Birthday Bash

So..the last post detailed the hell that SockMama, myself, my sister and my mom went through to get to St. Louis.

This one is a bit different - things actually went well. Kind of. Sort of.

Anyhow, Thursday night, we get in, get settled, and get a pot of spaghetti fired up and eaten. No one was in the mood for fun or anything, so that was that.

Then Friday comes around. My uncle, along with his gigantic house, 4 cars, enormous TV, and a seat next to the Almighty himself, owns an amazing meat smoker. So at 8 am, we woke up, basted a pork loin, some chickens, a turkey, bratwurst and other assorted processed meats, and threw em in the smoker. I am pretty handy when armed with a couple squash and white-hot charcoal, so I volunteered to handle the veggies. Here's proof:



That's me on the left there, with said wealthy uncle in the middle, and my always intoxicated grandfather on the right. Good times.

Once the meat and veggies were smoked and grilled, dinner was ready. My aunt and unlce invited friends over, and the family gathered around the table for dinner.

I didn't take any shots of the actual dinner party, mainly because I was busy cramming smoked turkey down my maw, but I did manage to capture this:



You'll notice the gigantic bottle of wine in the foreground. The fact that my grandfather is next to it is not a coincidence.

After dinner was done, we sat down and watched the ol' guy open his presents. Afterwards, we gathered around and got a photo taken:



So, starting with the birthday boy, to the right of him is Daniel, my cousin. To the left is the always lovely SockMama. Standing directly over him is my mom (she's in gray) and my aunt Janet is to the right of my mom. The surly teenager next to my mom is my sister, and then in the final row you'll find myself and my uncle Mike.

After that, the party pretty much disbanded. My mom played some maj jong, while my sister, SockMama, and myself went to a movie.

On Saturday, it dawned on everyone that we had a whole day without plans. And knowing that couldn't work, we decided to head to the St. Louis Botanical Gardens.

Here's a shot of the group:



And some other cool shots:


-a purdy flower, complete with screwed up composition.


-SockMama and myself in the Chinese Gardens


-a very rare flower that, apparently, is related to the gum tree

And that's it! Sunday we flew back in.

Tomorrow, if you're nice...I finally post pictures of the wine trip.