4th of July, 2008

Our village hasn't done anything for 4th of July since...well, since I've been around here! Jeff said he remembers when he was little someone used to do something. So this year, the fire department and the Lion's club decided to do something. A community event centered around food, fireworks, and good ol' American country music!

First the food had to be cooked. The fare was simple: hamburgers, hot dogs and chips. Served with iced tea and lemonade.

Followed by some homemade ice cream. This ice cream maker should make enough for this crowd.

Some good ol' family fun and games on the track, too. Drew is ready for the stick horse race, while my niece Gracie is getting some last minute tips from her mother, Amanda.

And their off!! Chance (middle boy in red) was ready to go! My nephew, Brantley, was too (2nd on the left). Unfortunately, Chance went down in the middle of the race, injured with skinned knees. He made a trip with daddy to the waiting ambulance to get cleaned up and said, "Daddy, please no needles. Ok?"

The girls had their turn, too. Ch'ree on the far left, Shelby on the far right.

It didn't end there! Even the big boys got a turn. Jeff, right in the middle. I think the high schoolers were having fun, even if they won't admit it.

Other races like the sack race, a dunking booth, and egg toss, went on until sunset.

Break here. I didn't have a chance to take any pictures of the fireworks because Drew, aka Hodini, kept trying to escape my sights. He loved the fireworks, just felt he needed to find another seat to view them. That seat being away from me. So, I held onto him and not the camera. But the fireworks were awesome. Some said they were better than the one in town the night before (Portales had to do their show a day early due to some problems with the pyrotechnic company being understaffed. We tried to make it to see them on Thursday, but was detained by a vanful of senior citizens that had run out of gas on the highway. Jeff, being the good sam that he is, stopped to help them out. We pulled up to the house we were crashing to watch the fireworks just as the last one was lit. Oh, well). Jeff and I spent all week pouring over all the songs on our iTunes library to pick the perfect ones to dance to. We tried to get just the right amount of songs from several decades. A little Bob Wills and Johnny Cash and a couple other old artists, a bit of 70's, 80's, 90's and the latest to keep everyone happy. Even a bit of the new hip hopped version of Cotton Eyed Joe and the Cha Cha Slide for the teens. There was much Alan Jackson, because you can't go wrong with him. He's traditional enough for the older folk, but new enough for the younger ones. The playlist we narrowed it down to would have took 7 hours to get through, so we didn't get to hear it all. Maybe next time.

There's Jeff working the playlist. Not sure if he was actually working on songs, or playing Spider Solataire. LOL!

Even Drew got in on the dancing! I think he's the cutest thing with his boots and wranglers on, but what happened to his shirt?

40 Years of wedded bliss for Don and Linda (Jeff's parents)

Ch'ree stealing a dance with Granddaddy

I know Jeff's mother took many pictures with her camera, and if I had some of those, I might be in one or two. But I don't, so you won't see me. haha!! Maybe if she sends me one or two, I MAY post them.

If I had to take a guess, about 150 people came for the festivities. I don't think Floyd has that many people, so a few probably came from town that had ties to the community (family or school). It was alot of fun, at least for our family. We didn't come home til 1am. Hopefully next year we can do it again!