Burgers, Dogs, and Demolition Derby!

Happy Independence Day! Last year, we were in England and it felt sort of weird that there were no parties, parades, or celebrations on July Fourth. Understandable, I guess. Since the Fourth of July has always been one of Mike's and my favorite holidays, we really did miss it last year.

This year, we invited friends over for a back yard party and then at 6pm we carpooled up to the Evergreen Motor Speedway in Monroe, WA for demolition derby. Good clean fun!

Welcome to our house! C'mon in and have a cold beverage!

We invited our friends Jeff and Angie and their kids Gabe
and Brennan over for dinner. We grilled out hamburgers
and hot dogs and served 'em up with potato salad,
watermelon, black bean and corn salsa, and chips.

Nothing says Fourth of July like watermelon!

The kids ate at the counter and the grown ups ate at the pub table in our
eat-in kitchen.

Angie brought strawberry shortcake for dessert. Mmm.

When we got to the racetrack, we bought our tickets, got our hand stamped with -- what else? -- a checkered flag, and found some good seats. We also met up with another couple, Christian and Angie, and their little boy Conner.

Rock on!

Ollie and I snuggling on the bleachers. He is buttering
me up (get it?) for some kettle korn.

Angie and I hit the beer garden for a couple of lite beers.

Maybe more than any of us, Merrit LOVED the demolition derby. 

We had great seats and the kids had fun sitting on the
railing in front of us.

Oh yeah, someone bought the monster-sized bag of kettle
korn. Ollie scored! (We all did. It was so yummy.)

This stunt driver made a full lap around the track on two wheels. Then,
another stunt driver named Mr. Dizzy went about setting a world record
for flipping a bus. Mike got some great footage:

As dusk set in, the figure eight races began. Merrit was INTENT on that
action. After the "plain old" figure eight races, they did it again, this time, pulling
old boats along behind. Sheer madness! (But fun to watch for sure!)

BOOM!

GREAT FIREWORKS DISPLAY! One of the best we've seen.