July 4th family fun

We shopped for sausages, hot dogs and potato salad ingredients on Saturday. We thought the traffic flow might be a bit less, and due to the fact the salad is always better made a day ahead of time. The traffic was so horrible, the trip to the store which on a good day takes 15 minutes to drive there, and maybe an hour to shop if we take our time, was unbelievably long. The store was so crowded that at one point it took almost 15 minutes just to get from one aisle to the next. We finally got out of the store and it took nearly 30 minutes to get home. One of the clerks told us Friday was even worse, and by Sunday (from what my cousin told me) the food was nearly gone. Oh the joys of living in a tourist town.

Our family BBQ was held at Tess's ex, Brian's, home nearby, he has a bigger house, awesome grill, and big back yard.

Tess made her famous dill potato salad on Sunday, photo to come later since the one in my phone is horrible. It aged overnight, and was joined by a wonderful melon basket (much larger than we actually needed), hamburgers, hotdogs, a variety of sausages, and black and garlic stuffed green olives, along with a variety of chips, a bit of cottage cheese, and supposedly some maple smoked beans. I say supposedly since they were still in the microwave being reheated when Tess was packing up the food at the end of the night. Oh well, no one missed them.

While Tess was making the melon basket Cassie and I were playing a dress-up game on the computer. I will find out what the website is, I think even adults could spend some enjoyable time playing dress-up. She loved having me choose the outfits, accessories, etc. She kept telling me to choose the items I wanted since the character was ME! She is such a funny girl. She also wanted to take me on a tour of the house. It is her dad's house we were at, and I have been there dozens of times. What a silly kid. Her sister was horrified that I had "seen" her bedroom, since it was such a mess. (actually for Athena it wasn't all that bad)

We then discovered the olives, black for Cassie, and garlic stuffed green for me. The garlic stuffed ones were from Trader Joe's, provided courtesy of my "sis" Patricia. I think they are the best olives EVER!!! Brian, Tess, and I made them disappear rather quickly ;)

Tess then took the hamburger and put her spin on it, making wonderful savory burgers from simple ground beef, and started the grilling process. She is amazing with a BBQ, and the burgers, sausages, and hot dogs were cooked to perfection.

By the time we had finished eating my back was way past the point of surviving a walk to the beach and back sandwiched around sitting on the sand watching fireworks, so when Tess and Brian were taking a run to the store I hitched a ride back home. I am so glad I did, even though I missed seeing the girls set off their fireworks, I enjoyed the fireworks extravaganzas on TV accompanied by music. The fireworks ended about 10:30 pm here, but the neighbors, and nearby homes ended theirs around 1:15 am. So I really didn't get all that much sleep, evidenced by my taking a 2 hour nap this afternoon.