The Fourth of July was unexpectedly awesome.
I hadn't any plans that were set in stone - as a matter of fact, I was vacillating between staying in the city and heading back to Wyoming for legal fireworks and my Mom's great cooking...
Alas, I stuck around and told Steph that she would have to entertain me.
Steph and Doug had commiserated with Darling Meg and Chris to hit some car race/redneck whitetrash get down.
Obvs, I couldn't miss a photographic opportunity like that...but, sadly, the weather was not into complying and it rained hard and brutal off and on throughout the long weekend canceling any chances of watching car races.
So, what else can you do but buy a pile of booze, a pile of grillin' goodies, and cords of wood for burning and have a proper Fourth of July BBQ!
Darling Meg got to it with a fruit salad.
Meg and the smallest, most perfect strawberry...
It looks really good, right?
No one ate any of it...I have some of it sitting in my refrig right now!
Lil Kyle showed up - he knows the rules about never showing up empty handed!
And my good friend Chris...The Patriot was there.
He's a total pain in the ass.
Doug was doing the cookin' and what a fine job he did!
He roasted peppers, grilled burgers and dogs, and toasted our buns...literally!
And Steph got the esteemed job of picking up dog poo!
Sure, it was overcast, but we made the best of it...
A wicked good plate of food always snaps me into shape!
Yeah, I should know better than to try to eat a burger like a tostada. There is a legit reason for the top bun.
The crew!
After eating and gabbing, we started to settle in...
Douglet got started on a fire.
And we all ran an errand to the 7-11 for supplies...
I don't want to talk about this sign.
Dakota! He loves freedom!
End table.
Gina showed her face and it's always a delight to see her!
NINJA'D!
Actually, it was a sort of a night of a thousand ninjas.
Patrick was also supposed to go to the races...but thankfully, he showed his face at our shindig. He was a welcome bit of sanity amongst us!
We had a pitiful stash of fireworks and a few of them were lit, but everyone soon lost interest.
Patrick said he stopped at a fireworks stand on his way back to town from the cancelled races and said that all they had were sparklers and snakes. Everyone boo'd/vetoed the sparklers and snakes, but me...I sheepishly admitted that they were my favorites.
So, without fireworks or races...and left to our own devices...we ended up talking shit until the wee hours of the morning.
Oh yeah, and Chris had free reign of my camera...so there are a lot of unfortunate, but hiliarious, photographs of me.
Well, me and Meg's ass...
Dakota was sort of relegated to the house. He has a penchant for trying to eat sparks from the fire.
And so we hung...and we hung heavy.
These are my people!
Unfortunately, I got the wise idea to try Chris' patriot du-rag.
And let me tell you, a sense of entitlement comes with headwear like that.
I was sort of embarrassed about how it changed me.
And then I ate an American cookie and was infused with by the power of its Fourth of July themed frosting.
You could say I "went America all over everyone's asses"...
It's so nice to be amongst friends...sipping Cherry Presses, talking, and laughing...
And there was a lot of laughing.
MY FAVORITE!
Seriously, so obsessed.
And then shit got different.
It's inevitable, I guess.
I don't know what this is, but I'm pretty sure it's some sort of sordid party train.
Check out Gina's gams!
Yeah, thanks, Chris.
See, it did get weird. Gina got tossed right out of her chair by Dakota...
And Meg...yeah, you see what Meg did.
Although, I will say I encouraged this bad behavior.
Would you believe neither of us actually smoke?
Anyway, it did get weird, but in the very best way.
These people...I love them and appreciate their willingness to always be ready for laughter and an impromptu party!
Happy Fourth of July, my sweet babies!
