On Wednesday evening, Kenny and I went to downtown Staunton for a little dinner date. We did the same on the third of July last year and it was so much fun, so it's our two-year tradition now! We walked around a bit before dinner and happened upon the sweetest little patch of wildflowers that I basically died over. There were zinnias, Queen Anne's lace, bachelor's buttons, cosmos, sunflowers, and a few others I couldn't identify.
We got dinner at one of our favorite spots, Shenandoah Pizza, and got some delish white pizza with roasted garlic. After dinner, we walked around their charming little downtown some more before heading home.
On the Fourth, my parents, brother, Kenny, and I walked to the courthouse downtown to listen to a reading of the Declaration of independence, which is one of my family's traditions. They've been doing it there for 24 years now!
After the Declaration reading, we walked over to Cuban Burger for lunch, which has been around for several years but I had never been to. My mom and I split some loaded "drunk fries" which had beer cheese, jalapenos, tomatoes, and cilantro. I also got the Planter's Punch cocktail, which was rum-based with citrus juice and tropical liqueur.
After lunch we walked back up to my parents' house and rested for a while. Around 4:00, Kenny and I headed over to my bff Nancy Carrie's house for a cookout with her friends and family. Before everyone got there, Kenny took some photos of Nancy Carrie, her sister, her cousin and I with some BABE swag! BABE sent me a HUGE box of adorable stuff for the Fourth of July to hand out to my friends, so obviously we had to go full-on photoshoot with it (we had SO much fun, if you can't tell 😂).
The weather was off and on all day, and while we were eating dinner the rain came back. Kenny and I headed back to my parents' house around 8:00, and we went back and forth on whether we should walk downtown for the annual firework show. It wasn't raining at that point, but we didn't want to get caught in the rain on foot. We ended up opting to stay home to try and watch them from outside the house, and we ended up having the PERFECT view of the fireworks right at the bottom of the street!
Early Friday morning, Kenny left for a concert in Boston with his friends, so I saw him off and then went back to sleep for a while. My brother had to work, so my parents and I rode out to Switzer Lake to scope out some blackberries we had seen growing there a few weekends back. It was a total fail because the lake was up from all the rain we've been having so we couldn't really get to the berry bushes we had seen, plus they weren't really even ripe anyway. Not to be discouraged, we ended up going to a local pick-your-own blueberry farm where we like to go every summer to get berries. It was SO hot and humid out, but we stayed and picked for long enough to get at least enough berries for two pies, which was the goal!
After blueberry picking, we hit up one of our favorite farmer's markets and went over to see my mom's friend who was in town from SC.
Once Stuart got home, I made some Mai Tais and we just chilled for a while. He went to bed (early, the life of a working man!), and my parents and I played a hilarious game of scrabble (my dad won as usual, but I came in second after a killer 35-point word!)
On Saturday, my family and I headed to Charlottesville to do some returns that my mom had. We got lunch at BJ's which is a Baker family favorite, and I scored some gorgeous Riedel stemless wine glasses on sale at Stein Mart!
After we headed home, we just relaxed for the rest of the night. I had a killer headache, so my dad and I watched Hallmark Christmas movies for the rest of the evening (much to my mom's dismay, ha!)
Last but not least, on Sunday we pretty much just ran errands all day. Kenny got home from Boston a little before 6:00 which was way earlier than I was expecting, so I was so excited to get to spend the evening with him! We cooked some snacks and listened to the playlist I've been working on for our wedding cocktail hour and dinner. It got us so excited!
It was a great weekend, and of course I'm bummed to be back at work! But of course, I'm feeling refreshed and ready for another week. And we're already halfway through, how about that?!
I hope you're having a great one!
xoxx, Laura
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