Frolicking on the 4th. . .

This past 4th of July was AWESOME for me and my lil' family. 

 My oldest son flew in from Utah to join in the merriment. . .

--and middle son and his wife drove up from Utah as well. 

 Since my daughter and her family already live here, the only one that was missing was my youngest son who is currently serving a church mission in the Philippines.

We started the day off with a trip to Horning's Hideout in North Plains, Oregon.  It's an amazing place with a lake and trails and peacocks running around everywhere--not to mention 54 holes of disc golf:

Then it was on to a Fourth of July Parade at the coast where the only thing I managed to capture (besides the tons of candy thrown by the folks on the floats) was a photo of men in skirts.  I know what my priorities are and nothing says 'TIME TO FILM' like a bunch of bagpipe marching men wearing kilts. . .

(although dear daughter managed to capture many moments quite nicely with her camera)

Then it was fun and frolic at the coast until a bonfire could be built, s'mores made, and fireworks set off. . . Fun and frolic included lots of ridiculous posing:

Beach-combing and taking in the ocean itself:

 and checking out the lighthouse at Cape Mears:

And getting in a 'photo op' with the Octopus Tree:

Stopping at a local arcade just made one of the brothers glad and one of the brothers mad. . . see if you can figure out which was which from the photo:

I loved having everyone home together--and the fact that we got to eat like pigs and blow stuff up in honor of the holiday made it especially exciting.

Ahhhh. . . I almost forgot (sneaking a peek at daughter-in-law's blog reminded me)  These brothers get a bit weird/sentimental at times:

(Please note: I'm sure there will be more photos to add to this posting--as I need to snag a few from my daughter-in-law and daughter.  There were so many photographers and so little that were blog worthy--at least from my camera  Go figure!)

Until then. . . we'll all have to wait with bated breath for the ending of this posting. . . it could be like the song that never ends. . . maybe I should at least say:

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Wait no longer!  Now I can finally add the actual frolic:

And the fireworks!

Now I can finally say it was a very:   

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

And this last picture I will post (taken by my lovely daughter) sums it up quite nicely:

The Force at Christmas time

First of all, let me just say that in this new year of 2011 I will NOT be making any earth-shattering resolutions--I just hope to keep up with my life and not seriously injure anyone in the process.

That being said--I need to backtrack a bit and add some fun events which I had not yet opined on in late 2010--the most recent of which was this past Christmas.

It was a holly jolly one to be sure.  Full of wonder and love and mirth. . and this year especially the presence of THE FORCE was in full effect.

Thanks to my dear daughter's MUCH better camera (Santa, are you listening for next year perhaps??) I am 'borrowing' a few of her photos as well.  Now to show how this intergalactic event took place in my not-so-futuristic home.

Just the very idea that CHRISTMAS was ACTUALLY here, had my two older grandsons in hyper-drive:

And just about everyone had their game face on for the Christmas meal as you can see in the slide show.  (the only one 'grinchy' was G-Pa who was trying his best to look upset about carving the 'roast beast'

Everyone seemed to be in the holiday spirit (namely, in a good mood):

And Nana knew just what to get the munchins this year as they desperately wanted a 'Star Wars' Christmas:

After receiving my 'snuggle' from my oldest son--I had to admit, it made me feel a bit like a Jedi:

And speaking of oldest son--he was definitely quite proud of his 'uber-cool pacemaker thingy'--just like Iron Man:

G-Pa is always stylin' in what the kids give him to wear.  This year a new fishing hat and a Fantasy Football League Champion t-shirt:

May the wonder and beauty of Christmas (and the power of the force, of course) be with you through this new year. . . .