I Love 3 Day Weekends

The 4th of July has always been a pretty important day for me - yes its my country's independence day and I love fireworks - but its also the day that I lost my 5th grade "boyfriend" Chad Ebensteiner to childhood leukemia. We were "going with each other" so when I was younger I always thought he was my boyfriend forever.

Anyways the 4th of July also happens to be Sam's birthday. The 4th of July festivities tend to overshadow his birthday though so we opted to have his BIG 16th birthday party on the 5th. There are lots of pics further down in this post.

So what did I do on the 4th? The day started off with going to the annual 4th of July Outlet BBQ. Forgot the camera in my eagerness to ride my cruiser and save on gas (can you believe its $4.75/gallon) so no pics. That night had a few people over to watch the fireworks and we played a bit of guitar hero to pass the time until the fireworks show.

Thought this was a cute pic of father (Dan) and son (Sam) watching the fireworks from outside my apartment.

Here we are sitting in the middle of my street. Although we weren't right under the fireworks, we had a great view of the fireworks as my street is right up from rec park and on a hill.

Saturday I went on a bike ride with a few friends. Here's Taylor showing her patriotism and Jen just flexing her muscle.

We stopped for lunch at a local fish and chips type place in Marina del Rey.

As mentioned above, Sam's birthday is on the 4th but we celebrated it on the 5th at his favorite restaurant, Red Robin. It's one of my faves as well - bleu ribbon burger and garlic parmesian fries is what we always order.

Here's Sam with all his friends. They sat outside on the patio and we (Sarah and her friend and the adults, I needed drivers since El Segundo produces kids that don't seem anxious to get their licenses. I remember dying to get my license when I turned 16 and being so bummed that my mom made me wait until summer before I could take my drivers test to get my license.)

So cute...

I was so excited when I was parking the car, I saw the Red Robin walking into the restaurant. By the time, they were going to sing Happy Birthday to Sam, I guess "Red" was off the clock and wearing a cut off tshirt and jeans, but we had a really cool waitress and she and the manager put him back on the clock and got him back in costume to sing to Sam and take pics with the group.

We couldn't pass up a chance to take a pic with Red Robin. Thanks to Jen, Travis, Dana and Phil for chauffering the kids to and from Red Robin and Yogurberry with me.

Travis ordered a cherry coke and I guess Red Robin doesn't have true Cherry Coke so they did what most places do - gave him a coke with marachino cherries in it. Only difference was that they literally put a mound of cherries, seriously like 10 cherries on the top of the soda. So what does one do when given marachino cherries, take the stems and tie them in knots with your tongue. Sarah impressed us with her skills as she was able to tie them in seconds. Jen was equally impressive although not quite as speedy. As you can see Sarah did about 5 to Jen's 1.

Sunday afternoon I went to my first Manhattan Beach Concert in the Park for 2008. I was so excited for the event because Jen had bought me a cool Crate & Barrel picnic table to use specifically for fun outings like this and this was going to be my first chance to use it.

Megan and Dave Lockridge with a bit of overdramatized PDA just for my camera.

The Baker's hammin' it up for the camera as well.

Phil and Dan deep in conversation.

As you can see, we were (and always are) there to hear a good concert. I'm not sure we actually ever really listen to the music or see the band. This past Sunday, we actually parked ourselves in a big grassy area that was completely unoccupied as there was a big bush that was completely blocking any view of the band. It's really just a great opportunity to hang out with friends and share a bit of wine and food with each other.

So... in case you didn't notice in the above pics, there wasn't ever a pic of the cool new picnic table. Well that would be because I accidentally left it in the car and didn't remember it until half way through the concert when John Mo asked where it was and then I was too lazy to walk back to the car. Oh well saving it for another Sunday...we're actually set to go on July 20th as Lauren is amp'd to see the Fabulous Diamonds.