I asked Ben several months ago what he wanted to do for his birthday. I sorta kicked out a BBQ/picnic theme (even though this is the wrong time of the year for that kind of a theme), and he said sure. I always have a hard time getting him to come up with themes or things to do when his birthday comes around. We came up with a day on the weekend to celebrate it and asked people to set aside that day to come over. We ended up picking Saturday instead of our usual Sunday to accommodate everyone from out of town.
I asked Ben what kind of BBQ food he wanted, and we talked about possibly doing our own burnt ends. We looked into it and decided we didn't have the equipment, time or the real know how. We then looked into some of the BBQ places in the area and that if the price was decent. We decided to get three proteins from The Flaming Pig in Tumwater. Nicole, Lindsay and I were going to try this place on one of our "lunch meetings" when we worked at work, but Covid ruined that.
The day before, I went to the store and grabbed all the food we needed to make ourselves and decorated part of the house. We would have to decorate the rest the next day because we have naughty cats. I got a corn muffin mix, stuff to make Oreo pudding pies and a pair of small watermelons to cut up. Once I got home from the store, I made quick work with making the corn muffins, the Oreo pies and cut up the watermelon. I set out the cans of beans so I wouldn't forget about them.
Ben invited Josh to come over too, and he was going to bring some tomahawk steaks. Our understanding is that he was going to prepare them at home and finish them at our house.
The next day, we got up, finished up the decorations, got the table cleared off and made sure we had everything. Ben drove into Tumwater to pick up the food. I paid for it with my hard-earned dog money. Josh arrived and there was a miscommunication with cooking the steaks. Our BBQ wasn't clean yet, so he had to make them on the stove instead.
Everyone started to arrive, but Ben's family was late for some reason. She was in charge of the potato salad, plus she made some cookies, just for fun. When they finally showed up, we made fun of them for being tardy to his party. She added to the party fund jar and brough Ben's Christmas present which was a gun case for his airsoft rifle. It apparently took up too much room in the car when we went to the beach house during Christmas.
I had set out the corn muffins, the watermelon, beans, the chicken, pork and burnt ends and corn and found a place for Trish's potato salad. I told everyone that food was done. Everyone grabbed their baskets and filled it with food. Everyone loved the ant decoration I bought from Amazon. It looked like they were carrying food away. I had stuck strawberries onto them. Ben and Josh got the steaks done and added them to the food table.
We ate our food, talked about weird stuff and had hockey playing in the background. It's always nice getting together. We asked Erika questions about the baby, we briefly talked about the wedding, upcoming trips, moving and other things as they came up in conversation. We cleaned up and I got the pies out of the freezer so they could thaw out a little bit. People sat in the living room and watched hockey for a little bit.
We gathered up Ben's presents and he found a spot on the couch to open them. My brother, sister and grandma ended up getting him some junk food because they didn't know what to get him. So, he got a bunch of Dr. Pepper, Twizzlers nubs, Chex mix and some peanut butter cups. I told him that's what he gets for not giving people ideas. Haha. We all had some Oreo pudding pie and loitered around for a bit. It hit mid-afternoon and everyone was ready to go home and enjoy the rest of their weekend.
We thanked everyone for coming over and Ben and I cleaned up the house. I had an idea to go try a new(er) brewery in the area that I have been following on social media for a while. It is called Matchless Brewing, and it is out in Tumwater. We piled into the Escape, and we headed out. It was kind of hidden away in the industrial part of Tumwater over by the Pick-a-Part. We did manage to find the right building and we went inside.
We both ordered a beer, I got the Triplecicle. There weren't that many different beers to choose from, a lot of IPA's. We aren't that big into IPA's but that one would have to do.
We played rummy, drank our beers and chatted about wedding stuff. We were only 5 months away and still had a lot to do. Afterwards, we went home and enjoyed the rest of our weekend.
Happy Birthday Ben!
Next Adventure: Parkland Geocaching with Bev
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