july 4th

This year I determined that July 4th is my favorite holiday of the year--not affiliated with any religion, it happens in the summer and involves a lot of good food, fun, and being outdoors.  For me, it involves being at the lake and after thinking about how great it is, I had such high expectations for this weekend.  I shouldn't do that to myself anymore.  It was still a lot of fun, but I'd created something in my head that didn't pan out in real life I guess.
Friday we enjoyed a bit of lake time before going to Lake Anna Winery for their annual 4th of July event.  We drank wine in the vines and it was a great time (except I think I liked last year's band better) up until we went to leave and my precious Wayfarers ended up beneath Evin's shoe.  I was in a bit of a wine haze and heartbroken (and under those circumstances, I've been known to overreact).  I was convinced my weekend was ruined.
Saturday we ended up getting in the car and driving to Target and Lowes--to find temporary sunglasses for me and supplies for the house for my dad.  I also bought some cheapy fireworks and was finally placated from the previous night's tragedy.  We got home and ate dinner and took another cruise in the boat before picking up some friends and watching fireworks from the water (a first).  Lake folk have a certain disregard for Virginia laws, and most go out of state for their holiday pyrotechnics.  The show was loud and bright and great all around.
Sunday, Evin's parents came to the lake house for the first time and we swam and drank and ate and after dinner watched a crazy lightning-storm before running into the house to hide from the rain.  It was getting late and they had to get home, unfortunately missing the fireworks my brother lit off after they were gone.  We also burned through a bunch of sparklers and amassed quite a cloud of smoke.
Monday, the holiday itself, we worked in the house a bit and then drank wine slushies on the boat before swimming and watching my brother and his girlfriend ride tubes behind his boat.  Then another storm came and we had only just put up all the toys (boats, etc) before the rain.  It was dinner and wine indoors thanks to the untimely precipitation and then home in the dark to end the weekend.  I'm glad we got two good nights of fireworks out of the weekend, but I'm kicking myself for forgetting about my tilt-shift lens until after the second night (I meant to shoot fireworks with it for some neat blur effects...so frustrated I forgot).
Now it's Tuesday and I've got work today, tomorrow, Friday and Saturday.  I hope I get to start taking food photos and getting going on the fun part of my job really soon!

*my computer is old and grumpy and gets hot/loud when I edit and export photos, so about halfway through these photos I just stopped editing altogether.  I can't wait til I can buy an iMac...