LOL So glad to hear that your weather is calming down.
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Whispering--Yep. The Harvest Festival is great--and COOLER--I hope! :)
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The Mockingjay

It is with great sadness that I say goodbye to the characters of this Trilogy.

This 3rd and last book in The Hunger Games Trilogy was not remotely what I thought it would be. While the first two books were books about horrific competition and massive loss it was also about the indomitable will to live and thrive of the human spirit.

I thought that this book would be much as the other two. Our heros are tested and then survive to live happily ever after.

But, this book is much deeper and probably much more realistic than that. The thin skinned President Snowden in his extreme anger makes it clear that Katniss, her family and even her village are not going to be allowed to live in the peace that we anticipated after the first two books. To the end that President Snowden wants to see Katniss and everyone who follows her and her courage destroyed, we are drawn deeply into a story of battle both internal and external, love and loss and the dramatic results of a long lived, hard fought war while unsure of who is friend and who is foe.

The end of this book was a loss in many respects. The loss of a group of people to whom I was drawn and the loss of a way of life for those characters. While the war was won, the battles took their toll on all of the characters that we have come to know and love and their lives are forever changed by the end of this book and trilogy.

Catching Fire

This 2nd book in The Hunger Games Trilogy was even better than number one!

I read it in about a day and a half.

I simply could NOT put it down!

The main thrust of this book is the Quell games. Every 25 years the districts must take part in not one but two games to celebrate the domination of the Capitol.

If I go further than that with explanation, I will probably ruin #1 for you, so let's just say that the Mockingjay has a part in this and that the families of Peeta and Katniss as well as Gale are well represented.

The ending leaves us hungry for more at the edge of an abiss...

Now, on to book 3.

PS--Don't start this series without purchasing all three books because you will surely kick yourself if you can't go right to the next book!

The Hunger Games

Book 1 of the Trilogy:
GREAT READ! This was recommended to me by my hair stylist while I was in Missouri. I purchased it for my Kindle, but subsequently passed it up for other reads. My mistake! What an engaging book! Following Katniss and Peeta as well as the other characters in a richly written narrative of the Hunger Games which are a fight to the death each year of children chosen from each of the 12 poor downtrodden districts of the country of Penam for the enjoyment of the spoiled, protected class of people in the "Capital". Gripping and twisting right to the end! I liked it so much that the second I finished I felt like I couldn't let go of the characters and zipped right on to the second volume of the trilogy! RECOMMEND HIGHLY!

Pumpkin Roll

Pumpkin Roll by Josi S. Kilpack~~This book was recommended by another blogger who made it sound so good that I I just had to check t out. I purchased my copy for Kindle and really enjoyed it! The author writes a very fine mystery without using vulgarity or objectionable content which is refreshing. This book was a fun one for the autumn season when our thoughts turn to pumpkins, spices and a nip in the air.

The neighbor is rumored to be a witch and with several other colorful characters of dubious nature, we have a fun Halloween culinary novel.

The nice twist at the end of the story gives an interesting wrap-up to make this book a good light read.

In addition, the recipes sounded so good that I had to copy some of them down and try them--including the Pumpkin Roll of the book title. A good read and good recipes! What's better than that?

Pages

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

July 4th 2011

4 comments: