I thought I was already 28....

So I turned 28 on Saturday...

Funny thing, is I thought I was already 28. I remember telling people I was 28 all last year. I guess now I really am.

We have been wanting to have another BBQ, and things were pretty busy in June and July so since this was the first open weekend, we figured we'd do it on my birthday!

Stefan decided he wanted to try doing a pork shoulder and ribs on the grill (which he's never even attempted).... he spent weeks looking up recipes online and watching youtube videos to figure out the best way to do it. He made his own rub and BBQ sauce.... he kept asking me to taste them (and while I tried to make it seem like I could tell the difference, I really couldnt... they were all really good). Needless to say, he got up at 3:45am on Saturday to start getting all the smoke ready (I don't know if those are cooking terms or not) for the meat, and everything turned out SOOOOO good!

Here's a picture of Stefan about mid-way through the cooking process. (Yes, it looks burnt but that's just the "rub" I was told, and it certainly wasn't burnt).

We had some friends over for the delicious grub which included the stuff above, two cedar plank salmon (my favorite), beer brats, and then hot dogs and boca burgers for the kids and non-meat-eating people. Sides? Yah.... we had a lot. I got the recipe for cousin Cynthia's macaroni and cheese (remember this post?) which was sooooo good! We also had corn on the cob, baked beans (Amy), coleslaw (ML), garlic potato salad (ML), veggies (Ron), fruit (Dawn), some really good pepper jack dip (Shawn), fruit (Dawn), cheese platter, baked goat cheese with a tomato basil relish, vegan brownies, and CUPCAKES!

These cupcakes were so dang cute, made by Simply Sweets!

We played a little flippy cup....

And had a few leftovers....

We had a whole pitcher of Sangria leftover, which goes really well with blogging :)

After cleaning up on Sunday and realizing we had about a half of a keg leftover, our neighbor Ron came over to help us (me) finish it off.... We drank beer, Ron brought Grimaldi's pizza over and we just relaxed by the pool.... perfect way to finish off a fun weekend! 

And then I passed out on the couch at 7pm.

Thanks to everyone for making my birthday so much fun!!