4th of July, Part two "ALL I WANT IS BEANS"

As the neighborhood BBQ came to a close, I started to notice that putting one foot in front of another was getting difficult.  My feet didn't hurt that bad, but I'd had little sleep for three days and had been up since 6AM that morning without ONCE sitting down.  I felt slow and by 1:30, I thought I was going to pass out.  I walked the kids home and put Alex down for his nap, during which time I was able to lay prone for approximately 12 minutes.  It was the only rest I would get for the rest of the day.  Surprisingly?  It didn't even bother me!  My second wind turned into a third wind which turned into a 42nd wind.  (I didn't end up really crashing until Sunday).  It was just funny because I thought I'd never even make the walk home from the parade and I ended up doing just fine.

Lynne, her daughter Erica, Genoa and I all went to Fred Meyer to buy stuff for potato salad.  I also decided to make another one of those breakfast casseroles since the double recipe, the one that required two pounds of sausage, two bags of hashbrowns and two dozen eggs, was already gone and everyone would wake up just as hungry the next day.  Guess how many eggs I bought over the course of the two days we had company?  EIGHT DOZEN EGGS.  ALL GONE.

Anyway, afterwards we came home and started boiling potatoes.  We were expecting Lynne's mom's friend Brandy at 4:00 and I would've taken pictures of the potato salad making process, but we got off to a late start and had to keep running the kids across the street to put things in Carol's new fridge to cool off.  My fridge was chock full with no room for so much as a slice of cheese, much less a giant bowl of potatoes.  Anyway, Lynne made her famous potato salad, a recipe much adored by my husband.  Here's the weird thing:  I never thought I liked potato salad, mainly because every recipe I've ever seen calls for green onions and I can't stand green onions.  They give me the shivers.  But having watched Lynne make hers the last time she was here, I realized that I could make a few modifications to her recipe and by doing so, I learned that I LOVE potato salad. 

So Lynne made her pretty potato salad with green onions and bacon and black olives.  And I made mine, which is basically just glorified egg salad.  Hers looks SO MUCH BETTER than mine and it disappeared faster, during which time my husband got that stupid Dueling Banjos tune stuck in our heads all day.

Nothing like a little Deliverance to make your 4th of July special!

Anyway, we had a great time cooking and the kids were all behaving well.  Genoa eventually fell asleep right on Erica's chest.

Then Brandy and Wayne came and we served dinner and I eventually got to sit down at the table and stuff my face full of Dave's flank steak and potato salad and beans and salad and bread and COCKTAILS.  I basically didn't get up again until it was time for fireworks.  We were having such a great time at the table that my face hurt from laughing.

The fireworks were even more spectacular the second night, but the kids and the moms were a little less enthusiastic.  Instead of setting everything up and then blowing it all of in one big show, the dudes would just pick something out of a box and blow it up.  It made for an incredibly SLOW fireworks display and by around 11:30, the kids were totally done.  Jack and little Erica had fallen asleep in spite of the noise and Genoa was miserable to even have her eyes open.  Eventually we went in and put the kids to bed and promptly crashed out to the sound of explosions going off in the front yard.

The next morning was another huge breakfast followed by a relaxing day.  The guys all went to the gun range and the kids watched movies.  In the afternoon, we took the little ones to the OMSI to run off some steam and see the dinosaur exhibit.

After everyone was tucked in and settled, we took the big kids to the movies while Carol babysat the youngins.  We saw Hancock at Cinetopia and it was great.  (I got to sit down for two whole hours!)  I also really enjoyed the movie and Lynne totally NAILED the plot twist before it even happened.

Lynne and John are leaving this morning to finish their drive back to California.  We'll all be sad to see them go!

Comments

[David]

I must confess that I have no clue what "Deliverance" has to do with our weekend but you do have a perty mouth.

[alison]

You SURE do have a perty mouth! :) That's hysterical. Every male in my family quotes that awful movie all the time.

Looks like you had a very fun 4th of July. Now get some sleep!

[tana]

Looks and sounds like you had a wonderful weekend!! Nothing better then fun times with the family!!

[Celest]

Good weekend! I'm so glad you mentioned Lynne had the plot twist for Hancock. I totally had it at the beginning too, and even turned to tell my cousin what I thought, but by that time convinced myself I was reading too much into the movie. And I just don't understand why everyone's in an uproar about it. Totally obvious, but really good movie!