independence weekend

I had a fantastic 4th of July holiday and weekend. I got the holiday off as well as Friday because the doctors at my clinic didn't feel like working--so I got it off by default.It was kind of my mini summer vacation/staycation. And my friend Stacey was in town so we had enough excuse to do everything. And did we! (People in these events include Stacey, Brit, Erica, Michelle, Elizabeth, Whitney, Alexis, and Dave).

I started off the festivities by dressing up Joe Panda-he had his patriotic outfit on and my own patriotic outfit.

Then I decorated my living and dining room with fun red, white, and blue. I especially enjoyed the huge pop of color my little tissue pom poms. I had fun making them. Also I made a few button wheels, found two patriotic picture frames at the hobby lobby, and dug out my banner I made last year. It made for some fun decor and I get to be crafty. Win.

Then we watched an episode of BBC Sherlock. (how unamerican!)-but seriously, my mom loves her some Benedict.

I had peeps over for my usual BBQ. However, the power went out at my house at about 2:30 so after playing cards with my parental units and avoiding opening the fridge, we had to skip the pork and beans and the corn because we had no power. But BBQ was still on! The power was out for about 5 hours. It was random but some nice utility workers from the City of Richland got us back working. We did burgers and chicken and it was some of the best BBQ'd chicken I've had in awhile. Of course I made my patriotic jello and it has become rather infamous. (I like it because it combines three of my great loves in life-america, jello and cool whip).

After dinner we headed out to Benton City to enjoy the redneck firework show. I had forgotten how exciting the show is. It's like there is a pre-show, show and after-party. The kids set off their own fireworks before the actual show (which is pretty good and you sit real close and you get debris falling on you) and the after-party is all the crazies lighting off their leftovers. And we're talking big fireworks that go up in the air, not just the "legal" ones. So really we had like two straight hours of fireworks. So much better than the 20 minute River of Fire show that you have to watch from a mile away. Stacey brought birthday cake ice cream and we celebrated America's birthday on a warm summer's night. We even saw part of a mountain on fire in the background. It amazes me that there weren't more fires than there were this year. I love fireworks and I used my wonderful Nikon again to get some great shots. (I'll load them later). I still get really excited for good fireworks and Ooooohh and Ahhhhh like none other.

(Michelle's pic-that's her and her bro)

I was the only one who had work off on Friday so I hung out with Stacey in the morning. We went to Spudnuts (a Richland must) and I got patriotic sprinkles!

Then we made our way to the Richland farmers market and took in all the sights and smells. I wanted to buy all the cherries. Seriously. I wish I could grocery shop there every week, but I have to go to work. I did go to my favorite stall where you can get a fresh bouquet of flowers. You just tell the ladies what colors you want and they make it up right there. And it is so much cheaper and nicer than a wilted grocery store bouquet. I only wish they would let me design my own bouquet! I got yellows, pinks, and purples.

After the farmer's market Stacey and I checked out some antiques stores and I saw some interesting stuff. I went home, had a nice turkey sammy, and then read my book underneath the tree in the back yard on my blanket for like three hours. It was pretty perfect. Then Will and I got slurpees and met up at Leslie Groves and hung out at the Columbia River. Ahhhhhh, the river.

I met up with the gals later that night at Fujiyama's. It's the new Japanese hibatchi place where they cook the food in front of you with all the stunts and jokes. I enjoyed it immensely. It was a ton of fun and we had a great chef. I tried to read his name tag and it was a long name, possibly Mongolian? After a second look I saw that it was "Yippiekayeh". What an awesome name! The food was tasty because it was so fresh and I got to use my chopstick skillz, thanks bro for teaching me.

Saturday we went out to BC again to go shooting. Safety Dave taught us how to shoot the guns and load them and of course, proper gun safety. There were many types of guns and I tried all of them but the revolver. I was proud that I hit the target a few times with the .22 shotgun. I also tried a .12 shotgun, a hand gun, and a WWII era rifle which was pretty fun to shoot. My friend Brit was pretty excited about shooting the zombie target that we had. Everyone practiced very good safety the entire time.

Then we went in to BC proper and grabbed lunch at Wolfie's which used to be a burger joint but is now Mexican? Then we changed at Michelle's house and floated the Yakima in BC which was better because too many people float in Richland now and the river is deeper in BC. The ride was a good length and there were even little rapids we got to sail through. It was so relaxing and peaceful out on the river, plus you got some good views of the E. WA nature scene. We didn't concern ourselves too much with sunscreen, and all of us got burnt because of it. I just wanted some sun, Vitamin D, yo! We finished out the day by stopping at Finnegan Frost-an organic Fro-yo place that had some tasty flavors. And I deemed it the most hipster place in the TC. Complete with hipster music, organic fro-yo, and Polaroids on the wall a la "Sammy's" in P-town. I didn't know the TC could be hipster....

Anyway, after mowing the lawn that night I was dead. I made it through Sunday and now I am still recovering from last weekend. It was a blast and I feel like I rocked my little summer vacation and then some!

so..

I'm pretty sure all the people on my committee hate me. Oh well, I'd hate me too if I made myself do stuff that I didn't want to. (oh wait, that's called life)

Blerg.