Fourth of July Festivities

Thursday was fun and different. 

- we broke the no meat barrier at the patel home. (we were respectful in that we did not use any of the pots/pans/cooking utensils for the meat!)

- we broke the no alcohol barrier at the patel home, in fact, we played drinking games (flip cup) with sketchy's parents and uncle. never thought that would happen. (we were respectful though in that we did not bring the alcohol in the house)

- sketchy's cousin bought fireworks to be lit in the driveway -- that was fun!

- i was able to put up some america stuff (although i got made fun of for trying to make things pretty ... sigh)

veggie meatball kebabs 

mix and match 6 pack (limited selection at the grocery store). one beer is missing. don't remember which one. 

sparklers and crazy amount of fireworks.

pretty!

sketchy's dad seriously never adheres to any cautionary things. Sigh. He legit lit random ones and multiple fireworks at the same time and held them up. 

all done.

Friday we went to King's Dominion with a few of sketchy's cousins. The park wasn't as busy as I thought it'd be although some lines were up to an hour wait. 

We went on some rides we've been on before and some new ones. I finally met my match with rollercoasters. The intimidator is the first rollercoaster i have said 'hell no, i'm not getting on that' about -- it is super super tall and has a very near 90 degree drop. 

the left slant is going up, the drop is the part further away in the picture

this is the ride going DOWN the drop. isn't that legitimately straight down? people are known to black out on this ride. ooc.

It was super hot and i got super dark. Volcano's line was around an hour long (that's my favorite ride there) and i knew that i couldn't do that line with sketchy (while he may appear to be the most patient person in the world, that is FALSE.) so we decided to go sit down in some shade for a bit (and naturally, take some selfies).

We got drinks and then spent some time in the children's area riding fun kiddy rides. We were actually turned down from a few because we didn't have a kid with us. sadtown. We also went up in the large Eiffel Tower structure that is the center of the park. 

(left) view from the top of one side of the park. (right) view of an extreme swing ride. it moves very slowly up the pole and then back down, but it is SUPER high in the air. 

We ended up going on that swing ride to dry off... i was going to be cool and take pictures while we were on the ride but halfway up i started getting ooc freaked out by the height! It was def a feeling i've never experienced and assume it'd be similar to my view/feeling hang gliding (which is something i def wanna do at some point). I'm usually not scared of heights so it was crazy! 

We spent a lot of time at the water park. We discovered a whole extra section of the water park further down which included two wave pools and a few slide/tube rides! 

It was a super fun day. Felt like summertime fun for the first time this summer. =)

Saturday on the way back to dc i invested in a floppy hat (evidently these help you not get more black in the sun):

but then i just feel ridiculous in the hat!

That afternoon we had a low-key bbq (bring your own whatever and really sit inside and eat) then we went to a nationals baseball game (halfway through because it was WAY TOO HOT) and hung around for the thompson square concert. 

concert set-up

so I learned that they have a new album that came out in March. FAIL. Their new music sounds more beachy/islandy than their normal rockish/countryish sound. They played a few of their older songs though which was nice. We saw a live proposal to one of their more cute songs which was pretty amazing. that reminds me i can check that off of my life list! Seriously feel like i've check off more than 10 since the beginning of this year! 

Sunday I went to a lavender farm with Brenna and her old roommate Sarah. That was pretty neat. It was a pretty drive and cutesy country place. We had picnic subway lunches and then picked some stems, perused the giftshop and then headed home for a crafting afternoon. 

neat bush thing. i thought it was so pretty. i would put that as a centerpiece somewhere lol.

brenna the serious gardener.

brenna doing brenna things.

my basket and spruces.

my picks!

pretty lavender. 

Brenna made an amazing wreath ( i really didn't get a good picture that captured the real color and such -- good camera was dead and couldn't find battery charger at the time =( ).

best picture i had of it. looks even better in person.

my craft creation. you can't see it in the picture but the background is demask fabric (like a burlap fabric) so i put it on a black background and frayed the edges. looks pretty neat in person. 

Veryyyyy long and exhausting weekend but a good one. Want to do more summer things before the summer is over. Really want to go kayaking somewhere diff than the georgetown waterfront. Like on a beach... in mexico. lol sigh. 

starting a new challenge this week. the 7 day salad challenge. trying to get us in the habit of liking salads again so that when we go out we actually WANT to order them. 

Here's day 1:

buffalo chicken cobb salad. buffalo chicken, then spinach, cabbage, red onion, crumbled blue cheese, boiled eggs and buffalo ranch dressing (also some shredded cheddar cheese) and green peppers.