The Compulsive Ramblings Of A Philotherian: My 4th of July blog... on the 7th.

Wow, what a weekend I had! Bob and Judy ended up coming a day early (Thursday) and stay up until Sunday, just before I left for work. We set of a few things Thursday night after we got back from Fredericktown, but not many. We mainly just wanted to get our hands wet, so to speak.

I didn't get up until a little after 1, LaVaughn followed not 10 minutes later. After we both showered and made ourselves presentable, the festivities began! Our uncle started grilling around 2ish, which seemed a tad too early, but he was cool with it -- we just didn't want to get stuck grilling!

LaVaughn, myself, my uncle, and Bob all sat outside grilling and listening to music. Mama Judy stayed inside and took a nap on the couch. I don't think she was feeling well, because she stayed inside 70% of the day. Around 3 or so, my cousin (Scott) call my uncle (Gene) and said that they just had to stop by the fireworks place and then they were on their way.

My other cousin, Aaron (Scott's son), his girlfriend, and his little boy (Eli) made it here just before 4. It's still so hard to believe that he's a dad now! I'm a couple years older than him, so I spent a lot of my childhood babysitting him and his little brother Garrett when we lived in Florida. We kind of grew up together there for a while, but lost touch in the last 10 years or so.

My aunt followed not 10 minutes behind him, then Scott and his family showed up. He came with his wife, Lisa, her daughter MaKayla, her son, Garrett (not to be confused with Aaron's little brother), and her niece, Brittany. They carted all of their things up to the house. They brought like 4 packs of hot dogs, some type of dip, some type of noodle salad (it was cold, yuck), and 4 pies.

Everyone sat around for about 20 minutes after that, then it was time to it. Following the feast was such a long and boring task -- we (LaVaughn and myself) mainly just sat around for the next few hours. We did squeeze in some coffee before nightfall, but that's nothing new to us.

Eli started setting off some fireworks when we all got done eating, then Garrett and Gene, my uncle, started setting off bottle rockets and things like that. Then my uncle had to put ME on the spot and shout out, "Aren't you going to set off some of yours!?" Um, no, no I'm not. I don't want to stand in the middle of the driveway so that I can display myself for all the world to see. I'm too reclusive for that. Plus, I don't like large crowds.

Since everything got awkward after that and I felt put on the spot, I decided to go down by the people I hardly knew and set some off. Yeah, it was good, fun-loving un-comfortableness. It only took like 15 minutes for everyone to disperse, then before I knew it Garrett and I were the only ones down there. I looked back, only to find everyone sitting in a row watching us. I tucked tails behind the truck so that I couldn't be watched like a caged animal.

The rest of the night seemed to drag by, but it finally got dark and the big guns came out. Scott really outdid himself with the fireworks, they were beautiful! I FINALLY got to use the fireworks setting on the camera and it actually worked! I was so pleased with how some of the photos turned out.

The following day was spent on a more sedated tone. LaVaughn and I stayed inside and watched American Ninja Warrior for a couple hours, then the beginning of Sweeney Todd. Gene, aunt Sharon, Judy, and Bob were all sitting outside during this time, drinking and listening to music.

LaVaughn and I joined them around 4, fireworks in had. We all sat around in a circle setting off petty things, like smoke bombs, bottle rockets, rat chasers, and a few others. This went on for a good hour before LaVaughn and I moved to the end of the truck by ourselves with our own, non-country music. I think we ended up setting off 4 packs of bottle rockets by the end of the night.

Of course, we stopped halfway through to enjoy MORE BBQ. Then when night rolled around, we sat off all our "big" fireworks that didn't hold a candle to Scott's.

It was a fun and enjoyable weekend, good times were had by all.

Now, since the roofer is here (and woke us up before 10:00), I think we're going to go swimming. I can't think of anything better to do at this time of day when we're already all jacked up. I'm hoping I can get all the videos (nearly 40) uploaded and linked. Who knows when that will happen, though. I hope everyone enjoyed the 4th and had and equally fun/exciting weekend.

Love & Peace

-Megan

Warning... close to 150 pictures listed below!

Friday, July 4th