Great Fourth Fun and Photos

It has been a wild weekend. Jesse and I ran over to WF on Friday to do a bit of shopping. Not only did we buy ourselves some things, we bought food supplies for our 4th of July celebration. We also had lunch with Mom and then brought her home with us to attend the Loco Fire Department 3rd of July lawnmower races and fireworks.

First, a quick story on Mom: Mom did not go shopping with Jes and I, because she was packing her bags and getting ready to come home with us. She also had to feed my brother’s dogs, since he went off for the old traditional 4th of July in Red River (he is a dog himself). When Mom met us for lunch at Chili’s, she was a bit wound up and had had quite the morning. She told us that while she was feeding my brother’s dogs, her little Fox Terrier, Buddy, caught a Mocking Bird. He brought it into the garage to show her and was quite pleased with himself. He wanted to get into her car with the bird, but Mom made a grab for it. She said she came up with a handful of feathers. Then she chased the dog around the garage trying to catch him and force him to give up the bird. Eventually she was successful, but the bird was still alive. It hopped off into some garage junk where Mom could not get to it. Then she had to chase the dog to get him into her car without his bird. Mom couldn’t leave the garage open, but she couldn’t get the bird. She didn’t know what to do – so she left the bird and came to meet us for lunch. She was worried about the bird dying and stinking up Pete’s garage. When she told this story, I could just see her chasing that little dog around with a bird in its mouth. The dog is not much bigger than the bird. The whole thing made me laugh My first words to Mom where, "Have you washed your hands yet?"

We all got back to OK safely Friday afternoon. Jesse had to scurry around and get to Loco, since she had been drafted to work the food booth and the face painting booth. Mom and I waited on Toby to get home from work, and then we loaded up the lawn chairs and cooler to go to Loco. This Loco 4th of July celebration was a big to do with lots of Loco-ites and other Okies turning out for the fun. We found a place to put our chairs in the shade before the GGs dragged me off to see the turtle races. GBN1 was fascinated with the turtles. A few weeks ago Aunt Jes brought GBN1 a turtle from the pond. It eventually escaped the yard and took off for parts unknown (Darn! How did that happen?). She has not stopped asking about that turtle and was really happy to see lots of turtles at Loco. GBN1 spent most of the afternoon playing with turtles from the race – turning them over on their backs, feeding them bugs and grass, seeing if they will really bite, rubbing her hands all over them, rubbing her hands on her own face…
It was the lawnmower races that everyone came to see in Loco. The lawnmower races had several different heats from push mower races (which Lindz won) to the traditional riding mower races, to the souped up lawnmower races. Toby had donated one of our old lawnmowers (just some typical junk that every Okie keeps in their yard) to some young men for the races. They put a motorcycle engine (4 cylinder 600 CC) in the lawnmower, added some other interesting parts that were probably meant to keep it on the ground rather than flying since it would go over 60 mph, and painted racing stripes on it. It was the talk of the town. Robert Starr, another friend of ours, drove the lawnmower in the main event. He was great – winning by a country mile. Jesse has a video up at her blog. Because I was watching GGs and Great Grandmothers, I handed my camera off to others to take pictures for me. Here are some random shots. The EMT vehicle The Pit Crew (I really think I should have had pit crew privileges since I was a part owner in the mower) The new Loco Tank The ever-smilin' Jake
The evening ended with Tucker’s famous fireworks display. I swear for a Loco boy, he does an amazing job on the fireworks. I have been at his house when he has set an acetylene bomb off that rattled the windows. He is much safer with the fireworks. GBN1 was wowed by the fireworks. She sat in Great Gram’s lap and belly laughed and squealed at the fireworks. Last year she could be heard saying "Georges" instead of gorgeous. This year I heard her exclamation of "Amazing!" Here is GBN2 with her painted face. It was a great celebration.

Saturday we met the GGs and Great Gram for breakfast in town before sending Great Gram home.

Then we packed the catamaran, kayaks, coolers, etc. for a trip to LETRA. We had several people join us including Shay’s brother, Nathan who is stationed at Ft. Sill.

We cooked k-bobs (sirloin, shrimp, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, and peppers) on the grill. We had a great campsite with lots of shade. About 5:30 PM the big beautiful white clouds turned dark and ugly – so we got the cat out of the water. We got the campsite put up before the storm really hit, but driving home in the sheets of rain and wind was not fun. There were times when it was difficult to see the road. It turned cool for July 4th. It continued to rain all evening and into Sunday. Since it was a much-needed rain, I will not complain that our fun was cut short. Toby and I came home and kicked back with our books and hot tea. The younger folk went to watch a movie.

Now I know that the 4th of July is about much more than a fun holiday with friends and family. I saw some great blogs posting the Declaration of Independence and other patriotic things. But you know, I am thankful for the freedoms that we have and for the men and women who made those freedoms possible. We live in a great country.