Pretty Fly For A Fourth Of July

---

I have returned!

---

Okay, I would like to say I have returned in one piece, but that might not be totally true. Even though I am officially medium-aged at this point on my existential time line, after this past long holiday weekend I will officially admit that I am no longer young. Young at heart, yes. Possessing of the humor maturity level of an adolescent, absolutely. Able to keep up with eight teenagers during a three day to-do fest, of course. But holy wow am I dead today!

For instance, just on the 4th of July itself I put in well over twenty thousand steps, and those steps weren't of the strolling along flat ground kind. Nay! I traversed an entire mountain chain and glacial lake drainage. (More about that in a future post! It deserves it's own writeup!)

One positive aspect of putting in an adolescent (or special forces) amount of activity is that this weekend on my foray into the wilderness with my pals, I got to eat ALL THE THINGS!

We all did theme nights each night, and the favorite thing that I ingested was called a Texas Twinkie.

---

Holy YUM!

---

A Texas Twinkie is a hollowed out jalapeno pepper stuffed with cream cheese, smoked pulled pork, wrapped with bacon, and the smoked in a Trager and garnished with homemade huckleberry BBQ sauce. There's no picture of this awesomeness because by the time I got to the wilderness setting of our 4th of July escape after getting the farm and food for the weekend prepped and packed and driving for 2.5 hours with a car full of teenagers, I was RAVENOUS!

Let's just say that Texas Twinkie disappeared faster than the bucket of Red Vines we threw out to the heathens.

Here's a link to a recipe for those drool-inducing, hearty aperitifs:

Texas Twinkie

And yes, they call for leftover brisket. I'll try that too, I can just report the pulled pork version was lit.

Speaking of lit food, I also got to try this amazing chocolate cake that had a flan layer on it. That thing was glorious because there was a caramel layer and it was one of those recipes you put into the pan one way and it flips while baking. Um yum!

My contribution to the 4th dessert-fest was something that turned out so glorious that the teens stole the pan and devoured it during their late night Throw Throw Burrito/Monopoly fest. It was a poke cake.

And not just any poke cake, rather it was a red, white, and blue, definitely not good for you, but oh so refreshing and tasty, easy to make dessert. As I had to port all the food to the woods, and I was ready for a break from my normal routine, I found a dessert that seemed intriguing and was super simple to put together.

This recipe was a lot like what I whipped up:

Red White And Blue Poke Cake

The only difference was I used buttermilk and extra eggs when making the cake and I put white and blue candy stars and red sugar sprinkles on top. It was super festive!

And that is a point that I want to wax patriotic, er poetic about. Most of the time I try to eat healthy, make responsible choices, etc., but once in awhile I really let go and just go wild.

So yes, I ate a ton of sugar this weekend. I made Reese's peanut butter cup smores, I ate deep fried onions on my hamburgers, I bought a number ten can of jalapeno queso for our Mexican fiesta night and devoured it along with everyone else. I had dessert at every meal and I even ate store donuts for breakfast. It was so much fun! Because when you save things for rare and/or fun occasions, you enjoy it so much more. The law of diminishing returns isn't going to get me! At least not when it comes to an over enjoyment of processed foods.

---

That said, I felt hungover yesterday so I ate only good things.

---

So other than being a bit on the sluggish side from hiking up mountains and indulging in things I rarely eat, I am fired up and rearing to go as usual.

Before I leave you all though, I have to tell the tale of Water Balloon Search And Rescue. One of my friends brought two Water balloon slingshots. The eight teenagers with us took advantage of such armaments and began a water balloon slingshot battle that lasted almost two hours as we had several hundred water balloons and even some reusable ones.

One of the greatest things about having that many teens around is you always have a never-ending source of entertainment. I almost fell out of my camp chair when my son put up his hand to stop a water balloon and he dropped to the ground as the water-filled projectile cracked into his hand with as much velocity as an errant city bus with a broken throttle.

---

"I can't feel my hand," he screeched, "This is awesome!"

---

Because teens can't just engage in a sedate or normal battle when it comes to shooting stuff at each other. Those balloon launchers were pulled back as far as they could go. The two kids holding the slings would actually have to brace as they took turns being the launcher

The rule was you weren't allowed to move. So if a balloon came hurtling at you, you had to let it hit you. There were magnificent welts and bruises acquired. When one of the kids got hit right in the butt while they were bending over to get a balloon I know the resulting smack was registered on the Richter scale. It was glorious.

Perhaps the funniest thing though was the grid SAR search one of the older teens organized at the end of the battle to find all the garbage and reusable water balloons. I died as I looked over and saw how he had lined them up all SAR-style, armlength apart and ordered them across the field all proper search and rescue-like. Still giggling here...

The kids also choreographed a marvelous fireworks display. Every year we head down the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's homelands and pick up some mortars. Even though there is a bit of a firework shortage this year, we still ended up with a pretty respectable show, And the kids are getting really good at choreographing the display. As I sat with my pals in camp chairs oohing and awwing at the display, I felt a burst of gratitude at how blessed my life is.

So, after logging into both Hive and Listnerds for 122 days in a row before leaving for the weekend, I can honestly say that my three day break was much needed and beyond appreciated. I hope all of you had a most glorious weekend and I hope you are ready for the onslaught of Kat-content I got lined up for ya'll! It's going to be a party!

Cora became a boat dog this weekend😍

---

---

And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's still amazed it didn't fall into the hands of Sasquatch whilst being toted around the wilderness iPhone.

---