WHEW!! What a LONG day!!!!!

July 4th was a LONG, but fun-filled day for us!! We started out at 8am, as we headed up to Telluride, so that I could perform with the band in the Telluride 4th of July parade!! It's about an hour and half drive from our home in the valley.

Telluride is an old, historic mining town which in the last 20+ years has been transformed into a playground for the rich and famous. Way up in the San Juan mountains, the scenery is spectacular and the land has become quite pricey, to say the least. There is a beautiful ski resort there, that attracts people in the winter from far and wide. People like Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise and many others have built "trophy homes" in the area. They may visit and stay in their multi-million dollar havens a couple times a year!! (These are the houses that we fit with plumbing supplies as they are being built, at the plumbing wholesaler where I work.....our "bread and butter"!) That area provides much of the employment for our valley, both construction jobs and hotel/tourist positions.

It is gorgeous all year round! Here is a sample of the mountain beauty!


Here are the crowds assembling, before the parade, which was down the main street of the town....


Dusty and James were in the crowd, with the camera, as the band went by! Being a concert band, we don't march! So they loaded us on the back of a flat bed truck and away we went!! It was a good thing that only 20 of us showed up (of the band's almost 40!), as 21 would never have fit on that truck with the chairs, music stands, instruments and people!! We had fun though, once we where settled in! We played "Washington Post March" and "The Liberty Bell", several times down the parade route!




We had been invited to perform for the parade and we were so warmly received! They also paid for lunch for all the band members after the parade! The local fire department put on a wonderful BBQ!!

After lunch, we headed back down the mountain, stopping at the grocery to pick up dinner fixings before going home for showers and naps!! At 7pm, we headed out again, this time 10 miles north of us, to the town of Delta for their fireworks display at Confluence Lake! We enjoyed our picnic dinner of fried chicken as we waited for the festivities to start. Vonnie and her family, along with Stella (Dusty and Vonnie's Mom) joined us and we all enjoyed the show. Here are some more pictures from the evening!!!!

James playing in the lake around sunset. He loves to look for crawdads!!


















My hubby!! :)


I love this picture of the ducks on the lake! Kind of reminds me of "On Golden Pond"!


My attempt at a patriotic photo! LOL


James setting off a "Confetti Popper"....if you look real hard you can see the confetti way above him, as it's coming down!!

















Vonnie and Katie, having fun with sparklers!


James enjoying the 4th!!


Happy Independence Day to one and all!!!!