Party on the Plantation

The family of one of Emily's gymnastics friends invited us to their 46th annual Fourth of July celebration yesterday. We had a feeling that it would be quite an event since the invitation included GPS coordinates and landing directions for those who would be flying in. Yes, that's right, flying in. We had never attended any kind of party where guests arrive in personal aircraft, so we didn't really know what to expect, but Emily really wanted to go. Plus, there was supposed to be swimming for the kids and barbecue, so it seemed like a good way to spend the Fourth.

The GPS coordinates and map included in the invitation were great, but there was no physical address for those of us who were arriving by car. Mark and I were a little unsure of ourselves when we pulled up to the big, white-columned country house that looked like something out of Gone with the Wind. But it was the only house in sight and had about 80 cars parked under the huge trees lining it's sweeping circular drive, so we figured we must have found it. Still, as we were walking toward the back of the house we couldn't help rehearsing what we would say to all the partying millionaires if we discovered this was not the right place. Just as Mark and I were laughing back and forth about how to blend in while crashing a high society event, Brandon starts shouting all excited that he found a dime on the ground. That pretty much would have made it clear what class of people we belong to. Oh well, knowing our family, we couldn't have fooled them for long.

Luckily, we didn't have to use any of our excuses. We had found the right place and the party was amazing! The backyard of this home could have been a city park. We ate barbecue*, listened to a live band (Natalie loved seeing the drummer) and watched the kids swim and play. We even got to see one of the uncles do some flying stunts in his plane above the airfield. (Yes, the house had a real hanger and grass airfield complete with a helicopter and several planes.) Apparently, there was also some skydiving before we arrived, but we didn't get to see that. The kids' favorite part was the tree house with two zip lines going off into the forest. I was pretty nervous when they got tired of the shorter line wanted to go on the higher one, as it started off about 18 feet above the ground. There was no kind of harness or safety gear, it was basically just a swing seat attached to the line, and I could just imagine Bryce slipping off of it. But, they all rode it successfully, and later Bryce let me know that he would really, really, really like to have a zip line in our own back yard. Thankfully, we have no trees so we won't have to worry about that.

We had so much fun that by the time we got home we were too tired to go out to the park and see the fireworks like we had planned, but we didn't miss them. The day was perfect just as it was.



*Being a California girl I have had to learn that Southerners differentiate between barbecue and grilling. Barbecue is shredded slow cooked pork served on a bun and smothered in sauce. Grilling is hamburgers, hot dogs, or etc. cooked out on the grill.