The 4th Festivities!

We had a very quiet July 4th celebration, nothing like years past. Which was fine by me! My sis came up to hang out and help keep an eye on the horses. It was so hot out, that we spent most of the day sitting in the shade, and reading books and talking. My OH stayed in the house. What? The house? It was so freaking hot in there, I am not sure what he was thinking. Finally around 4:00 p.m. he came out. We went to feed the horses, and than we went to play some horseshoes! The first game I wanted to just play my sis. She needed a game to warm up. She doesn't play horseshoes very often, maybe once a year. Our game took probably an hour, but she was kickin' my butt! What the heck? She had 4 ringers in our game, only 3 counted, since I cancelled one of hers. Who stole my sis?

While my sis played a game with my OH, since she won our game, I went on another Aussie photo shoot. This is all I could get. Bailey laying in the grass, like he always does. Notice I put his bandana on? He has a couple. I don't have any festive colors, at least not red, white and blue festive. My sis bought this one for Bailey back during Christmas.



I found the Painted Creek Killer. Oh no! I let the cat out of the bag! Morgan is the PCK! I scooped her up and put her in the house. She was the last remaining cat outside. Now I felt better, having all the cats locked in their jail cell, which most of them hate! Exception: Dakota, My Million Dollar Cat and Alexis, my big, fat Siamese!



Not again! I swear I should just give up giving this dog a bath! Sadie is in the pond, what's left of the creek, dirt and horse poo! So much for her bandana! I couldn't find her pink ones, so I had to go with teal blue, which went nicely with her pink collar, but the pink would have been so much prettier!



My OH beat my sister at the next game of shoes, so it was my turn again. When it gets as hot as it has been, the heat really effects my knee, the one I had surgery on. It gets really stiff, besides all the other problems it has given me in the last year. So I had to put my knee brace on. It is amazing how well the knee brace really supports my knee. It prevents most of the pain and I can tolerate most activities, if I have it on.



I am very competitive. I really concentrate when I am playing shoes, or any game for that matter. Especially if it's against my OH. We are both very competitive, with eachother. It all started with my OH, he can't stand a girl beating him at any game! I think it's like that with most men. I have a very serious look on my face! Notice how my OH is pretending to look off in the distance? Yeah, he thinks he has the game in the bag. (He did this time!)



Sadie is hiding behind the horseshoe pit. They just can't figure out that they need to stay out of the way! They will get it, eventually! Crazy Aussie's!



We invited my OH's mom and stepdad over for dinner and to play some horseshoes. We thought our neighbor was going to be having fireworks, but we didn't see them outside all day. Around 8:30 they left. Come to find out, the neighbors were home. Their son K had a bunch of college friends over, and were going to be letting off fireworks. So we went back to the house to get dressed for the weather, which wasn't going to be much! It was still very warm outside! I was playing around with my camera again. Had to get some more moon pictures. They aren't great, but with a point and shoot, it's all I can do.



I thought this one was interesting. A jet had flown by, and the stream from the jet faded in front of the moon.



I wish I could get the craters in the moon with my camera, but I can't get a really good picture of them. I had to really zoom in here. It's a little blury.



Let the firework show begin!











I didn't have to mess with the settings on my camera this year, I already knew which one would take the best shots. We had some people around us letting off a lot of really big booms. I know the horses weren't too happy. Before all the big booms started, we went and tossed them some more hay. After the firework show, we got some treats and went out to check on them. They seemed fine. Of course they enjoyed the late night treat and pets.

Bailey wasn't liking the fireworks at all. We had the dogs in the garage, with the stereo on. Sadie didn't seem to mind the noise. She just slept right through it. We came back to the house from time to time, to check on them. The cats handled everything just fine. Even though it was so hot out, we shut all the windows, turned the t.v.'s and stereos on and they didn't even seem to notice what was going on. It was nice to have a more relaxing 4th this year. We made enough food for the 5 of us, and got a free fireworks show. I couldn't have it any better!