So, after my early morning race, I had a BBQ to prepare for!

Or cookout.  Depending.

In a nutshell:  making dark and stormies (rum and ginger beer), burgers and brats, hanging out in the backyard with friends, playing badminton, and using a badminton birdie retrieval device when the birdie (or shuttlecock) went into the neighbor’s yard by accident.

(it was a pasta spoon taped to a broom.)

I made “chocolate eclair dessert” (link goes to basically my recipe) and Ina Garten’s potato salad.  Both were delicious.  I also made a 7 layer dip (avocadoes, beans, tomatoes, onions, olives, cheese, sour cream, salsa…that’s more than 7 layers already though…).

And now for some of Brad‘s pictures I ripped from his facebook page:

 

Hope you had a great holiday as well!  That will be the last event that I host until my wedding, as far as plans go.