Fireworks and Birthday Cake - That's a Holiday!

So I had a really busy weekend, good thing it was three days long!

On Saturday I got to go to a wedding reception for my coworker (and soon to be new officemate) Janell. Several of us from work went to the reception which was at Janell's house, and we had a great time. She was so excited to see us because all of her family are out of town and only her parents could come, so we filled out "the bride's side" for her. We all had a really good time, and it was nice to have an excuse to buy a new outfit :)

On Sunday I drove up to Cottonwood to spend the 4th with some family. I was dreading the heat here in town and decided it was time to go on a mini-vacation. After all it is Thomas family tradition to see fireworks in a different place each year and I had been in the Phoenix area for the last 4 years! much too long in one, very hot, place. I was right to choose Cottonwood, not only was the weather much more manageable at a mere 90 degrees in the daytime, but it was birthday season!

I got to Cottonwood just in time for Dave to make tacos and enchiladas as Margie's birthday meal. Go figure they taste just like mom and dad's enchiladas - they must use the same "recipe" for the sauce :) Then two hours later Liz was having a barbeque at her house so I headed over there to see all the kids and cousins. we had a great time and at around 8:30pm we headed over to Matt's family frame shop because it is located right next to the firework launch site and there were no other people around.

We had a great 20-25 minute display and Liz and I had to laugh because we really did ooh and ahh at each firework. We even had the requisite mishap when one of the fireworks did not go off as planned, instead we saw a fire cloud - which was still pretty cool, and did not stop the show.

Today was cousin canasta day and birthday celebrations. I headed over to Liz's and trounced Liz and Vada at canasta - beat 'em so bad they were begging to quit :) It has been a while since I won so soundly, which is why it bears mentioning here. Afterwards we played Rock Band on the Playstation (turns out I was smart not to become a drummer)and then headed over to Margie and Dave's for the birthday party.

We celebrated Dick, Margie, and Lorelei's birthdays which meant we had two chocolate cakes (with chocolate frosting) and chocolate and vanilla ice cream. You know, the perfect amount. I found an incredibly apt birthday card for Dick that read: When I think of birthdays I always think of the grand redwood trees, standing tall and majestic for hundreds of years...(open card) Thanks for planting them. Dick vowed to look high and low for the perfect birthday card for me this year, hahaha. I told him the card companies must of heard of him because all I had to do was walk to a card store go to the uncle section (yes, there is an uncle section - crazy) and there was the card!

Later, Liz and Vada and I went back to Liz's house to play on the Wii. We started with bowling and then I introduced them to the Wii Fit Obstacle Course and we all had fun "running" and "jumping" in place. Then Liz's family and I went to Clarkdale for the best pizza in town before I had to come home.

It sure doesn't feel like it is time to go back to work, because I had so much fun this weekend!