New Traditions..

I have had the best 4th of July weekend EVER.

On Friday, Mic got a call from our friends Becky and Nora and they were down at the lakefront in Milwaukee-- they were there early in the morning and set up camp- and wanted to know if we would like to join them.

I panicked.


Literally.

How would we get there? There are HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. What if I had a poogency (a poop emergency)??? Where would we park? What if we got robbed? Was it going to be loud? Were we going to be the oldest ones there? What if the bus is too full and we couldn't get back home? Do I bring drinks? Do I need to feed people? What if there is no toilet paper?

I am REALLY GOOD at going into this crazy "holy crap the world is going to end" mode if I am put in a situation that I don't know anything about- and that I don't have time to prepare for.

I took a breath, gathered my pansy ass up off the floor, and asked myself.. WWKG(pdi)D? Uh.. What Would Kate Gosslin (pre-divorce insanity) Do? She would get all those damn kids and just GO.

So. We did. We paid Rebecca 5 dollars to haul us down there so we could get let off near the art museum (the photo on my home page), met Becky, and went to their camp. I literally have never EVER seen anything like this. There were SO MANY PEOPLE (because on top of the fireworks, Milwaukee is right in the middle of the largest music festival in the country, Summerfest). And...weird... every family (or group) had their own "space". Apparently, people go down there before creation, and set out ropes, strings, caution tape, fence, flags, whatever they had on hand to stake out territory. Kind of like the historical land claim that happened in the western part of this county. EXCEPTIONS: no one was on horseback. .... I don't think in the land claim there were quite as many brats being grilled after being soaked in beer all day...or blenders hooked up to generators to make margaritas.

Anyways-- turns out that people go down, set up their crap... and LEAVE. Come back after work or whenever... and all their crap is still there .. UNTOUCHED. WHAT? I am cereal. There were tents, disco balls, volleyball courts... you name it. People were grilling, riding bikes, flying kites, just having a ton of fun.

(notice the string being used to claim our plot)

WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!! The fireworks were on TOP of us...and the show lasted about 45 minutes. We have already begun to plan next year. This is our new tradition. We have a name for our site.. and we are going to DO IT UP and invite everyone we know. I love traditions. I love having our own traditions.(Mic, Nora and Becky intensely enjoying)

Another tradition is that we go out to my Aunt Sharon's every 4th of July... they live on a little lake in Lake Country (west of Milwaukee) and the whole fam-damnly gathers. This time was super special as we turned it into a wedding shower for my cousin and his fiance, Mandy. She is a baby catcher, is totally awesome, and makes my cousin so crappin' happy. They rock. We had a cupcake decorating competition, and I made a lovey dovey one for Mic-- she ate it before we got a picture of it.. Mandy was the judge... she didn't seem to think that I made the grade, but she chose my niece.... she had a big old rainbow (total pride flag) and she won for "best diversity"...

(I am pouting... she ate it)

oh. this is my 150th post.