I hope everyone had a great 4th.

Every year we go up to our friends place on Lawrence Lake for the 4th of July. We enjoy shooting off fireworks and doing it over water keeps it very safe. The weather was cold and windy but we still had our pig fest dinner outside. We looked very pathetic with all of us wearing coats and drinking coffee and hot chocolate. Despite some choppy water we had the canoe out for a while also.

Between three families we shot off over $500 worth of fireworks. And the only injury was me turning my ankle stepping off the dock.

Here is the only sun we saw all day.
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And like dad, my daughter is a little pyromaniac.


I realize some of you may be anti- fireworks. That is your choice. But out where I live they are legal and my family and I enjoy them a lot. They are only as dangerous as you make them. Aside from couple finger burns over the decades I have never been injured by them. I can't say that about any of my hobbies. We don't do any drinking until after all the fireworks have been shot off.

At 7:00 Am I was up starting my short ribs that have marinated over night in my home made BBQ sauce. I started the sauce at noon on Sat and let it slow cook until 10:00 Sat night. My wife makes all her own tomato sauce and paste and that is what I use for the base of the sauce. Our sage, rosemary and oregano in the herb garden was mostly up so I used that also.

I smoke cooked them for 8 hrs with alder and wild apple wood of the place.
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My wife made raspberry, blueberry, blackberry and strawberry triffle. The berries are mixed with whipped cream and layered between slices of angel food cake that have been sprinkled with brandy. It's a good way for her to use all the berries she froze from last summer to clear out some freezer space for this year's up coming stash.
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Yummy!!! Your food looks delish! As always, beautiful pics!

I went to a friend's for a July 4 / birthday party. We watched fireworks from the roof of the building. Was lot of fun!

I made Chinese sesame peanut noodles!

It sounds and looks amazing, Brent!!! It is also so beautiful up there! I'm glad you had such a good time.
Cheers!
Tea

If anyone else has pics or videos of their parties please post them hear also. Fri night my head and face was trying to explode but fortunately I was able to abort it by mid day on Sat.

We have to fight hard sometimes just to live a little between attacks. And I hope every one lives 'full speed ahead' when the opportunity arises.

With about 40 people at our house, we just barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs, but everyone loved it. I also made pineapple fried rice, since it is easy to make a large quantity, and since I made this after everyone had been here a while, several of the girls were very happy to get to help me make it. Mimi, who had pronounced to all of us several times that she can't cook, proudly demonstrated to everyone that she was cooking! I let them do the stirring of the ingredients in the frying pans, and I told them when to add the next set in and oversaw the whole operation.

And we actually had international students in the pool this time! Last time we had a BBQ, only Americans went swimming. But this time we got several international students in as well. An American woman posted short videos on Facebook, but I don't know how to copy them here. She got a bunch of students in the pool. One video is kind of funny because the main pool contained only guys, while the jacuzzi was full of girls putting their feet in it. They didn't bring their suits, so they just dangled their feet in the water.

I also introduced the game of Twister to our students, who thought that was pretty fun, especially when our American college student, who is the neatest guy (if he was 10 years older, I'd marry him!), got in the game. Sadly for us, he is transferring to Cal State Chico in the fall, so I'm trying to recruit more American college students to our international student ministry.

Anyway, we let a bunch of students from around the world experience an American July 4! Plus, we got to watch the fireworks from our backyard, which has a gorgeous overlook of part of L.A. So we saw them from Dodger Stadium, South Pasadena, downtown L.A., and Alhambra, plus a bunch of illegal fireworks here and there.

It was a fun day!

Brent,

What an absolutely gorgeous place. I have always wanted to live in WA State. After seeing your pics, I want to now more than ever

Your wife's berry dessert looks fab!!

We also had fireworks as they are legal where I live too. They were amazing and were done around a pond too which is very good for safety reasons. I have pics on FB, but can't get them over here :

Always luv your pics!

Enjoyed the 4th of July camping with my husband and 10yr old son in the mountains of Colfax, CA on our friends 4 acres of land where they have a home. We ate everything cooked on an open flame or our propane stove. It was great......lakes, rivers, you name it. Both families blended so well together. My head was tempermental in the heat......but I am still living....so that's good! ;-) It was all worth the enjoyment of being with my men. We plan to came again in Aug. and for Labor Day in different locations.

Brent.....your photos were beautiful......as always!