Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend.  We headed down to the beach the first chance we got.

We packed up the golf cart and headed down to the water. 

We have quite the set up with a canopy, coolers, chairs....
I had lots of fun hanging with mama and dada for the whole weekend.  Good times. 
Giving mama a kiss. 
Dada found a hermit crab and tried to lure him out to show me.  
Ga and I hunted for treasure....
until I heard the ice cream man, and then I took off.  My favorite thing about the beach is the ice cream man!
Papa helped me decide which to get.

I also had some quality car and truck parking time - one of my favorite games.  Dada didn't seem to mind too much. 
Mama!  Enough with the camera already!
Dada hanging out on the 4th of July .  How patriotic!
We went to JB and Becky's house and played with their grandbabies. 
It didn't take us long to decide to get in the pool, so I had to head home to get cleaned up before the fireworks show. 
On the way back to JB and Becky's house, we stopped by my best girlfriend Zoe's house.  Her granddad was setting off fireworks.  When they would go off, I would shout that they were MY favorite color (green) or Zoe's favorite color (purple).  
Back and JB and Becky's I ran around this deck, which goes around the entire house 1,000000000 times.  Really. 
And occasionally stopped to watch a firecracker -- this time with Ga as protector. 
On Sunday we spent some more time at the beach.  These are the good times.  

Well, we all worked...

Even mama...
But no one worked like Papa.  It's amazing, isn't it?  
Cheers from Ga to Papa on the night it was finished, before it was cleaned.  

Tada!  The finished product - the Pollard Beer Garten. 

Mac enjoys it too. 

The whole shebang, garden to the back left. 
One hot night after a brief rain shower.  

The next person to say monkies jumpin' on the bed is in trouble.
On May 5, I was having a little too much fun jumping on Ga's bed, so I flopped on my belly, but the headboard got in the way. Mama and Ga knew right away it would require a trip to the ER (we'll leave out the blood and gore), so they gathered bear and pass and we got into the car. Luckily, dada pulled in the driveway right after us, so we all headed to the ER as a family. It was impossibly crowded with the swine flu sickies, yet we still had to wait an hour and a half to see someone who said we'd see some other person in another hour and a half, when we finally got into a room. The nurse set me up with Finding Nemo on a DVD player. I watched 7/8 of it before the P.A. came in to wash my cut out, and dermabond it 3 or 100 times, which took a total of 4 minutes. Then I watched the last 1/8 of Nemo and we were discharged. What a way to spend a Tuesday night. I'm averaging a dermabonded cut per year of life (the first happened at age one when I took the dining room table out as I rounded the corner running from mama). Everyone is hoping we can break the trend this year. Still, I think the scar makes me look tough -- what do you think?

Today is a day to remember.  

Today we lost two people that touched many people's lives, including ours. 

When mama was at the Memorial Day Parade when she was 4, she got lost.  Grandma was frantic looking for mama, and when someone told her they saw a policeman with a little girl just up the road, she took off her shoes so she could run really fast to catch up.  When Grandma caught up to the policeman, she said "that's my daughter!"  The policeman said "what is her name?  She keeps telling me she's Farrah Fawcett."  

And of course, mama, born in 1975 and thsu 8 years old at the time Thriller was released was a HUGE fan of Michael Jackson.  In fact, she had a Thriller birthday party, complete with a showing of "The Making Of Thriller" that was so scary, all the other kids were terrified for weeks.   And, Mama got to wear the glove at the party.  Yep, the glove.  

Ice cream!  Oh, it's the best thing ever.  I would eat ice cream over any other food.  I ask for it at breakfast, I usually get it from Ga sometime in the afternoon, mama gives it to me every night (in tiny Joy cones Ga found at Fiesta).  So, it's no stretch of the imagination that my all time favorite thing right now is the ice cream man - a mix of vehicle and that sweet, cold, ice creamy goodness!

One night mama and I chased the ice cream man from our subdivision, down the road past the next subdivision, to the third subdivision.  There was no stopping me, and mama was laughing so hard she couldn't stop me.  She did convince me to bring it back to the house to eat it. 

And then we watched the ice cream man drive into OUR neighborhood, so we felt a little silly chasing him.  But, I was already eating when the rest of those kids were just ordering theirs up.  Who's the smart guy now? 

Self portrait - spring, 2009
Up above

Down below.  Oops.  

At my buddy Jackson's birthday party, I convinced mama to rally dada to buy me a playground for the backyard.  I even promised not to jump off my "pirate ship", and no one is surprised that I broke that promise within 10 minutes of this one being set up in the yard.  Yep, off the 4th, then 5th step I jumped.  I was just fine, too. 

The family loves to hang out in our backyard now - with the covered porch, bountiful garden, and this swing.  I'm all about the swing, logging plenty of frequent flyer miles. 

I love climbing up, and down, the rock wall.  I also like to fish off the side of the wall - I'm getting good at reeling, like my dada. 
And dada is getting good at sliding. 
Taking a break for driving my pirate ship and looking for barges, sail boats, ferries and other water transport. 
I was not great at sliding at first (I leaned forward picking up major speed and landing me on my bottom), but I've gotten the hang of it now.  
My hands are finally big enough to let me hang - I used to not be able to at my Little Gym classes.  

We invited the Byman family over to play one afternoon, except that no one woke me up from my nap.  Bummer.  But at least Luke got to be the head pirate for the afternoon.

In April, we got a new addition to our house, a patio (aka Beer Garden).  Mama and dada hired Mr. McCarty, my buddies Jackson and Hudson's dad.  He has his own company - Jack Hudson, named after my buddies.  How cool is that?  We had a bunch of workers at our house to add a covered patio.  We'll post finished pics soon -- we are all so happy with the final product!

Then, Papa came in to work his magic. I helped Papa some, but he was the true mason. 

Papa toiled away for a long, long time.  

And now we have a beautiful patio to hang out on, and a piece of Papa's art.  Thanks Papa!

This weekend, mama's best friends Dawn and Jen travelled all the way from West Palm Beach, Florida and Seattle, Washington to hang out with ME, and mama and dada too. 

I had those ladies wrapped around my finger!

Jen even cozied up to me and bear for a little Dora session.  Who thought she would know the song?!?
Dada took everyone out for a ride in his boat.  Too bad we couldn't stay out longer, but I was cravin'....

Shrimps!  My new favorite treat.  And the key lime ice cream pie.  Everyone go to the Stingaree!  

Bye Dawn and Jen - I'll miss you.  See ya next time!