July 2, 2014, fun evening with good friends.

 Last evening our friends invited Jeff and myself to go to the US Air Force Tops in Blue.  We always look forward too and enjoy time spent with Joe and Barb.   We enjoyed a fun meal out so we could spend quality time visiting and then a fun filled, action packed, entertainment jammed a hour and 45 minutes of continued wonderful music.  This was a free concert and great.  I highly recoment you attend one of these Tops In Blue concerts if they come close to your area. We certainly enjoyed it. Below are just a few pictures that I took from far away in the balcony with my zoom lens and without a flash.  The pictures are not so good but certainly gives an idea of the diversified concert for their 60th year anniversary performance.

Lots of tunes that we recognized and some we even were invited to clap or sing along.
Many, many changes of costume.  There were a total of 34 highly talented entertainers.  

 Some fun things for the children too. Despicable Me, Beauty and the Beast and others.  

They even sang the very popular "LET IT GO" from the new movie  Frozen.   I must admit that a sweet little girl, about 3 yr old who was sitting a couple rows in back of us stoll the show with her very loud, expressive, on key, singing of that song.  I think she knew every word.   SO CUTE!

 Every one knew and sang along with this song, YMCA,  it started with the men in back row, dressed like Village People,  then the women came out dressed as Village People, and ended the song with front row dressed in the different branch of Armed Forces.  It was great.
There were tunes from every era of past 60 years.  Even some country, rap and classical. Unlike other shows I have seen, there was no break whatsoever between songs, went directly from one to another.  They reminded me of the "Energizer Bunny"  never wearing down.   

 This last song of the evening got a standing ovation and much applaud just after the final line,  GOD BLESS THE USA. 

After the show they were all lined up out in the civic center hall to greet and shake hands.  What a great evening to start the 4th of July celebration of our freedom.   

Blue Grass

Just a few pictures from the Black Hills Bluegrass Festival.  It was beautiful weather today to listen to the Gospel Music Show.  

 I thought the bales of straw were a great idea this year.

This is the High Plains Tradition Blue Grass band from Colorado.  

A short video with the very good Blue Grass band from North Dakota.     

      They are named  COTTONWOOD.

 The next few pictures are of friends from our Bluegrass Jam group that Jeff plays with almost weekly here in Rapid City.  

This band was Nu-Blu from North Carolina, and yes, they definitely had a distance to travel.    

It was nice we were able to attend our ZION Lutheran Church this morning before the 10 AM Bluegrass Gospel show.  

Fun Family Time in Nebraska

Papa and our youngest granddaughter enjoying TV with freshly "picked by her"  Mulberries. She was happy to share with her Papa.  Below, she is helping her Papa clean and fix the lawnmower wheels. 

She just had to sample one of chocolate frosted sugar cookies baked earlier by her 12 yr old sister and Nana.   Yes, they turned out very tasty.   Below is a picture that our youngest took of their dog Toby.  It is always fun to borrow Nana's good camera to take a picture.  

 
Rusty cat.  He is very special to his owner, our 16 yr old granddaughter and the whole family. 

The girls had a lot of fun PHOTO BOMBING as I tried to get good pictures of each.   

BIG BAD clouds and weather rolled through so we got to experience a genuine Baker retreat to the storm shelter in the basement.  It really was rather fun with the whole family close sitting in a circle with a TV off to the side.  lol   After about 1/2 hour, things were all clear to head back upstairs for a fun evening.

The storm did however take out a big rotted tree from the North side of the town park. It was across the road for a couple hours until the fire department could get it cut up a little and pulled off the road.  

FUN AT THE PARK.    EVEN THE BIG KIDS HAVE FUN AT THE PARK.  The two little ones had some mud filled fun on the swings.  I remember when I was little how much I enjoyed such things.    I guess I still do!

Time to get all that mud washed off before bed.  

I wonder if she thinks she has enough bubbles?

Time to enjoy a Legion Baseball game with our 15 year old grandson, thats him not too happy about having his picture taken by Nana.  See the cheering squad below?  The one on left is the oldest sister at 16 yr with her good friends.

Papa and Nana at the game, picture taken by our youngest.  It was a beautiful evening for a ball game.  

She has quite the pose for this picture. 

Our 15 yr old up top bat.  They won the game 12 to nothing so only had to play 5 innings,  short game but at least we enjoyed watching him play. 

Someone had this sweet 6 week old puppy at the game and you can tell he stole the heart of both our 5 and 12 year old granddaughters.  

Delicious food  with shrimp and muscles on the grill and a great tasty mix of vegetables in the oven.  

A very fun Friday evening with the neighbors
 coming over for fire pit and s'mores. 

It is so much fun when the neighbors get along like family.

The picture above was taken again by our youngest.  





Here she is in front of her mom and dad roasting another giant marshmallow.

It was Garage sale days for the whole neighborhood and our 12 yr old decided to try her hand at a bake sale.  She sold almost everything she made and even got some weekly orders for the summer.   YUM, just look at those tasty rolls.    Below you can see our 5 yr old princess with one of our "Garage Sale treasures" I think it looks absolutely beautiful on her and it will fit her for a few years as it is a few sizes too large. 

This is in front of their beautiful home and below she is riding her bike on the front porch.

Finally a picture of our 8 yr old grandson.  He along with his 16 and 12 yr old sister enjoy learning Ninjitzu or it could be Ninjutsu.   They started at different times and that exsplains the different color for their belts. 

The three Ninjas. 

HORSE SHOES IN THE PARK

 A fun late afternoon playing horse shoes 
with papa and the grand kids, 

 Dad gets in a little father daughter time on the big swings. 

 Look out world, she just got her drivers licence. 
 I rode with her and she is a very conscientious and
 responsible driver.  

  OK granddaughter, 

time to start saving up to buy a car or "pickup"?

 This brave little Wren bird built its home in one of the bird houses on the porch railing.  Papa helped grandchildren build these a couple years ago.  You could hear the babies and the mom sang so beautiful.

Our 12 yr old granddaughter tried out for the Childrens theater, "The Secret Garden" and she was chosen as assistant director.  She did a great job and learned a lot in that very busy week. She is the standing girl with red top 

Goofing off with the neighbor boy.  Good friends.

5 yr old

8 yr old

smack dab in the middle at 12 years old

The baseball player at 15 yr old

Absolutely beautiful at 16 years old

 Fun pictures with computer and Rusty cat.